A tragic hero according to Aristotle, is, ‘ a [great] man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake’. In this play, Arthur Miller uses many techniques to try and draw a picture to the audience, that Eddie Carbone is in fact a tragic hero. These techniques are evident throughout the play, however mainly in the scenes where Eddie is about to accommodate Marco and Rodolfo; when Eddie is talking to Mr Alfieri, and finally at the start of the play, in Alfieri’s speech.
One of the scenes in which Miller is successful in presenting Eddie as a tragic hero to the audience, is at the very start of the play. This is as Miller tries to implement a touch of fear on Eddie’s part to present Eddie as a tragic hero, in which he does so through Alfieri’s speech. However, at the start of the play, the mood and tone of the play is at the opposite end of fear as there is a general feeling of casualness and ease, which partly stems from the fact that Mr Alfieri is rather informal when speaking to the audience, ‘ You wouldn’t have known it, but… You see how uneasily they nod to me? However, Miller goes on to create a sense of fear as well as controversy later in on Aflieri’s speech in two ways.
Firstly, he further underlines the idea of something inevitable happing to Eddie Carbone, ‘ Another lawyer… sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course. ‘ This is also supported, as Alfieri uses a series of words which further emphasises the inevitability of Eddie’s fate, ‘ run’, ‘ powerless’, ‘ course’. This makes the audience somewhat fear for Eddie more, as Alfieri really highlights the danger that something unavoidable will happen to Eddie.
This, as well as the fact that it is the start of the play makes the audience even more fearful, as it leaves them in the dark of what is going to happen, thus leaving them in a state of speculation and contemplation of what is going to happen to Eddie, which only leads into a further sensation of fear on Eddie’s behalf. Furthermore, the manner in which Alfieri’s speech is carried out resembles and possibly signifies the manner in which Eddie’s fate will turn. This is due to the fact that like previously mentioned, the mood and tone of the start of the play as well as Alfieri’s speech, is happy and good.
However, it continuously seems to transform more sour and bitter until his speech reaches an abrupt end. This could be Millers way of subconsciously further implementing the idea of Eddie as a tragic hero, as this resembles not only Eddie Carbone’s fate throughout the play, but it is also similar to one of a tragic hero. As well as Miller successfully using Alfieri’s speech to portray Eddie as a tragic hero, he further goes on to depict Eddie as someone who should be held in high esteem.
This ultimately stems from the fact that Eddie is illegally accommodating both of Beatrice’s cousins; Marco and Rodolfo, two illegal immigrants who, he has never encountered, for the sake of the typical Italian-American tradition of family importance. This alone is an incentive to admire Eddie. Yet, the audience are further drawn into the idea of respecting Eddie, as it is not only the audience who respect him; he is also ‘ credit[ed]’ by his family and friends.
‘ Believe me, Eddie, you got a lotta credit comin’ to you’; ‘ You’re an angel! This again, in turn makes the audience somewhat more susceptible into thinking of Eddie in high admiration, as his peers and family not only make it obvious that they respect him, but they also underline the point that he more importantly should and deserves to be respected, thus, resulting in the audience respecting him more. However, there is a controversial aspect in this play, as Eddie plays down the fact that he should be respected in the play, ‘ Aah, they don’t bother me, don’t cost me nutt’n’.
The fact that Eddie doesn’t regard his act of generosity as something to be admired about, yet alone something to brag about, ironically, makes the audience admire Eddie more throughout the play as this shows that there is an element of nobleness in Eddie. In addition to Miller depicting Eddie as a character of high regard in the play to portray him as a tragic hero, he further goes on to inject an element of pity in the audience’s eyes as Eddie comes off as somewhat desperate when trying to plead his case to Mr Alfieri in the climax of the play.
Eddie’s desperate and frantic attempts to plead with Mr Alfieri to make him come to terms with his argument makes the audience pity him in two ways. Firstly, through the way in which Eddie is unwilling to come to grips with the fact that Catherine is ‘ no baby no more’, and the fact that Catherine and Rodolfo are getting fonder and fonder with each other.
Eddie’s frenzied efforts to supplicate with Mr Alfieri are portrayed through his extreme allegations and his somewhat hopeless pleads in order for him to believe him, ‘ wait a minute’, ‘ please Mr Alfieri’. The fact that Eddie is yet disinclined to accept the fact that Catherine is moving further away from him as true creates a sense of sympathy to the audience, as it seems as if he has hit his lowest point as he is desperate not to let go of her, and franticly clutches at straws to get Rodolfo out of the picture, ‘ the guy ain’t right Mr Alfieri’.
Furthermore, Eddie does not realise by doing these frenzied attempts to keep Catherine, he is pushing her away, making the audience sympathise with him more as it can be argued that Catherine is the person or thing that Eddie looks forward to seeing, ‘ it’s just I used to come home, you was always there’. Secondly, Miller successfully makes the audience not necessarily sympathise, but emphasise with Eddie as his ‘ tragic flaw’ comes to the surface in this scene. Eddie’s tragic flaw is fundamentally his protectiveness in the form of wanting to keep Catherine to himself as well as his jealousy of Catherine and Rodolfo.
The fact that Eddie in his own minds thinks of Catherine as ‘ his’, as well as the fact that Eddie believes that Rodolfo is ‘ drag[ging]’ Catherine away from him without ‘ permission’ renders the audience in a state of mind where they do not automatically wish to sympathise with Eddie but emphasize with Eddie as his extreme prejudice and envy for Rodolfo gets in the way. Especially seeing as throughout the play it is apparent that Rodolfo not only ‘ respects’ Eddie, but also he ‘ blesses’, Eddie in which he is returned by inequality and resentment, which again makes the audience more empathic than sympathetic towards Eddie.
Ultimately, Miller does successfully leave the audience with an impression that Eddie is a tragic hero, mainly in the techniques he uses to make the audience fear, admire, pity and empathise Eddie. This, as well as the fact that Eddie dies by his own knife in the play fundamentally is what makes Eddie a tragic hero, as the audience notice a gradual and eventual change in Eddie’s character which ultimately ends with him dying by his own account.
