Justice is one of the themes in this play, be it the family law or the public law. Both set of laws, has their own way and view of justice. Both laws have important outcomes of justice. For example, in the first part of the scene, Eddie tells Catherine how Vinny Bolzano had snitched on his uncle to the Immigration. According to the public law, justice was brought to when Vinny’s uncle got arrested as he had broken the law. But in the case of Vinny’s family and neighbors, they made Vinny got the justice he deserved by casting him out of the family and the neighbors ignoring his presence.
This justice was done according to the unspoken family law, as this was seen as betraying of own family and is illegal to do so. Justice was being mentioned, when Eddie suspects Rodolfo’s motive of liking Catherine, just to get his passport. According to Eddie, there must be a law for an illegal immigrant to fall in love with a girl and to get marry and get his citizenship. This was illegal according to Eddie’s own set of law. Besides liking Catherine, Eddie thinks that the act of Rodolfo having his hands all over Catherine and snatching her away from him was illegal. He tried to force Alferi to believe that there is a law against it, and something to go against it.
This was something found in Eddie’s own set of law and justice. Alferi tried to convince Eddie that there is nothing illegal here. He stated that the law is something which allows nature to take place, like Catherine growing up, falling in love and getting married. There was nothing unnatural about this.
The Term Paper on Asks Rodolfo Eddie Catherine Beatrice
Question:' And so I mourn him-I admit it-with a certain... alarm'; How does Arthur Miller expect us to react to the death of Eddie Carbone? In your opinion, does he succeed? Eddie Carbone, the family guy, not wanting any trouble, just wanting his niece, in more ways than one. Eddie was a family man, he kept his home nice and he looked after all his family and friends, there was a great respect for ...
He tried to warn Eddie not to go against something natural and the outcome of breaking the family law. As the only illegal and lawful thing, was the way how the two brothers entered the country. Justice, as in the family law, is very important here as Eddie later decided to break the justice in the family law and go with the justice in the public law. Justice was once again being mentioned, when the two brothers got arrested.
Marco mentioned that, “all the law not’s in the book” and this reflect back on the justice between the family and public law. To Marco, justice was not met as Eddie had turned his back against the family ties and had stolen him of the right to work in America and also the right for his children and wife to live. Eddie’s case was similar to Vinny’s case, as to the public law, what Eddie did was justify and there was nothing wrong with it. The law and justice were highlighted again when Alferi took Marco’s hands, and told him that those are not law but God is. At the beginning of the play and towards the end, Alferi had mentioned about “settling for half.” These were all shown in the play. Many times, people took justice in their own hands like the two gangsters’ death mentioned in the beginning.
Sometimes you have to be satisfied and settle for half, as there is a price to pay for many of the justice. And the price to pay for it, is not what everyone is able to pay. There is a set of law and justice in everything, even in the gangsters’ world. All these show how important justice is in the play and why people usually settled for half.
