The theme of honour

Connecting the themes of Justice and the Law and Love is the theme of Honour. Honour is shown to be very important, especially to the male characters. It means far more to them than the law. To be honourable is to be respected. If you do anything dishonourable, you lose respect. That is why Marco and Eddie are so keen to protect their names and get a 'just' conclusion. The honour binds families and the whole neighborhood with a sense of community. Red hook is mostly run by honour and reputation. Everyone should look out for one another, to betray someone is the most dishonourable action imaginable. To explore the topic of honour I will discuss the relationship between Eddie and Catherine, the relationship between Beatrice and Eddie and Rodolfo and Marco. To conclude I will examine if Eddie’s decisions to turn Marco and Rodolfo were honourable.

Throughout the play Eddie honours Catherine by trying to protect her. Examples are when Catherine tells Eddie about he job, when Catherine wears new ‘revealing’ clothes and when Eddie turns Rodolfo and Marco in to the immigration police. By ‘protecting’ her he thinks he is making Catherine’s life better however this is not how others see it. Catherine seems to think that Eddie is controlling her life too much, however Eddie sees this differently. He thinks he is honouring and respecting Catherine. This can be shown in the quote “she’s goin’ to work; plumbers; they’ll chew her to pieces if she don’t watch out.” This shows Eddies concerns for Catherine. He thinks by stopping Catherine from working in ‘low’ class areas he is honouring her so that she thinks she can get a better job.

However Beatrice thinks that Eddie doesn’t want Catherine working because she’ll meet men and this would make Eddie jealous. Another quote showing Eddie’s protective feeling for Catherine is "You're getting to be a big girl now, you gotta keep yourself more, you can't be so friendly, kid." This solidifies Eddie’s worries for Catherine and other men. However later on in the play Beatrice gives Catherine the same advice, but in regards to Eddie. One of the possible reasons why Eddie finds it impossible to admit his love for Catherine is because he knows how dishonourable it is. Eddie denies his love for Catherine all the way up to the end.

The relationship between Eddie and Beatrice is shown to be torn and breaking. We are shown that theire marriage is falling apart. This could have been because of the fact that Catherine is growing. This is making Eddie pay more attention to Catherine than he does to Beatrice. Beatrice sees this coming and warns Catherine about Eddie. However she stays by Eddie throughout the play to try and fix their marriage. At the end of the play when Eddie is about to fight Marco, Beatrice tells Eddie that she loves him and that he can never have Catherine. This is shown in the line “listen to me, I love you, im talkin’ to you, I love you”. This shows how much care and honour she has for him, even though he has been a very dishonourable husband to her.

Honour also shows up again when Marco and Rodolfo are introduced into the play. It is firstly shown when Marco and Rodolfo are first introduced to Eddie. They show Eddie that they will follows the rules of the house. The first words he speaks to Eddie show his honour and respect for him. “I want