Rodolfo, Marco and Catherine would all be wondering what Eddie was so annoyed about. Beatrice would also be feeling embarrassed, because of Eddie’s outburst and so quickly changes the subject, asking if Marco’s wife is getting the money ok.
Another moment I have chosen is shortly afterwards, the family is still chatting in the main room. Marco tells Eddie that the women in his town wait for the men while they go abroad to work. Rodolfo tells him “It’s more strict in our town, it’s not so free”. Eddie stands up and paces the room, he replies, “It ain’t so free here either, like you think.” “A girl don’t have to wear a black dress to be strict”.
Eddie is trying to make sure that Rodolfo knows he disapproves of his relationship with Catherine and feels Rodolfo should have asked his permission before carrying on with it. He is trying to reinforce the authority he feels he should, although he doesn’t, have over Rodolfo.
Rodolfo by now is wondering what exactly Eddie has against him; why in his eyes he isn’t good enough for Catherine.
Beatrice is also thinking this but really she knows that Eddie’s feelings for Catherine are more than that of an uncle, she defends Rodolfo much to Eddies distaste.
Marco tries to stop the situation escalating into a full scale argument or even fight between Rodolfo and Eddie, he agrees with Eddies criticisms of Rodolfo and tells Rodolfo he must stick to Eddie’s rules, he also tells Eddie he must say if Rodolfo does something wrong, although he is probably really thinking to himself “Why don’t you just leave them alone?”
During this time Catherine is cautiously quiet, being careful not to upset Eddie, she speaks only when Beatrice asks her a question.
In the next key moment I have chosen to look at Catherine, Beatrice, and Eddie are discussing Rodolfo’s many talents, he sing well and is a competent cook. At the mention of Rodolfo’s cooking skills Eddie remarks, “He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses”. He says this with a slight air of sarcasm but with a greater sense of jealousy, he is extremely jealous of these talents as Catherine and Beatrice admire them so much. He says that Rodolfo is lucky; with talents like his he should b working in a dress store not on the Waterfront. There is a great symbolic representation of Eddie’s frustration here, while he is talking to Rodolfo he is unconsciously rolling up his newspaper tighter and tighter. He doesn’t realise he has been doing this until the paper suddenly tears in two. At this point he realises everyone is watching him and so quickly changes the subject to boxing.
This section focuses mainly on Eddie’s jealousy of Rodolfo and most of the dialogue is Eddie talking.
The other characters, when seeing Eddie twist the newspaper are feeling slightly nervous then relieved as this amounts to nothing afterwards, especially Marco who would have been feeling slightly worried about Rodolfo knowing of Eddie’s driving jealousy of him.
In another moment Eddie had been teaching Rodolfo to box, although secretly or maybe even subconsciously it is just a way to prove to the family, especially Rodolfo his superiority over Rodolfo. It is a way for him to re-instate himself as the authority figure, to show his power over Rodolfo. To choose boxing as a means to do this is a very threatening way to do it but it is only Marco that senses this, the other characters sense only the brotherly or even father-son comradeship, even Eddie towards the end of his “lesson”.
The last section I have chosen to look at is the very last page of act one. After Eddie’s boxing lesson, Marco being the only one to sense the threatening side of it, makes his own threatening gesture as a warning to Eddie to leave Rodolfo alone, he places a chair in front of the armchair in which Eddie is sitting and challenges Eddie to lift it by only one leg. Eddie accepts saying “Sure, why not?” He attempts to lift the chair, embarrassingly he fails and the chair leans towards the floor. He tries badly to hide his embarrassment saying, “Gee, that’s heavy, I never knew that” He tries again, and again fails. Marco lifts the chair fully above his head, he stands face to face with Eddie, the chair almost weapon like in his hand, he quickly glares at Eddie, then his glare becomes a smile for show.
Eddie is now feeling threatened although would be trying desperately hard not to let Marco see this.
Marco is feeling satisfied in the fact that he has made his point to Eddie and even better, nobody else noticed.
