At the end of the play the immigration officers come in and arrest Marco and Redolfo. Tempers start to run up high as Marco swears at Eddie which sets him off. Eddie at the end attempted to kill Marco with a knife which goes by all his morals, but Marco turns Eddies weapon into his nemesis and kills him instead. Beatrice and Catherine were deeply upset about Eddies death recollecting what they lost forgetting all the trouble he’d brought upon himself. Eddie’s death was appropriate it wasn’t about why he would die more about how he would die. Although Eddie died, in a sense he became successful because he was killed on Catherine’s and Redolfo’s wedding day, so each day they would remember his death and why he died.
My first key dramatic moment is when Beatrice says to Eddie ‘you want something else Eddie and you can never have her!’ and when she also adds, ‘the truth is not as bad as blood’ indicating that if he doesn’t acknowledge the truth their will be a bloody outcome. When Beatrice says all this its as if she had brought everything that has been hidden for so long out into the wide open. She brings up the hidden agenda that has stayed taboo to her for so long, she’s telling him that she knows that he wants something else and makes it clear she knows its Catherine by concluding ‘and Eddie you can’t have her!’ This is a key dramatic moment because this is when Miller lets Beatrice take control and helps the other characters understand why Eddie is doing what he is. Also because it comes as unexpected and to Catherine it would be a shock and would fill her with disgust, she had no idea what Beatrice was saying it hadn‘t sunk in to her, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This moment delays what’s happening and it starts to focus on Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine. This horrifies the other characters around and certainly makes the audience reacts with gasp, for the characters had no idea about Eddies feelings but the audience had an idea of it but didn’t expect Beatrice to say what she did and they way she did. This caused dramatic irony because they knew something that the characters didn’t and they were witnessing the build up. This left Eddie in a state uneasiness he swiftly went into denial knowing that inside that Beatrice was speaking the truth. Miller showed us the effects when both Catherine and Eddie both exclaimed ‘B’ and diverted their attention and eyes on her. Miller created this effect cleverly because just as Eddie was going to confront Marco, Beatrice used this as a last attempt to stop Eddie’s frenzy. Miller showed us a wife telling her husband that she knows that her partner wants someone else, the biggest effect this would have is on Eddie. Also the way he showed us they horror in the raised voices. The audience and characters didn’t suspect Beatrice to confront Eddie like this, since she was torn apart by these 2 sides. Miller runs the tension higher than it already was and straight back down to the confrontation of Eddie and Marco.
My second dramatic moment being when Marco first shout ‘Eddie Carbone’ it almost reaches the climax since that is when everyone knows that something’s going to happen and someone won’t come out of it alive. The audience would feel an adrenaline rush they know that this is the final confrontation this what at the dramatic tension has been preparing them for and Marco calling for Eddie confirms this for us. The other characters start to liven up in haste to stop Eddie from going out, their hearts pumping harder and as if they need to do something anything to stop what might happen if Eddie goes out to see Marco. This is dramatic because it puts all the characters on alert and assurance that the inevitable is happening. Both Beatrice and Eddie are crying, Beatrice crying out and weeping and Eddie crying out in agony, then Eddie hears Marco and knows exactly where to go from there. Beatrice tries to stop Eddie while Redolfo tries to stop Marco, Catherine watches on in shock. Everything’s happening so quickly the tension becomes unbearable even to feel or notice. Miller makes this moment tense with raised voices, hurrying voices and a negative atmosphere filling the air. Characters interrupting each other trying to stop each opposing party increases the level of noise and stress. Miller brings out the seriousness in Marco indicating it through his speech and exclamation marks demanding Eddie to come out and face him. All this nears us to what’s to come and stiffens the mood making the atmosphere gripping.
My last dramatic moment out of so many in the play is when Eddie springs out a knife on Marco. This indicates how a death will come about but raises question of who will be the one to suffer its blade? This brings us back to when Marco raised the chair above Eddie showing the power he entitles over Eddie and this would be Eddie’s answer to that. But its almost hypocritical in a sense that he needs an actual weapon to fight Marco because he isn’t as physically strong, it tells us that Eddie has gone against everything he said at the beginning of the play about trust, honour, loyalty especially takes us to remember the story he told us about Vinny Bolzano and how he snitched and how he was treated. Eddie made it clear that Vinny was wrong to go against his family but now Eddie insists what he’s done is right and justified. Miller here makes this scene dramatic because he makes us understand that Eddie ways are wrong but his intention is not so, but it fills everyone with resent and sadness because its unfortunate that this is the circumstances that it had to come to and no one could have stopped this for coming.
There is no doubt that Miller used multiple dramatic devices to prepare us for these dramatic moments and also to guide us through each tension filled scene. Eddie’s death is what everyone expected but it was about how he would die with honour or no humility? At the end the audience must have been deeply pulled in and involved an understanding as things calmed into grief and remorse. Eddies death came as appropriate to suit everything that would happen after it, he had to go or the other characters would have no purpose left hereafter. But it showed that Eddies death was useless and these dramatic moment came to show us this at the end. These dramatic tensions throughout the last scenes came to show us something we would already know would happen but its how it all built up that got everyone ready and dreading everything that would happen. Miller used many dramatic devices to help arrange the tension such as raised voices, snappy/fast exchange, interruption, disagreement, actions, body language/facial expression, avoiding conflict/eye contact, pressure mounting up with many others. My response to this play is that the tension gradually built up and stayed and played around until the direct conflicts began between Eddie, Marco and Redolfo with Beatrice and Catherine trying to stop it all. It’s tragic at the end but Eddie’s death was necessary or there wouldn’t be a meaning to this play all this tension was rounded of with Eddie’s death but there was a sweet twist. As Alfieri explained to us that Eddie’s death was useless and has no meaning he told us that he wasn’t bad at heart just his ways were wrong. Eddie couldn’t help the way he felt about Catherine it’s the way he dealt with it that led him to so much trouble but at the end everyone was free even Beatrice even though she loved him, she wouldn’t have to live a fake marriage anymore. Its Catherine who would have to live knowing Eddie loved her and he done all this for her. Miller deposits guilty conscious into everyone when Eddie dies, this play had all this conflict and bad energy bouncing around then at the end it rounded off with al the tension and irony lifting off because what was meant to happen, happened.
