It was Eddie’s reluctance to be displaced in Catherine’s affections as well as his likeness for her as a daughter, that caused him before the end of Act one to consult a lawyer by the name of Alfieri. He consulted that lawyer because he wanted to find out if there were any laws that could prevent Catherine and Rodolfo from getting married if Rodolfo’s intention was to marry Catherine in order to gain American citizenship. The lawyer’s answer was disappointing. He told Eddie that there was no such law.
It was Obvious that Eddie did not like Rodolfo first he called him “unmanly” and secondly he called him “a punk”, however, Alfieri could not give him any legal advice against Rodolfo, so he gave him a friendly advice which was “let her go”. Eddie could not understand what he meant by that, so Alfieri then told him that she was a grown woman and if she wanted to get married that should be her decision. Eddie left the office unsatisfied but thankful Alfieri’s concern.
This play is a tragedy because of the conflict which was developed in Act one, and also because of the aggravation which Eddie gave Rodolfo and Marco.
The way Miller created moments of intense conflict in Act one was simple. It first started when Catherine and Rodolfo were talking about singing, during their conversation Catherine told Rodolfo to sing her a song, when he started singing, Eddie stopped him right in the middle and said “hey kid wait a minute” Catherine then jumped in and said “leave him finish its beautiful” Eddie then said “we never had singers in the house before and all of a sudden there’s a singer here, y’all know what I mean”. Marco saw the conflict building, so he then told Rodolfo to be quiet and stop singing.
The next tension which was developed started off with a discussion over Marco and Rodolfo’s trip to Africa, which turned into a conversation about the fruits in Africa. Eddie made a comment saying “I heard that they paint oranges to make them look orange” what he meant by that comment was, that the oranges in Africa do not ripe to go orange they stay green and people paint them orange so they look like oranges, which was his assumption.
However the conflict started when Rodolfo replied saying “lemons are green”. Eddie replied in an aggressive annoyed tone to Rodolfo saying, “I know lemons are green for Christ sake you see them in the store they are green some times. I said oranges they paint orange I didn’t say nothing about lemons”. Beatrice did not like the tone of that conversation, as she saw the conflict getting out of hand so she changed the subject to one about Marco’s wife and children in Italy.
Tension carried on in that scene when Eddie tried to put down the women in Marco and Rodolfo’s town, Eddie made a very offensive comment, he said, “I betcha there’s plenty surprises when those guys get back there, heh?” He said that to Marco and Rodolfo, what he meant was that the women in Italy are not loyal to their husbands when their husbands have to go to another country to help their families survive, he was also assuming that after the men leave the women find a new partner and have extra children added to the children that the husband and the wife produced. Marco and Rodolfo did not like Eddie’s assumption, especially because Marco had a wife back home and he thinks his wife is loyal, however, Marco and Rodolfo defended Eddie’s comment, Rodolfo told him that it was more strict in their town. Eddie then took up Rodolfo’s respond as a great advantage to tell Rodolfo “it is not so free here either” he then said “…in your town you wouldn’t just drag some girl without permission, wouldya?” Beatrice saw that Eddie was referring to Catherine and Rodolfo’s relationship, so she then got in the conversation and said “he did not drag her off Eddie”. Soon the conversation turned in a confrontation to Rodolfo about Catherine coming home late. Eddie started commenting on how Catherine had been coming home late every time she went out with Rodolfo. However, Rodolfo settled the conflict by agreeing to come home with Catherine at an earlier time.
Later on in that scene tension carries on developing when Eddie decided to teach Rodolfo the technique of boxing, as a result of that Rodolfo was shy. However, Beatrice thought Eddie was being nice, so she encouraged Rodolfo to let Eddie teach him, but Eddies boxing technique only added tension between Eddie and Marco, because Eddie accidentally hit Rodolfo while teaching him to block a punch, but the punch didn’t affect him. Soon after Rodolfo was back on his feet dancing with Catherine.
At the end of the scene the tension between Eddie and Rodolfo was really affecting Marco, because Marco challenged Eddie to lift a specific chair, which Eddie filed to. Therefore Marco showed him by kneeling to the floor and then grasping the chair, he slowly raised the chair with a strain higher and higher getting to his feet. He was then face to face with Eddie, he had a strained tension grip in his eyes and jaw with a stiff neck. The chair rose like a weapon over Eddie’s head, Marco then transformed with a glare of warning into a smile of triumph. Eddie had a smile on his face but it vanished as he absorbed Marco’s look.
The author Arthur Miller used different techniques to create moments of dramatic and intense conflict in Act one by using Eddie’s dislike for Rodolfo to demonstrate how they felt about one another. Having said that, Miller made Eddie release his feelings in a secretly deceitful way, for example, when Eddie made a comment about how unfaithful the women in Italy were. Miller illustrated another conflict by allowing Marco and Rodolfo to respond to Eddie’s comment about the unfaithfulness of Italian women which lead to Eddie gaining an advantage to develop further arguments like the one about Catherine coming home late, right here I saw that this was an intense disagreement.
Arthur Miller used a different method to created conflict in the last scene of Act one. He showed that by using Marco to lift the chair over Eddie’s head and by demonstrating dramatic tension between the two which was in a strained tension with gripping facial expressions. Another example of the different method Miller used was when he created tension was in the part where Eddie was arguing about Catherine coming home late, in that part the different method Miller used was where Eddie held back a voice full of anger at the moment where the discussion was very intense.
In Act one, each character displayed different attitudes and impressions. Eddie the creator of all the conflict in the act, displayed an annoying over protective attitude, but liked to be discreet about it. The other characters impressions did not really give an effect towards the scene, however, it added to the sense of tension that created the conflict. At the end of the scene Marco displayed a different attitude from the one he showed at the beginning and at the middle of the play. At the beginning and the middle, Marco was more of a peace maker, at the end he became aggressive and aggravated, due to Eddie’s negative vibes towards his brother, Rodolfo. Beatrice did not play a big part in the conflict but I noticed that she agreed with Catherine’s decisions and tried to avoid conflicts between the others.
In this play Eddie was very over protective of Catherine. He expected her to listen and obey all the decisions he made for her. He treated her like a little girl, and because of the fact that Catherine is a grown woman and she had fallen in love with Rodolfo. Eddie became very upset, because he realized that he could not make decisions for her any more. This added to tension in the play because Eddie assumed that Rodolfo was to be blamed for making Catherine disobey him.
By the end of Act one the relationship between the characters had changed, especially the relationship between Eddie and Marco, because at first Marco was very respectful to Eddie, but then got very aggravated with his attitude. The relationship between Catherine and Beatrice became closer because Catherine realized that Beatrice respected her decisions more than Eddie did. Therefore everyone’s impressions towards Eddie changed because of his scheming ways and over protective attitude.
Miller created a sense of tension and excitement effectively, at first Eddie was very excited about the fact that Beatrice’s cousins were coming to live with them. However, he regretted the fact that he made them stay there. Miller also was very effective in creating tension, by changing relationship and creating different moods that each of the characters displayed by the end of Act one. Miller’s main purpose in the last part of Act one was to prepare us, for what was to come in Act two, and also to deliver an unexpected outcome, which was Marco’s reaction towards Eddie, which shocked everyone because of the way he portrayed himself during the beginning and the middle of the play.
The ending of Act one had effectively prepared us for what was to come in Act two, because it showed us that Marco had developed a strong hatred for Eddie, by lifting the chair over Eddie’s head and by showing his suspicious warning, facial expressions showed us that he might portray disappointing outcome by the end of that Act (Act 2). This scene was added to the development of the tragedy because of the very intensive conflict which had developed between Eddie, Marco and Rodolfo. Especially between Eddie and Marco because Marco developed a very strong hatred for Eddie, and that showed us that if Eddie crossed his path he would do something drastic by the end of the play.
