After trying to show Rodolpho down, He starts on him saying “he cooks, he sings, makes dresses he shouldn’t be here. He is like a super boy he can do everything. I can’t do everything I am dull so I work in cloaks” These words were perfectly pitched by playwright to give the drama a new direction. When Rodolpho feels Eddie’s hostility Rodolpho closes the phonographer (music). The playwright’s clearly showing Rodolpho’s approach at Eddie’s comment with aggression at that moment when “he stops dancing and stops the music at once”. This suggests that he’s about to do something in response to Eddie’s words, increasing the tension for the audience. Eddie immediately senses that he was exposing issues and is driven to defend himself by saying “No I was just saying that Rodolpho could work in dress tore”. The audience realises that something will happen when Eddie stands up and tears the paper. He puts his belly over the paints. He does this all to show to Rodolpho that he is the man and only man can do that showing his strength.
It’s clear that Rodolpho does not match up with Eddie’s image of what make a man. Eddie keeps on picking at the point that Rodolpho is blond hair, cooks, sings which are all signs of feminine characteristics for Eddie trying to make his point that he might be Homosexual. Eddie’s sudden kiss to Rodolpho shows that he is constantly trying to prove his point. The stage direction says “Eddie pins his arms, laughing, and suddenly kisses him”. Eddie is making it clear to others that Rodolpho is homosexual and is testing him to see how he reacts in this type of situation.
Rodolpho has a big impact on Carbone family with Catherine & Beatrice both seeming to like him. Beatrice compliment to Rodolpho like “He’s a nice fella, hard working; he’s a good lookin fella”. Eddie’s increasing aggression is also related with this as his relationship with his wife hasn’t been good recently after arrival of two brothers after Beatrice saying “When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie? It’s almost three months”. This suggests that their sex life has been non-existent, and Beatrice is left with the feeling that maybe Beatrice is not sure that Eddie’s still in love with her”. The playwright uses other scenes to create tension in the play with Eddie kissing his niece Catherine. The stage direction says “he reaches out .....Kisses her on the mouth”, suggesting audience that Eddie might have had some feeling for Catherine and that’s why he doesn’t like Rodolpho.
Eddie’s always tries to pick on Rodolpho to hurt him and show him down in eyes of Catherine often picking on his strength. This is shown on chair incident. It starts with Eddie inviting Rodolpho for a game of Boxing. The use of ‘betcha’ to ask Rodolpho for a boxing match was cleverly done by playwright as Eddie’s trying to show people around that he’s being nice to Rodolpho. And this is shown by Catherine’s happy approach of asking Eddie for a tea. Eddie continues with Rodolpho “I’ll teach you some”. Eddie starts with some basic boxing moves but builds that situation to great tension and aggression. However the only thing on Eddie’s mind is to hurt Rodolpho or to make a fun out of him. With tension building, Catherine gets involve as she comes back from kitchen to ask what happen and with Rodolpho busy talking, Audience can clearly sense what’s coming next with the stage direction “He feints with his right and get down with left. Audience now get to know the character of Eddie. It’s also quite shocking as it really happens at a moment of seconds. The stage directions “Catherine runs very fast, Marco rises, Catherine ask what did you do, Eddie ‘I didn’t hurt him did I’. Rodolpho being uneasy and seeing Marco rise. Rodolpho said Oh no I was just surprised and I wasn’t concentrating and smiled to Eddie.” Beatrice acts quite sensibly as well, with Marco rising she adds “Rodolpho did pretty well He was fantastic at first.” Every think Eddie’s tries to do to show Rodolpho down aren’t working but he is getting compliments from his own wife, so Audience can feel the Eddie’s jealous. Eddie ask for Rodolpho for one more round but Catherine understanding the intensions of Eddie and Seeing Marco still standing, She pulls Eddie towards the rockers. Rodolpho sensing pressure is on him quickly asks Catherine for a dance to change the whole mood in the room and they dance. Eddie has already made the point that He and his family is the real boss in the house and delivering message to Rodolpho and Marco that if they mess with him he will give him the same punch. The Arthur is really indicating that Eddie is having difficulty expressing his feelings, so he is taking out physical aggression.
In the drama, Marco plays a strong physical character. He, understanding the pressure on room starts off by asking Eddie if he can lift a chair when it is in a particular position. Eddies fails to do a task and Marco successfully lifts the chair way above his head, shadowing over a frightened Eddie. The stage direction describes Marco as “he kneels, gasps and with strain slowly raises the chair higher and higher, getting to his feet now”. The drama continues with “Marco is face to face with Eddie’s head and he transforms to what might appear to be a glare of warning into a smile of triumph”. Marco is clearly warning Eddie that Rodolpho is his brother and will protect his brother if needed. Eddie at this moment is hostile, aggressive, frustrated & unconscious.
We can observe this from the story because Arthur has given the audience the stage directions which have helped to give drama the emotions needed. By the end of this act, audience would be able to sense that lot more of physical aggression is to come and live us with “Eddie grin vanishes as he absorbs his look…………….”
