Rodolfo and Marco arrive in America, which has a dramatic impact on Eddies and Catherine’s relationship. As soon as Rodolfo arrives, we see that Catherine is attracted to him. She is “enthralled” by his singing and “wondrously” in love with his hair. When Catherine and Rodolfo go to the Brooklyn Paramount, Eddie tries to have a private conversation with Catherine, hinting at Rodolfo to go away. Catherine sticks up for Rodolfo saying, “why don’t you talk to him Eddie? He blesses you, and you don’t talk to him hardly.” This gives Eddie the chance to be ironic by saying, “I bless you and you don’t talk to me.” Eddie feels that Catherine is running away from him, hence making their relationship together drift further and further apart.
There is strong evidence that Eddie doesn’t like Catherine going out with Rodolfo when they go to see a film at the Brooklyn Paramount. Eddie tells Beatrice that Rodolfo gives him the “…heebie-jeebies,” and that “he sings on the ships.” Beatrice asks Eddie why he doesn’t want Catherine & Rodolfo to get married, as “he’s a nice fella, hard workin’,” and that “he’s good lookin’.” Also, Eddie seems to have a problem with Rodolfo’s “…wacky hair…” and that he just hopes “…that’s his regular hair.” Eddie is trying to insinuate that Rodolfo is gay or homosexual. Beatrice thinks Eddies “crazy or sump’m,” and tries to ignore his ridiculous remarks. Eddie also is very paranoid as he waits for Rodolfo and Catherine outside the house, treating them as little children; “It’s after eight.”
In the boxing scene, Eddie shows Rodolfo “…couple a passes,” whilst everyone else watches them. Rodolfo “…don’t know how to,” but Eddie insists that he does. Beatrice asks Eddie “what’s he got to learn that for?” and Eddies response is that “…somebody’s liable to step on his foot or sump’m.” Beatrice then tells Rodolfo to “go ahead,” as Eddie’s “…a good boxer…” and that he could learn from him. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Catherine is making coffee, unaware what is going on in the other room. When Catherine does come in the room, she asks Beatrice “what are they doin’?” with alarm. Beatrice replies by telling her that “he’s teachin’ him,” and that “…he’s very good!” in a calm and relaxed way, as she only senses the comradeship, until Eddie mildly staggers Rodolfo, causing Marco to rise and Catherine to panic, shouting “Eddie!”
After this incident, Rodolfo asks Catherine to dance, to the song, “Paper Doll,” which he sang when he arrived in the flat. This shows us that Rodolfo is standing up to Eddie, as when he first sang the song, Eddie told him to stop, in case he got “picked up.” Instead, he decided to dance to it, which is a safer option and may make Eddie a little bit angry. Meanwhile, Eddie sits down in his chair, when Marco places a chair in front of him. He asks Eddie “Can you lift this chair?” to which Eddie replies, “What do you mean?” Marco shows Eddie to lift it from the back, using only one arm. Eddie tries twice, but fails. By now, everyone is watching as Marco lifts the chair higher and higher, until the chair is raised over his head. Marco then smiles, triumphantly, leaving Eddie to absorb his look, and making him look weak and inferior; perhaps a warning telling him not to overstep the mark.
In the boxing scene, each character feels differently towards Eddie, whether it is they feel threatened by Eddie, by him causing them direct anger, or by him causing anger, indirectly and vice versa. An example of direct anger being when Rodolfo was hit by Eddie, causing him anger as a result of Eddie’s action towards him. An example of indirect anger was when Rodolfo was hit by Eddie, causing Catherine anger, but not directly from Eddie towards her.
Beatrice feels no anger towards Eddie at all during this scene, as she only senses the comradeship between him and Rodolfo. She doesn’t seem to see that there may be more behind Eddie wanting to teach Rodolfo to box; he may have been using Rodolfo as a human punch bag, to take his anger out directly on him.
Catherine, on the other hand, feels no anger towards Eddie at the beginning of the scene, as he has done nothing wrong. Instead, she only feels “nervously happy” and “mystified,” as she asks Eddie if she should make some coffee, and he replies, “Go ahead, make some!” in a n ecstatic way, which makes her feel how she does. For most of the scene, Catherine is in the kitchen. Only when she comes out of the kitchen does she ask what they are doing, with some panic. Beatrice explains, by which Eddie has “mildly” staggered Rodolfo, causing Catherine to run to him, and blurt out “Eddie!” in an angry way. So as we can see, towards the end of the scene, Catherine suffers indirect anger from Eddie, and feels anger towards him.
Marco, in this scene, is the only person to retaliate to Eddie’s indirect anger. At the beginning of this scene, Marco feels “uneasy” when Eddie starts to talk about fights, as he knows that it would lead to some sort of incident. Throughout the fight, Marco sits in the corner, watching. When Rodolfo is hit by Eddie’s blow, Marco rises, as he is tense and starting to get angry. We can tell that he is angry, as when Eddie says he’ll teach him again, Marco nods at him, “dubiously.” Once Rodolfo and Catherine start to dance, Marco takes a large rocking chair, places it in front of Eddie, and asks him if he can lift it. Eddie tries twice, but both times fails.
This is the opportunity Marco uses to retaliate to Eddies anger; he lifts the chair up high above his and Eddie’s head, and gives a glare of warning that he will not tolerate this derogatory behaviour, and that he has crossed the line. Marco, at the end of this scene, is very angry with Eddie, but manages to contain his anger.
All of the characters, at the end of this scene, feel some sort of anger towards Eddie; whether it is small or large amounts of anger.
Actors who are playing this scene should read their character’s respective lines and think how they would act if they were in that situation. For example, for most of the scene, Marco sits in the corner, doing very little. This can be easily acted out, but thought should be put into how he would be
sitting, his facial expressions and body language. Also, some lines should be emphasized fully, to give the maximum effect to the audience. E.g. “Go ahead, make some! Make it nice and strong.” This line should give Catherine a “mystified” feeling, so it should be done to do just that. Eddie could be rolling up a newspaper in his hands very tightly, showing his aggression, but then at the same time smiling, giving the “mystified” feeling. The stage directions in this scene help immensely, as they tell actors the reaction each of character, which is hugely important to carry out the scene properly. They should be used to aid the emphasizing of the lines. During this scene, Eddie says lines that need to be spoken sarcastically. “Ya can’t tell, one of these days somebody’s liable to step on his foot or sump’m.” This is a classic example. Eddie really means “this no-good “punk” has come into my house, taken my niece, she’s fallen for him, he’s really only here for his papers and he needs to be brought back down to Earth, and I’m just the man to do that – by punchin’ the livin’ daylights outta him.” These sarcasms can be easily spotted. One of the hardest things in the scene is the actual fight. This should be organised properly, be taken through step-by-step and done slowly. Only when the actors are confident that they know it inside out and back-to-front should it be attempted properly.
The boxing scene will influence future vents in the play in many ways. One of those events is the final scene, where Marco murders Eddie. This is because I think that Eddie would not have been carrying a knife had he not seen Marco lift the chair in front of him, using only one hand. That probably told Eddie that he stood a poor chance of winning a fight against such a strong person, so he carried the knife as protection. Unfortunately, Marco managed to turn the knife around, and Eddie stabbed himself, with his plan backfiring. I feel sorry for Eddie as he took people he didn’t even know into his own house and let them stay there, knowing very well that they could get “picked up” and deported back to Italy, raising questions about whether or not they let them stay in their house, knowing they were illegal immigrants. I also feel sorry for Catherine, as she had to endure her uncle fighting with the person she loved just because he wanted her; something which he could never have – which he perfectly knew. Finally, I feel sorry for Beatrice, who was caught in the middle of it all. She had to support Eddie, as he was her own husband, but at the same time she had to support Catherine, as she was her Aunty and she had no one else to turn to. During Eddie’s and Catherine’s argument’s, Beatrice had to reassure Catherine that she was doing the right thing, and that she couldn’t keep doing things and regretting them, just because Eddie didn’t agree. She also had to break Eddie’s heart by telling him that Catherine isn’t “no baby no more” and that she was old enough to make her own decisions, regardless of what her elders thought.
