When the attraction between Catherine and Rodolfo gradually becomes a love relationship Eddie learns to know this and he then try’s to end their relationship. But in trying to do this Eddie’s true feelings about Catherine start to appear in the play. Eddies dislikes Rodolfo as he is blonde, sings and makes dresses and eddies wants a man for Catherine but Rodolfo in eddies eyes is not a man. Eddie thinks that Rodolfo is not a man because he does not have a family to provide for and because he spends his first set of wages on a new jacket, meanwhile Marco is sending money back to italy/cill for his family. The money Marco sends to Italy Sicily gets some medicine for his son. This gives Eddie enough treason to not like Rodolfo so towards the end of the act Eddie goes to speak to alfieri nd this really shows the reader that Eddie is getting desperate to have his chances with Catherine and to be rid of Rodolfo. But Alfieri sees that Eddy has way too much love for Catherine and tells him to let her go “that’s my advise
you did your job now its her life wish her luck and let her go because theirs no law Eddie make up your mind to it the law is not interested in this. But Eddie cannot let her go and he cannot accept that he cannot control her anymore. But then Alfieri tries to reason with Eddie and calm him down but when Alfieri suggests that Eddie is in love with Catherine Eddie doesn’t like his feelings being talked about so then alfieri asks Eddie “she cant marry you can she?” and Eddie replies “what’re you on about? Marry me! I don’t know what the hell you are talking about!”
The beginning of the play starts off with a little speech from Alfieri about the end before it even happens. This scene is quite important as it tells us a little about the play and what it is going to be about. The play is a tragedy as it starts off with a normal couple living with a niece and then one of the couple’s cousins comes to them for shelter from Italy. But one of the cousins falls in love with Catherine (the niece). So as the relationship between them get stronger the love from Eddie to Catherine gets stronger and Eddie wants more from the relationship that he cannot get. This builds up a load of tension between them, which eventually turns into a tragedy.
Arthur miller creates moments of intense conflict in this act by making the characters use a lot of jealousy among them, which creates moments of intense conflict. Some of the moments of intense conflict is when Eddie challenges Rodolfo to a boxing match and ends up really punching him. (Maybe to take his anger out on him) and also when Marco challenges Eddie to a chair lift with one hand. Eddie cannot do this but when Marco succeeds in doing this the look in Marcos eyes are giving Eddie a little message. I think the message Marco is giving to Eddie is if you pick on my little brother you will have to pass me first! Maybe I am wrong but that’s how his look seemed to me.
Miller has used lots of ways to create dramatic conflict such as when Eddie bursts out with anger at Alfieri whilst in Alfieri’s office. Also some of the stage directions show dramatic conflict such as
By the end of act 1 five different relationships in the characters have changed. The first one that has changed is the relationship between Eddie and Catherine this is because Eddie has become more attracted to Catherine in the wrong ways, so there has become quite a lot of tension between them. The second one that has changed is the relationship between Catherine and Rodolfo this has changed because they have
become fonder of each other and are now in love. The third one that has changed is the relationship between Eddie and Rodolfo this has changed as Eddie is jealous of Rodolfo because Eddie wants Catherine in a sexual way but Rodolfo has her so that has produces a disliking of each other, which creates tension. The forth one that has changed is the relationship between Eddie and Marco as the tension between them has increased dramatically when Marco lifted the chair and gave Eddie little message through the look in his eyes. And the last one that’s changed is the relationship between Eddie and Beatrice as to Beatrice it feels like they are not married so a lot of tension has built up there, and also when Beatrice finally sees that Eddie has feelings for Catherine that he shouldn’t have. Miller has effectively a sense of excitement and tension between the characters by making them have conflict and have feelings for each other that they shouldn’t have and also by the jealousy of Beatrice has created excitement as we did not know what Beatrice was going to do so it keeps the audience wondering about what she might do. And by the end of act 1 there is so much tension between some of the characters he makes the reader want to find out what happens next. I think that millers purposes in the last part of act 1 is to make the reader want to read on and find out what happens next, and he done this to9 create excitement for the readers. At the end of act 1 it gives us a sort of idea what might happen in act 2, so then people want to find out and see if what they think is going to happen happens in act 2.
This scene adds to the development of the tragedy because we can see how much Eddie has changed and how much he has become more obsessed with Catherine over the scenes, basically it shows how much eddies life has changed with the cousins being in the flat and the surroundings around his home e.g. how he is with the community and how the community is towards him before and after the two cousins were there. And by the end of the play there is so much tension between the characters it results in Eddie getting stabbed and his status in the family and community has dropped rapidly. That shows how much tension there was between the characters.
