Mentioning names and places, in the case of both Red Hook and Italy, create a “context” for their actions. This means that there actions can be looked at, and compared to, other events and idea’s to do with these places, such as the story of “Vinnie Bolanzo”, which explains a lot about Italians feel about justice.
Vinnie Bolanzo snitched on his Italian illegal immigrant uncle, and they all relate to this as justice, saying “You’ll never see him no more, a guy do a thing like that? Hows he gonna show his face?” and “what, was he crazy?” They consider it crazy and stupid to do such a thing, and to uphold the law in this case.
Red hook becomes such a natural part of the play that rather than red hook becoming part of the characters, the characters become part of red hook.
The characters are given a community, shared between them. The Italians- Rodolfo, Marco, Alferi and Eddie are brought together by Italy. Eddie chooses Alferi for his lawyer mainly because he is Italian, so Eddie feels he will understand his problems more. Alferi is Italian, and although he knows Eddie has illegal immigrants, he doesn’t report them, and doesn’t advise Eddie too. You see this when he says “well they entered illegally” and “I don’t think you want to do anything about that do you?” Eddie trusts him because of things like this, coupled with his fathers trust in Alferi. The fact that they are both Italian brings them closer, as part of a specified group in New York.
This sense of community, togetherness, is mostly shattered by Eddie’s hate of Rodolfo.
Similarly, all Red Hook characters can share memories of certain places and events. For example, near the start, Eddie, Catherine and Beatrice talk about Catherine’s job offer. Eddie doesn’t like the place, and comments “I don’t like the neighbourhood over there” and “Near the navy Yard plenty can happen in a block and a half.” If all three of them didn’t know the area, they wouldn’t be able to relate to what Eddie is saying. That sense of community is important.
The places draw up togetherness, create groups of people, tied together only because of where they are from.
Red hook represents working class America. You can tell this by Eddie describing work.
“Sometimes we lay off, there’s no ships for three or four weeks.” And “I could work
Coffee ships 20 hours a day.” Also, the informal way they speak indicate a working class
background.
This could be for the benefit of the audience, who will be used to neighbourhoods like it,
and can relate to the play better, and easier, and this will help them to understand it, and relate to it themselves. Miller uses it in this way to create more of an understanding and a better relationship with the audience.
Miller uses Italy and Red Hook in a variety of ways, and for a variety of reasons.
By mentioning houses, streets and workplaces, miller creates a “world” of play, making it more believable, and a part of an area. It makes places that the play is set in, like the apartment, seem more real, and making it fit in. for example, on page 10 Eddie says “near the navy yard plenty can happen in a block and a half!” this puts the place as a part of the play, making it seem more natural.
When characters include names and places, Miller is trying to make the speech seem more natural, more flowing. People mention places and names instinctively in real life, so when this happens in a play, it seems more instinctive, and more like real life. It helps to draw the audience into the realism, and world, of the play. For example on page 9, Eddie talks about the “Navy yard” and “Nostrand Avenue”. Miller is very effective at this particular technique, and really makes it seem real, like it’s actually happening.
Miller uses Italy as a contrast to New York. He is trying to show why Italian immigrants come to the USA, and contrasting the 2 places shows this well. Eddie says “you ever work any piers in Italy?” and Rodolfo just replies “piers? Tssss no!” this shows that in the USA work on piers is fairly normal, but in Italy it is unheard of, and such good work there could be laughed at from people like Marco and Rodolfo, who grew up there in poverty.
New York is glamorous, and miller regularly includes references to places such as Broadway and Brooklyn (page 22) to show this, and Italy is very poor, with little work and low living standards. This also helps Miller to show Marco and Rodolfo’s background compared to a typical US character, for example, Catherine.
Miller also uses Italy to show Marco and Rodolfo’s poor background. An example of how hard it is to find work there is when Rodolfo says “we make a few lire to push the taxi up the hill.” It helps the audience to understand their reasoning, wishes, hopes, and actions. Miller wants the audience to understand the characters, to sympathize with them, or to hate them, and to see there point of view more clearly. Their background is important to the play, And Miler needs to make this obvious, and exploit it as often as possible. Miller wants people too understand Rodolfo’s eagerness towards marrying Catherine, and becoming a USA citizen. He shows this when Catherine asks Rodolfo “would you still do it (marry her) if it turned out we had to go live in Italy?” and Rodolfo replies “No”, and adds “I want you to be my wife, and I want to be a citizen.” This shows Rodolfo wants both things, and considers being a citizen even more important than marrying Catherine. To some people becoming a U.S citizen may not seem important, but Miller needs the audience to know it is vitally important to Rodolfo, for his future Life.
Miller uses Italy to show that Marco and Rodolfo are real, developing a sense of history and personality about them. Miller wants his characters to be realistic, relatable to, and interesting. For Marco and Rodolfo, and to a point Eddie, Italy gives these things. When Miller gives details of Italy, he is actually giving us information about Marco and Rodolfo, giving the characters more depth, more substance to back up what the audience sees.
Miller appears to feel sorry for immigrant workers, or at least appears so in his play. He appears to think that conditions back in Italy are so bad, that they have little choice but to go illegally, and get sent back when they are caught after doing nothing wrong. For example, Marco says “what can I do? The oldest one is sick to the chest…if I stay there they will never grow up, they eat the sunshine.” This point of view makes it so that Marco has little choice but to come to America for work. Miller uses Rodolfo mainly to talk about how bad Italy is, and uses Eddie to instil a dislike of the government in this case. His stories and references suggest that he is supportive of immigrants, such as the earlier mentioned story of vinnie Bolanzo. He seems to feel sorry for immigrants and their plight, and encourages others to do the same.
He wants people to feel sorry for illegal immigrants. The author intends to put across his views, and to persuade other people to his view. .He, very subtly, makes an argument for illegal immigrants, supporting their reasoning, and a dislike for government treatment of these unlucky people. He lets clever characters like Alferi, who is a lawyer and supports the law, be against the government in the case of illegal immigrants. You see this when he asks Eddie “you don’t want to do anything about that, do you? (Talking about reporting Marco and Rodolfo)”,implying that he doesn’t want Eddie to do anything.
This is all to try and convince the audience to Millers point of view. Underneath the play is a well hidden piece of persuasive writing.
Miller also uses Italy for Humour. The play is a tragedy, so to lighten the mood, especially early on in the play, Miller laughs at Italy’s expense. He gets the characters to laugh at the standards there, joking about the types of work. For example, when the immigrants arrive, and they talk about work in Italy, Beatrice says “you gotta push a taxi?” and Rodolfo replies “(laughing) sure, it’s a feature of our town!” Then Catherine asks “why don’t you have automobile taxi’s?” and Rodolfo replies “there is one. We push that too(they laugh). Everything in our town, you gotta push!” this piece of light humor lessens early tension, and sets a more relaxed tone. Miller doesn’t try to be overly funny, and sticks to words rather than actions to create comedy. He must have decided that the whole play shouldn’t be just ever more intensive tension and darkness, but should have lighter parts as well.
Miller also uses contrasts in his play. He contrasts U.S and Italian views on things like work and family. He does this to show cultural differences between certain characters, and the places in general. The two places are worlds apart, and Miller neatly tries to show this by contrasting the two. It is also used, to create tension, as Miller often does, between Rodolfo and Eddie. For example when Rodolfo says “it is not so free there (referring to Italy)”, and Eddie replies “It aint so free over here either Kid.” A argument about Rodolfo and Catherine follows this, sparked by Rodolfo and Eddie’s conflicting views on how different the two cultures are in that particular area. The contrasts create another piece of discussion in Millers play, which he was probably trying to create.
Miller uses Italy to historic and cultural realism. His references to Italy’s history, which, being real, create a more real atmosphere for other actions and conversations around it. For example, Rodolfo says “a thousand years ago, the Danes invaded Sicily.” Most of the things Miller says about Italy are true, or at least were true when the play was set, creating an impressive factual base for fiction.
Miller explores lots of deep and relevant idea’s in his play, and looks at lots of moral issues. He looks at immigration, questioning it, showing advantages and disadvantages throughout the play. Illegal immigrants is a point talked about year upon year, and Miller does an effective job of conveying the reality of it, and the immigrant’s problems and bad luck to the audience. This is a recurring theme in Milers play, in fact is centered around it.
He also raises moral issues with Eddie’s crisis. Are you loyal to a family member, or do you protect a family member from the wrongs in this world. Eddie is emotionally torn, and many people will be faced by real life versions of these problems. The play looks at Eddies options, ending of course in tragedy, and death. This could be making a point about choices, and Eddie making the wrong one, and dying for it.
Another issue raised is that of cultural differences, and how they affect people. Catherine is a vulnerable figure in this, trapped between family and love. Marco and Rodolfo are from different cultures to Catherine, and as a result act and speak differently. Miller is pointing out how different cultures bring out entirely different people. Rodolfo misinterprets the American culture on page 37, assuming women to be more “free” in the USA than Italy, and Eddie is quick to catch him out here. Cultural differences are important to this play, as they are in real life. If all the characters had come from the same culture, even if Marco and Rodolfo still cam illegally looking for work, the out come would have been different. Eddie, perhaps, wouldn’t be so desperate to protect Catherine, and Marco wouldn’t be so intent on “Justice”, and killing Eddie. Miller is making a point on the importance of culture.
If I had to pick one to be the most important, I think Millers point on immigration was the most important. It is the one Miller pays most attention to, and is the one that most makes me think. It is a constant issue, and Miller quietly argues it in his play. He obviously has strong views on the subject, otherwise he wouldn’t have written about it. He seems to feel sorry for the illegal immigrants, sticking up for them, and arguing more in their favour than against. Miller makes lots of important points in this deep, thought provoking play, and this is the most important of all. If one thing could sum up the hole play, it would have to be what Rodolfo says, how they risk it all to find work, and eventually thru it kills a man, and leaves a family in ruin. “if there is work, anything.”
