Beatrice and Catherine, knowing the way Eddie feels towards the idea of letting go of Catherine, are constantly trying to make the atmosphere relaxed by conversing about the numerous countries and places that Marco and Rodolpho had been making light conversation about their experiences.
“They went to Africa once on a fishing boat”
Rodolpho then cuts in the conversation by stating “Once we went to Yugoslavia.”
The mood in the room at this point was calm and had a fair bit of jolliness. Eddie then gets hot headed knowing that they are having a relaxed conversation aggravates him greatly and he then says something that kills the mood and instantly Rodolpho responds in a sarcastic way hoping to cool the situation. Eddie however gets very angry and his temper is extremely tested as he uses the expression
“For Christ sake!”
This is when the tension between Eddie And Rodolpho really becomes evident and there is obvious hatred by Eddie towards Rodolpho was growing rapidly. Beatrice trys to divert the attention away from Rodolpho and Eddie by asking Marco about his family and their life but to no avail. Eddie is on the edge and can’t resist so he steals the show again speaking his mind.
“So free here”
The narrator also says “he is pacing up and down”.
This indicates that it is trying desperately to keep a lid no his emotions. Eddie then goes not directly speaking to anyone in particular but meaning to direct the statement at Rodolpho.
“You wouldn’t just drag off some girl without permission”.
Eddie then states that Rodolpho is a bad influence on Catherine due to them staying out on the street until 12 O’Clock at night. He says this to try to convince Beatrice that this is a wrong move that Rodolpho has made to influence Catherine’s behaviour.
Beatrice (who approves of Catherine’s and Rodolpho’s relationship) begins to defend them. Eddie becomes stressed and does not know what to do he then tries to persuade Beatrice again by saying Rodolpho intentions have changed since he met Catherine.
This annoys Marco as he says. “If he’s here to work, then he should work; if he’s here for a good time then could fool around!”
“But I understand, Marco, that you was both coming to make a living for your family”.
Eddie backs down quickly with this statement as he can see he has aggravated Marco.
The situation would become more awkward by the events that followed.
Catherine tries to change the mood to a happy and relaxed mood by playing music and dancing to lighten the atmosphere. By doing this Catherine changed Rodolpho and Marco’s mood and calming the anger within them, but Eddie was obviously harder to convince and pacify this actually had him more upset seeing Catherine dance with Rodolpho. Eddie’s jealously starts as he sees Rodolpho dance with Catherine. The movement made Eddie sick.
The audience can see Eddie’s frustration by his body language. The audience having seen the aggression has been teased and led to believe that a physical fight would has taken place in the middle of this scene.
During the dance between Catherine and Rodolpho, Marco has a short conversation with Eddie and Beatrice. Eddie becomes jealous when Marco brags how well Rodolpho can cook.
“We eat very well on the boat – especially when Rodolpho comes along; everybody gets fat”.
Eddie outbursts with jealousy towards Rodolpho saying he “can’t cook, he can’t sing and he can’t make dresses”.
Beatrice and Marco realised that whilst he was saying all of this that Eddie was twisting a newspaper into a tight roll. Eddie then goes on taking pity on himself.
“If I could cook, if I could sing, if I could make dresses…”
As Eddie goes on he gets more and more frustrated and agitated, eventually the newspaper snapped in half.
Eddie mentions boxing to Marco. Marco felt uneasy due to the fact he knew Eddie was frustrated. Eddie soon gets to his point across he wants to teach Rodolpho boxing. knowing full well that what he had in mind. Beatrice asked
“What’s he got to learn that for?”
As she tries to come up with a reason not to teach him boxing.
Eddie begins to teach Rodolpho how to lead with his left hand and to block. After all this Eddie temps Rodolpho to hit him.
“Come on kid, put sump’m behind it”
Rodolpho swings aggressively at Eddie’s jaw and grazes it. This heats up the tension even more. The audience expects a fight as Eddie should react to the blow. Eddie however does react but pretends that it is an accident but you can see that this is not the case. The effect of Eddie’s punch on Rodolpho was so fierce that the other characters was totally disgusted by it an knew that it was necessary. Catherine runs to Rodolpho’s aid and Marco rises and Beatrice tells Eddie,
“That’s enough.”
The audience might have expected this part of the scene to result in a big fight due to the unnecessary force Eddie used. They were stunned to see Rodolpho smirk and say,
“I was only surprised.”
Marco then challenges Eddie. This was a test of strength in which Eddie does not win.
Marco displays his strength to all of the characters. Marco show off his strength and also warn off Eddie using a glare of warning which quickly reverts to a smile of triumph.
This makes the audience feel sorry for Eddie because Marco was now the superior strength in the Carbone household. The audience were left in the dark as the scene ends with Marco holding a chair above Eddie’s head. Arthur Miller has created the dramatic scene ending.
The instant difference between the end of Act I and the end of Act II is that at the end of Act I Marco proves his stength
