In the play Alfieri knows what is going to happen he knows this is a tragedy and he knows something gruesome is going to take place as he says “I was so powerless to stop it” he knows one of the characters is going to face death this shows a sign of dramatic irony which he tells the audience, the audience knows something tragic is going to occur in the play.
The Characters are discussing how the oranges and lemons are painted and Eddie suggests that Italians are poor and also hinting that they are cheap. The characters show their emotion and feelings using a variety of words and actions. At the beginning of the scene Eddie is very anxious and cannot see Catherine and Rodolpho being together, he’s becoming agitated. Catherine asks Rodolpho if he wants to dance, but Rodolpho stiffly rises, nervously as he feels Eddie’s eyes are on his back. This suggests that he can’t stand to see them together, and Rodolpho realises how anxious Eddie is becoming. Beatrice is also sitting in the living room, when Catherine ask Rodolpho for a dance, Beatrice tells him “ go ahead dance Rodolpho” she knows Eddie doesn’t like it, she wants him to realise its not him and Catherine, its Rodolpho and Catherine who should be together and wants Eddie to be a real man to Beatrice.
The conversation turns to the subject of a woman because Eddie does not like Rodolpho neither Marco and he insults Marco and his wife hinting to Marco that his wife is not a loyal woman to him Eddie knows this will get to Marco psychologically and he wants Rodolpho and Marco to go back to Italy because he does not want Catherine to be with Rodolpho. The tension between the characters are that Marco is getting annoyed with Eddie with his childish comments to Rodolpho and himself and the audience is just waiting to see what Marco is going to do.
Eddie is getting aggravated throughout the play and reminds Marco and Rodolpho of their reasons for coming to America, The reason they came to America is for the Family back in Italy where they need money. Eddie is trying to threaten Marco and Rodolpho as he could easily go to the immigration officers and tell them there are illegal immigrants he is doing this because he does not want Catherine to be with Rodolpho as Eddie is getting jealous of them two always being together, as soon as Rodolpho gets married Rodolpho would be a legal American Italian citizen.
Throughout the scene Marco has changed his acts with Eddie, firstly Marco used to take all the nonsense that Eddie gave but now Marco has had enough and now he will retaliate to Eddie’s comments no further. Eddie says “I mean you know- they count the kids and there’s a couple extra than when they left” Eddie is trying to insult Marco and his wife saying she is having sexual relationships with other men. This has created tension because Eddie wants to get Marco aggravated and wants him to do something about it this creates pathos because the audience feel pity for Marco.
The praise given to Rodolpho over his many talents which is making Eddie jealous but that makes Rodolpho personality looking bisexual. In the 1950’s woman did all the jobs which Rodolpho does now. In the modern society it would not make a man bisexual it’d make a man look sophisticated that had many talents.
In the play Beatrice is the ‘The peacemaker’ who usually tries to calm the people down. Beatrice hates any violence. The audience would not get any pleasure from watching Beatrice calming them down. The gender roles are maybe changing. Eddie was low tempered but when Rodolpho entered Eddie was furious but on the safe side Beatrice has prevented from anything to happen however it’s not the same later on in the play. Throughout the play tension and frustration is getting more and more worse this is because every time they start arguing Eddie is 1 step away from doing something serious but Beatrice tries to keep things calm, so Beatrice calms the tension down however there is still tension between the 3 characters Eddie Marco and Rodolpho tension is just rising and at the end its uncontrollable. Eddie manages to release his frustration at the end and ends in a death situation
The trial of strength has an effect on the audience because the audience are also getting frustrated because they want to know what’s going to happen next in the play. The balance of power has been shifted as in the scene before they were verbally communicating now there is physical action between the characters. Eddie has just hit Rodolpho in a boxing match. This shows that the play is going to get more uptight and aggressive and the audience would want to know what is going to happen next in the end of act one. there will be a mixture of emotions in act 1 so there are a mixture of emotions because Beatrice wouldn’t know how she would feel, if something happens to Eddie also Eddie does not know how he is feeling about Catherine, also Catherine wouldn’t know whose side she would be on if something went wrong between Eddie and Rodolpho.
The scene fits into the rest of the play the audience know the Tension is going to rise throughout the whole play which is going to cause something tragic to happen like death. There also are few similarities in scene 1 and 2.
There was no tension at the start of the play but the tension started to build up as more characters are added into the play. In my opinion the tension built up when Rodolpho entered. The tension was slowly building up and by the end of the play all the tension that was built ended up in a tragedy death. In the scene dramatic tension is mainly caused by Eddie, it is due to the fact that Rodolpho likes Catherine which Eddie likes as well. This causes tension because Eddie tries to repeatedly insult Rodolpho to provoke him eventually. Eddie tries to beat Rodolpho for example like beating him in a sparing match. To show Catherine he is a bigger man. This is like the main structure for the tension. The dramatic climax at the end of the act is when Marco glances at Eddie with full eye contact whilst holding the chair with 1 hand which Eddie could not do. It also shows that there is a challenge for Eddie.
