To start with a casual scene with very little tension is portrayed.
Eddie appears genuinely happy as he sees Catherine who has made an effort to look good and brought a new dress as he says:
“Beautiful. Turn around leme see in the back. (She turns for him.) Oh if your mother were alive to see you now! She wouldn’t believe it.”
Catherine who quite willingly turns for him and shows him her new hairstyle shows she loves the attention he is giving her.
He is a very friendly and loving guardian, we can tell this from the way Miller writes the dialog in this scene, and as the audience can probably relate to that kind of situation the dramatic effect is a very normal everyday scene and the audience will take an instant like to both characters. It will make the audience follow Eddie’s character more and understand the loving reasons behind what he does.
However even in the first scene eddies character is slowly becoming more protective and it depicts how the rest of the play will progress. A few lines later in the play Eddie, instead of complementing her new dress is questioning it as he says:
“I think it’s too short ain’t it?”
This shows he’s realised that her getting dressed up will have consequences on how other men will look at her too, the realisation that she’s growing up. Suddenly he doesn’t like the fact that she’s looking beautiful so much any more and for the first time we see this overprotective side of him come out. Though so far only in a rational way as most parents might.
We also see Catherine’s reaction shows her to be upset by the comment as she immediately tries to seek back his approval by telling him its “not when I stand up.”
It shows the audience she want to grow up but she does not want to anger Eddie and this is going to be a problem. This argument hints that in the end she may have to choose between Eddie and growing into a woman later on in the play. The audience is led to be inclined to thinking a man will be involved as they hear of how pretty she’s looking.
From this scene it is learnt that Catherine is not a pushover and does stick up for herself, however she has a lot of respect for Eddie and this stops her from dressing how she wants and doing what she wants. It is used to show the power that Eddie has over Catherine as they continue to argue going on to talk about her attitude towards men, as Eddie says:
“You’re getting’ to be a big girl now, you gotta keep yourself to yourself more, you can’t be so friendly, kid.”
In this Eddie is contradicting himself. He’s telling her she’s growing up and yet he’s saying your not aloud to go round getting to know people, which is all part of growing up.
At this stage its still said in a friendly way although there is tension between the two of them as they begin to disagree and Eddie starts saying things which don’t make much sense, this help the audience to see he’s becoming irrational already.
The scene is about a conscientious guardian which is very important as this is Eddie’s downfall and the main reason behind the storyline that in unveiled. The reader can see that tension is building fast between these two characters as Eddie becomes more and more scared of loosing Catherine and Catherine wants more and more to grow up and meet someone. The audience can then relate this to what the rest of the play will hold and get the story line that Catherine will find a man and Eddie will try anything to stop her from leaving him. This leads the audience not to think about what will happen but about when and how it will happen.
Throughout the story Miller creates scenes that give an insight into the rest of the play. This scene does this most effectively although many in the audience will be unaware as the play has just started and they are unaware of the continuous pattern. It helps to create future dramatic effect though in later scenes and sets the scene very well as an opening scene.
The opening scene also introduces the fact that Beatrice’s cousins have “landed”. As this is in the opening scene it must be important to the plot and the character dialog deems it to be a good thing from Beatrice’s and Catherine’s point of view:
Catherine – “B! Your cousins!”
Beatrice – “I didn’t even buy a new tablecloth: I was going to wash the walls.”
They are seen as both getting over excited and Eddie as being the perfect father figure claming them down:
Eddie – “You’re saving their lives, what’re you worryin’ about the table cloth?”
They are seen as both getting over excited and Eddie as being the perfect father figure claming them down:
Eddie – “You’re saving their lives, what’re you worryin’ about the table cloth?”
The audience gets the feeling he is the stable character that is needed to keep the family in one piece with the others becoming worried and unstable more with him there to calm them down. This dramatic effect if perfect as it emphasises the change that happens when, by the end, Eddie is the one who has completely gone off the rails. It also accounts for Beatrice’s and Catherine’s shock when he does loose and why they end up chasing after him so much and pleading to have him back – they know this is not the Eddie they know and the audience can see this too.
The second scene I’m going to analyse is the “boxing scene” and is a very significant scene when helping to aid Miller create tension within the book. It emphasises the anger and frustration Eddie is feeling towards Marco and Rodolfo and hints that this book must end in certain conflict between the brothers and Eddie. It is there to exaggerate what the reader has already come to believe will happen in the end. It plays out a situation in which Eddie threatens Rodolfo and Marco gets involved and ends up beating Eddie at his own game by threatening him back. This is basically playing out the plot for the whole story but on a smaller scale. It builds a lot of tension as it helps the reader to become aware that this is what is going to happen it’s not just what might happen any more. The structure of this scene outlines the structure of Eddie, Marco and Rodolfo’s relationship within the play. It starts with Eddie starting on Rodolfo:
“Why? I didn’t hurt him. Did I hurt you, kid?”
But the scene finishes with Marco showing Eddie what a bad idea it is for him to pick on his little brother. The audience know from previous scene though that Eddie’s fall back is he is not always aware of when it is appropriate to stop pushing something, especially when it involves letting go of Catherine and letting her grow up. For instance in the first scene he keeps going on about the size of her skirt instead of just one comment like a normal parent would, he cannot just let things drop.
The dramatic effect of this scene is to make it obvious the true power Marco has over Eddie and how he is willing to use this power in circumstances involving his brother. Before this scene the audience learn a fair bit about Rodolfo and a lot about Eddie but very little is said about Marco. This makes him a more sinister character and because the viewer knows very little about him apart from this sinister serious character in this scene it makes him that much more of a real threat, and the outcome of any fight that much more obvious.
This scene also relates to the rest of the story as the tension increases as the scene goes on, like the play as a whole does. At the beginning of the scene Eddie’s picking on Rodolfo is made to be all a big joke:
“You wait, Marco, you see some real fights here. You ever do any boxing?”
Eddie is playing around with them as if he has the upper hand. If it was just him and Rodolfo he probably would but Marco, despite his quite nature will only stand for so much. He leaves it to the point when Eddie actually goes to hit Rodolfo, at this point Marco rises, this builds tension as he does it quietly but that make it more tense and serious. Other characters try to make a joke of it and just avoid the fact that Eddie’s behaviour was unacceptable. For instance Beatrice says:
“That’s enough Eddie, he did pretty good though.”
Marco brings a sinister edge to this however building tension and expectation, as he lifts the chair in front of Eddie in a silent and sinister victory over him.
The boxing scene also emphasises Eddie’s mental situation and how fast he is “loosing it”. He can no longer keep inside his anger for Rodolfo and treat him as a normal person to please his family. It shows he no longer cares what his wife thinks about him and more importantly how Catherine sees him. This brings tension between Eddie and everybody else, singling him out and turning everybody against him in a way. This very effectively builds the tension, because what he is trying to hang onto is moving further and further away from him. Him fighting a loosing battle leads to expectations of what will happen and therefore the tension and atmosphere of the play.
Eddie’s anger can be distinguished by the language Miller uses when Eddie is talking:
“Sure he’s terrific! Look at him go! (Rodolfo lands a blow) ‘At’s it! Now, watch out here I come Danish.”
He is mocking Rodolfo, deeming him to be and feel as low as possible. Eddie needs to bring him down and make him appear to be as useless as possible, this is to make him look bigger and better do Catherine may prefer him.
This is low for Eddie, very low, and is more of a last ditch attempt, where all else has failed. It shows him on a downward spiral that cannot end happily as he is past rational sane thought. Miller does this to make the audience tense and on edge about what is going to happen next.
The dramatic effect of this scene is to show the audience just what lengths Eddie and Marco will go to and helps to confirm the audiences growing suspicion that this will end with Eddie willing to do anything, even take a life, to keep Catherine. It also shows this will probably end badly for him if Marco has anything to do with it which it is almost guaranteed he will.