Marco and Rodolfo left Italy to earn money for their family, because at that time there was famine in Italy. So they decided to immigrate to America where they now work on the docks. Soon after Alfieri’s speech; in the apartment, Marco tells everyone about how he and Rodolfo sailed to Africa, on a fishing boat. Eddie feels jealous of Marco and Rodolfo and this causes his anger. With sarcasm Eddie says, “They pay all right on them boats?” This suggests that Eddie is trying to remain calm. Catherine complains about travelling to other places, “They went to Africa once. On fishing boat… and I was never even in Staten island.” From this you can tell that Catherine envies Marco and Rodolfo, because they have travelled to many countries. When Rodolfo tries to join in the conversation, Eddie ignores him deliberately. Rodolfo says, “Once we went to Yugoslavia.” Eddie says (to Marco), “They pay alright on them boats?” This shows Eddie’s jealousy, from him trying to change the subject. Eddie also says, “They pay alright on them boats”, because he wants to embarrass them- he thinks he earns a lot more than them and is trying to compare the amount of money that he makes with the amount of money they make. When Eddie talks about oranges and lemons he seems annoyed that Rodolfo said something to him. Eddie says (to Marco), “I heard that they paint the oranges to make them look orange… yeah I heard they grow like green.” Rodolfo says, “Lemons are green.” Eddie says, “I know lemons are green, for Christ’s sake…” from this you can tell he is irritated when Rodolfo comments on something he is talking about. At this point in the play; Eddie dislikes Rodolfo. The audience feel the tension in the atmosphere as Eddie has a slight outburst.
Beatrice is Eddie’s wife and with Eddie they raised Catherine. After Eddie’s outburst Beatrice tries to diffuse the tension in the atmosphere. Beatrice talks to Marco, about his family back home in Italy. Beatrice says (sitting; diverting their attention), “your wife is gettin’ the money all right, Marco?” From this you can see how tension is released, by Beatrice starting a conversation about Marco’s family. As they are talking you can tell Marco feels lonely and misses his family in Italy. Beatrice says, “That’s wonderful. You feel better, heh?” Marco says, “Oh yes! But I’m lonesome.” The stage directions show us he doesn’t always talk about his family; Marco says, “Oh, no, she saves. I send everything. My wife is very lonesome.” (He smiles shyly) From the way he is shy you can tell he doesn’t often talk about his family. While the conversation is still going on, Eddie shows no respect towards Marco and is being insensitive towards him. Saying, “I betcha there’s plenty of surprises sometimes when those guys get back, heh?” From this you can see how disrespectful Eddie is being; and how Marco must be feeling towards his comment. At this point in the play, the audience are on the edge of their seats as the atmosphere is filled with suspense; because the audience don’t know how Marco will react to Eddie.
Rodolfo and Marco are brothers who have emigrated from Italy. Rodolfo is confronted by Eddie after he makes a comment towards him. Rodolfo says, “It’s more strict in our town.” (Eddie looks at him now) “It’s not so free.” Eddie replies, and from just the stage directions you can tell he is angry. Stage directions, “Rises, paces up and down”. When Eddie is talking to Rodolfo he is actually referring to Catherine’s and Rodolfo’s relationship. Rodolfo says, “Well I always have respect-” Eddie says, “I know, but in your town you wouldn’t just drag off some girl without permission, I mean.” (He turns) “You know what I mean, Marco? It ain’t that much different here.” From this you can tell that, when he says ‘Just drag off some girl without permission’, he is talking about Catherine and how Rodolfo didn’t ask his permission before going out with Catherine. The audience can tell that Eddie is not happy with Catherine and Rodolfo, being in a relationship. The dialogue use by Eddie creates tension, because it is as if he is telling Rodolfo off. When the others realise what Eddies outburst was about, again, Beatrice tries to cool down the situation and backs up Rodolfo. Beatrice says, “Well he didn’t exactly drag her off though, Eddie.” From this we can tell Beatrice doesn’t want there to be any conflict between them; Eddie’s attention is diverted from Rodolfo to Beatrice. The audience are in suspense, for they don’t know how he will react to this.
Catherine knows that Rodolfo shouldn’t be punished for what he done so she ask Rodolfo to dance with her because Catherine goes against eddies wishes and she thinks that Eddie can’t treat Rodolfo like this. This made Eddie extremely annoyed and angry. “You wane dace, Rodolfo”, this shows that Catherine is revolting against Eddie also this shows the audience that Catherine doesn’t care about Eddie and she won’t listen to Eddie. Rodolfo doesn’t want to dance because he knows that it just makes everything worst also he respects for Eddie, “No, I – I’m tired”, this shows the audience that Rodolfo respects Eddie feeling. But Beatrice made Rodolfo dance with Catherine; this makes Eddie angrier also the audience now know that Beatrice is against Eddie as well as Catherine and audience feeling that by making Eddie angry something bad will happen.
When Eddie founds out that Rodolfo can cook, sing and make dress this makes Eddie more tense and jealous. “It’s wonderful. He sings, he cooks, he could make dress…” Because Rodolfo can cook, sing… and Eddie can’t do any of this stuff; this shows the audience how and why Eddie is getting more tense and jealous. Eddie continues talking about that Rodolfo is a lucky guy, because he can cook…, that’s why the water front is no place for him. I think that he is trying to show to everybody Rodolfo feminine side, especially to Catherine, Eddie is trying to show her that girls do this stuff. Catherine and Rodolfo stop dancing because this was the first time he talks about Rodolfo like this and is very interesting for Rodolfo. This tells the audience how jealous Eddie is and everybody on stage now know how jealous Eddie is about Rodolfo also this makes the tension level high.
Eddie ask Rodolfo to go to a boxing match and ‘teaches’ Rodolfo to box, “strong coffee”, “I will teach you to box”. The language in this section reflects Eddie’s jealousy because he wants to show that he is not jealous of what Rodolfo can do, this shows the audience that Eddie is jealous but he is trying to act normal. Eddie hits Rodolfo and He is happy about it but Catherine is angry about it, she says “Eddie”, this shows the audience how much Catherine likes Rodolfo. I think that Eddie persuades Rodolfo to box because Eddie is jealous about Rodolfo and he wanted to shows that he is better and stronger than Rodolfo. This shows that Eddie is a character who wants to be the greatest and he thinks that everybody got to listen to him. Eddie takes the boxing match seriously because he wanted to show Rodolfo that he is a weak person and he can’t look after his self. When Catherine comeback into the room, she is shocked about the boxing match because she knows that Eddie is angry and jealous also she thinks that Eddie is going to hurt Rodolfo. When Eddie hits Rodolfo, Eddie feels kind of happy and I think that Rodolfo hurtled but he acts that it didn’t hurt him because it’s kind of embarrassing to show your self weak front of everybody and he would make Eddie a little bit angrier. Rodolfo ask Catherine to dance with him because Rodolfo wane make Eddie tense, annoyed and angry also the way that Eddie treated him, “dance Catherine. Come”. This shows the audience that Rodolfo now hates Eddie and he won’t respect him anymore also the audience will feel kind of happy about Rodolfo because Eddie shouldn’t treat Rodolfo like that.
Marco challenges Eddie to lift the chair with one hand, this is a metaphor, he say that because Marco knows that Eddie is trying to show that he is the greatest and the strongest in this family and he wants to prove to him that he is the greatest or strongest in the family, which he proved it by lifting the chair by one hand. “Can you lift this chair?” This shows the audience that Marco is threatening Eddie. The stage direction again helps to create tension in this scene; by showing us Marco is stronger than Eddie. When Marco was asking Eddie to lift the chair, Eddie thought it’s easy he couldn’t do it and he fined it hard also its quite embarrassing front of everybody, “sure why not? Gee, that’s hard, I never knew that”. Marco is pleased by what he don to Eddie because he proved it to everybody that Eddie isn’t the greatest, the way that Marco told Eddie to lift the chair with one hand it was interesting because he thought that it was simple but it wasn’t. I found this part interesting because Eddie got embarrassed front of everybody, Marco proved to everybody that he is strong also he made Rodolfo happier because Marco done revenge to Eddie and he helped his little brother to feel safer. “Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strainer tension gripping his eyes…” this shows the audience that Marco is threatening Eddie that he will beat him up if he touches his brother.
I think Miller wanted to make this scene very tense because if make a scene very tense it makes us to think about them, their life and you kind of feel how they feel. I think this scene is important because Marco didn’t just stand there and let his brother get hurtled by Eddie, he helped his brother. Also all the characters were against Eddie because he treated Rodolfo badly. All the characters had a different attitude to Eddie. I didn’t really enjoy this scene because nothing really interesting happened out side of the hose, e.g. Rodolfo almost got court by polices but he ran away or fight in street between Rodolfo and anyone in street. All the interesting bits were in the house. This scene made me feel kind of happy at the end but at the beginning I felt quite upset the way Eddie was treating Rodolfo and Catherine, but overall I was pleased with this novel and Arthur Miller was very successful on this novel.
