By this stage in the play, Catherine has fallen in love with Rodolpho, one of Beatrice’s illegal immigrant cousins. He and his brother Marco are lodging with the Carbones. Unknown to himself, or maybe just not admitted, Eddie wants Catherine in another way than as a niece; this is obvious throughout the play with his attempts to stop her growing up. He comments on her short skirt and high heels, resents her getting a job and forms a very strong grudge against Rodolpho which is based on pure jealousy. Eddie, when confronted about his strange behaviour, puts it down to fearing for Catherine’s safety and needing to protect her as would an uncle in place of a father. “I don’t like the neighbourhood over there’’, etc.
Beatrice is becoming aware of his feelings but does not comment or action this realisation in this act; she is a very kind hearted person who tries to appease everybody. I might tell the actress to reflect this part of her by putting in some fake smiles.
Marco tries to stay neutral on the matter. He does defend Rodolpho in the face of Eddie, but is firm with Rodolpho and gives him warnings, (“You come home early now, Rodolpho’’) as he does not want him to get into trouble and jeopardise his status with Eddie any further.
Leading up to the ending, there is a heated discussion going on where Eddie is accusing Rodolpho of “dragging off Catherine without permission’’. During these conversations, pauses and silences can encapsulate the tension, and the characters’ feeling uncomfortable with each other. Miller plays on this – “There is a pause, an awkwardness’’. At this point Eddie is using any excuse he can to put Rodolpho down, in order to drive a wedge between him and Catherine. It is not working as they are deeply in love, so he gets quite desperate and resorts to blunt, put-down comments. Rodolpho is a laid-back, light hearted character and Eddie tries to show up his femininity with remarks like “He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses.’’ This is a hint that Rodolpho is homosexual, which Eddie finds the idea of completely repulsive and hopes Catherine will too. His next ploy, near the end of Act One, is to teach Rodolpho how to box, with the intention of making him look feeble and sissy-like. Rodolpho crushes his glory by being a very quick learner and impressing the rest of the family. That done, Eddie retreats to a chair looking thoughtful, while Catherine and Rodolpho are dancing to “Paper Doll’’. The romance could be represented casting a red or pink, fuzzy light on them. Eddie and Marco, who the main focus is on, would be in a harder, unstructured light so the audience can clearly see what’s going on, and see the characters’ facial expressions, which are very important here.
Marco knows that Eddie has just tried to humiliate his brother, and that having failed to do so, is at a weaker point. He challenges Eddie to lift a chair above his head whilst kneeling on the floor with one hand behind his back. Eddie manages to raise it a couple of centimetres and laughs it off. When Marco does it, he not only lifts it above his head but stands up as well. Miller writes his exact movements…
“Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff, the chair raised like a weapon over Eddie’s head – and he transforms what might have been a glare of warning into a smile of triumph, and Eddie’s grin vanishes as he absorbs his look’’.
The ‘glare of warning’ in this is to tell Eddie that he knows what’s going on, and he cannot keep picking on Rodolpho and getting away with it. Eddie obviously picks up on this message, as his grin fades.
This is the point where the story changes from a petty squabble to a civil war, and it is now inevitable that Marco and Eddie will confront each other. The best way for the drama to be maximised is by orchestral music, which could start up quietly whilst Eddie lifts the chair and gradually escalate. While Marco has a go, the music could suddenly turn sinister-sounding, which correlates with the feelings of the characters. As the sun drops down, the tension reaches a climax and the music gets very loud, the audience should realise that it is too late for Eddie to even try to accept Catherine and Rodolpho’s love, because Marco knows very well what he’s up to. If Eddie does decide to apologize and turn over a new leaf, both Marco and Beatrice would know that he’s lying and not accept it. There is now no solution to this unfolding chaos – someone in it has a destiny, and that destiny is to die.
