This scene shows us that even though Beatrice might not appear to be taking everything in she clearly is, she says to Catherine that she has been observing her actions around Eddie for a year and she says that she has tried to warn Catherine of her actions for some time. For instance Beatrice tells Catherine that she walks around in front of Eddie ‘in her slip’ and when Catherine hears this she makes up a useless excuse, “Well I forgot” and Catherine is told that she sits on the bathtub when Eddie is shaving in his underwear, after this Catherine says she just wanted to tell him something. This only shows that Catherine makes up excuses for her actions on the spot. Furthermore, when Beatrice asks her if there was anyone he had liked for her, Catherine defends Eddie by repeating that he has said that Rodolpho is only going out with Catherine to get his passport. This scene is of dramatic importance because Catherine realises that she is acting in a way that will make Eddie want to have her.
The second scene I have chosen is the boxing match between Rodolpho and Eddie this is because it is a very physical scene and the reader or the audience will not know what will happen next. The outcome of this scene is that Marco and Catherine show that they will side with Rodolpho if there is a need to, Catherine does so by asking Rodolpho to dance with her without asking Eddie’s permission and Marco shows his allegiance to Rodolpho by the fact that he is Rodolpho’s brother and that he sees what Eddie is trying to do and threatened him by raising a chair over his head, this shows Marco’s strength and control over Eddie. This creates tension be all the characters, bar one, reveals there thoughts and feeling on the current situation.
During this scene four of the five characters reveal their thoughts and feelings about the current situation through a symbolic action, firstly, Catherine moves away from Eddie by asking Rodolpho to dance. She is showing Eddie that she has grown up and that she needs him less than before. Marco reveals that he will side with Rodolpho by lifting a chair over his own head. This shows that he does not like the way that Eddie is treating Rodolpho and that he is watching Eddie’s behaviour, which comes around at the end of the play when Marco kills Eddie to save Rodolpho from Eddie’s wrath. Rodolpho also reveals his feelings toward Eddie by not speaking his mind about the situation; the stage directions describe Rodolpho looking at Eddie “with a certain gleam and a smile”. This suggests that Rodolpho is not telling anyone what his feelings towards Eddie are but the reader or audience can easily guess that Rodolpho is has realised that Eddie is trying to humiliate him in front of Catherine, so that she will no longer like him because she would no longer think he is a man. Finally, Eddie shows that he thinks Rodolpho is homosexual and he tries to prove his theory. Eddie thinks that Rodolpho is a homosexual because he can cook and when he sings he can hit the high notes. Eddie believes these to be feminine attributes and also thinks that Rodolpho is only going out with Catherine to get his passport. Eddie firstly sees Rodolpho as a homosexual because he is going out with Catherine. Also, before the boxing match Eddie is talking to Marco and Rodolpho and he is absent mindedly rolling up his newspaper and twisting it to such an extent that he tears it in half. This is significant in the play because it shows what Eddie would like to do to Rodolpho and it also shows that Eddie cannot suppress his feelings towards Rodolpho. However, Beatrice does not show her thoughts and feelings because she thinks the boxing match is only friendly confrontation and does not see the hidden realms of meaning behind everyone else’s calm appearances.
This scene is presenting the issue that homosexuality was not widely acceptable in the fifties, Eddie is following his beliefs when he makes his judgement of Rodolpho and does not change from this judgement despite the overwhelming evidence that Rodolpho is not a homosexual, for instance that he is going out with Catherine and intends to marry her and that he works at the docks with other men who do not think he is homosexual, they think he is a bit different but they definitely do not think he is homosexual. Furthermore, Eddie continues to hold a judgement against Rodolpho even after all this evidence because he is going out with Catherine and Eddie wants her all for himself. Also, Eddie wants to humiliate Rodolpho as he thinks this will stop Catherine from liking Rodolpho and Eddie thinks that this will make her think Rodolpho is a homosexual. Furthermore, Eddie’s accusations are fuelled by the fact that Rodolpho sings in a high voice and that he may be singing about feminine men in the song ‘Paper Doll’. This song is vital to the success of the play as it describes Rodolpho’s life in Italy; the song suggests that Rodolpho might have been a “ladies man”. This scene also conveys the ‘power struggle’, over Catherine, between Eddie and Rodolpho and it causes dramatic tension because allegiances are stated and Marco shows Eddie that he would be victorious in a fight to the death or to the others submission.
In conclusion, I believe that both scenes are of a high dramatic tension for different reasons, the first because Catherine is just realising that her actions have caused Eddie to think she is a baby and that her actions have also made Eddie want her for himself, in continuation. We see that Beatrice is more than just a ‘pretty face’ and that she has seen Eddie’s attraction to Catherine for nearly a year. The second scene because the characters are revealing their thoughts and feelings about the current situation, four out of five characters show their feelings and two of them show that they will side with Rodolpho if the occasion arises.
