Louie Fitsiou 10LH
How does Arthur Miller create dramatic tension in the last scene of act one?
Arthur Miller creates dramatic tension in this scene in a number of ways. Arthur Miller uses the character of Eddie and his actions in this scene, the anxieties of Beatrice and Catherine plus the ‘fight’ between Eddie and Rodolfo to make us tense. The tension in this scene is heightened by sudden movements, what is implied by the characters’ words and the conflict between all three male characters.
Arthur Miller uses the character of Eddie to create dramatic tension in this scene by his words and actions towards Marco and Rodolfo the two illegal immigrants from Italy. At the beginning of this scene Eddie gets into an unnecessary argument with the two Italians about the colour of oranges and lemons. The subject of oranges and lemons was brought up by Catherine when she says, “it’s like oranges and lemons on a tree. I mean you never think of oranges and lemons on a tree?” Eddie replies saying, “I heard that they paint the oranges to make them look orange, I hear they grow like green.” Marco comments by saying, “no, in Italy the oranges are orange,” and Rodolfo adds, “lemons are green.” Eddie resentfully says to Rodolfo. “I know lemons are green, for Christ’s sake, you see them in the store they’re green sometimes. I said oranges they paint, I didn’t say nothing about lemons.” I think Eddie replies to Rodolfo like this because Eddie seems to dislike him. The tension was broken by Beatrice when she asks Marco about his wife in Italy.
The criticism of Eddie revealed by the two women, Beatrice and Catherine is also something in this scene that built up tension and made us as the audience tenser. Evidence of the criticism of Eddie revealed by the women is when Eddie said to Rodolfo, “I know, but in your town you wouldn’t just drag some girl off the streets without permission, you know what I mean? It aint much different here.” In this quote Eddie is implying that Rodolfo just dragged Catherine off the streets without asking for Eddie’s permission. Beatrice defends Rodolfo by saying, “well, he didn’t exactly drag her off though, Eddie.” Rodolfo then says to Eddie, “I have respect for her, Eddie. I do anything wrong?” Eddie responds to Rodolfo saying, “look kid, I aint her father, I’m only her uncle.”– Beatrice again defends Rodolfo and states, “well then, be an uncle then.” Eddie realizes that Beatrice says this in a criticizing force but Marco seems to agree with what Eddie is saying and replies for Eddie to Beatrice saying, “No, Beatrice, if he does wrong you must tell him. (To Eddie) what does he do wrong?” Eddie then brings up the night when Rodolfo took Catherine out to the movies, “well, Marco, till he came here she was never out on the street twelve o’ clock at night.” Beatrice again gets involved and this time helping Catherine defend for herself, she says to Catherine, “well, you said the movie ended late, didn’t you?” in which Catherine replies, “Yeah.” Beatrice continuing to help Catherine says, “Well, tell him honey. (To Eddie) the movie ended late.” This time it was Catherine that broke the tension by asking Rodolfo to dance although I think she done this to get at Eddie.
