Miller creates a scene of mixed tension in the first part of act one which features an intimate triangle of three characters living in a claustrophobic environment. The intimate triangle of characters consists of Eddie, Catherine, and Beatrice who are close to one another and share secrets and personal feelings. The first scene reveals to the audience tension between the family. Catherine – having always been the baby of the family, is starting to lead her own life and is eager about getting a job. Eddie – being the man of the family, does not like the fact that Catherine and Beatrice have gone behind his back and not discussed with him Catherine’s employment. Eddie shows the audience that he would much prefer he to keep Catherine at home, he shows this by saying: ‘no-no, you gonna finish school. What kinda job, what do you mean? All of a sudden’ ‘I don’t like the neighborhood over there.’ Eddies is an extremely controlling character especially over Catherine, and he appears to force decisions upon the family with an “iron fist”. It shows me as the audience the concern that Eddie has over his niece, this is because he doesn’t want Catherine to get hurt. I think that Eddie’s protective behaviour towards Catherine unveils to the audience that he has stronger and more personal feelings for Catherine that he is struggling with in his attempt to control them.
Miller adds more tension to the atmosphere of the play by making Eddies character aggressive towards the other characters. An example of this is when Beatrice becomes involved in an argument that is only between Eddie and Catherine. When Beatrice chooses to become involved with their disagreement she then decides to support Catherine’s view over Eddie’s. Beatrice becomes quite patronising to Eddie by saying: “I don’t understand you; she’s seventeen years old, you gonna keep her in the house all her life?”.
Eddie’s response to this shows that he is panicking, his retaliating quote shows his aggression by questioning Beatrice and he says:
“What kinda remark is that?”.
In my opinion Eddie is panicking because he is worried that Beatrice is hinting at the secret feelings he has towards Catherine.
The tension between the three characters is eventually broken when the family who are predominantly Catholic, sit down to eat their tea and pray before they eat. Instantly the audience sees the tension change again when Eddie then announces the arrival of Beatrice’s cousins Rodolfo and Marco.
Miller mounts up the tension in the anticipation of the arrival, the family are excited and anxious about their new arrivals. The cousins arrive in a scene of mixed emotions but are welcomed into the Carbone household.
From the stage directions (‘enter Marco and Rodolfo, removing their caps.’) the audience can see that Marco and Rodolfo are polite men who are unsure of whether things will work out for them under Eddie Carbone’s roof. The good spirits of Eddie are short lived when he realises that Catherine finds Rodolfo attractive. The audience know that he doesn’t want her to get hurt or leave him behind thus creating more tension. After the arrival of Marco and Rodolfo viewers of the play begin to imagine how life will be in the small house will be with all five characters living together under each other’s feet. The prediction that the audience make at this point into the story is that Eddie will get along with Marco as he has yet to offend him, but will have issues with Rodolfo if his “little girl” gets involved with him.
In the second part of Act 1 the following events happen; Eddie and Beatrice’s relationship is under serious strain when they stop having sex and Beatrice finds herself asking Eddie “when she is gonna be a women again”. Meanwhile Eddie becomes infatuated with Catherine and her relationship with Rodolfo, Beatrice becomes aware of this and says to Eddie: ‘ It’s almost three months you don’t feel good; they’re only here a couple of weeks.’ Tension is now climaxing between Catherine and Eddie when he tells her that Rodolfo is only with her for her passport and a safe passage into the country, there is evidence of this when Eddie says to Catherine:
“Katie, he’s only bowin’ to his passport”.
It is clear to the audience that Catherine wants to disagree with Eddie but feels she is not allowed too think different for herself. Beatrice will not let Catherine put up with Eddie treating her like a child anymore. She sits Catherine down to tell her that she needs to grow up and move away she before she becomes trapped by Eddie. An angered Beatrice says to Catherine in :
‘you still think you’re a little girl, honey……..he cant give you orders no more’ This quote shows Beatrice’s frustration with Catherine, and therefore Miller is succeeding in creating more dramatic tension because Beatrice shows her feelings to the other characters and the audience. Beatrice feels that Catherine’s naivety towards Eddie is destroying their marriage and ruining her own future.
Eddie turns to Alfieri, he hints to him about his love for Catherine and his hatred towards Rodolfo. Alfieri understands how Eddie is feeling but cannot help him with his troubles, he tells Eddie that there is nothing illegal with Catherine falling in love with Rodolfo. Dramatic tension is caused again on the stage when Alfieri reinforces what Beatrice had previously told Eddie and he says:
‘ the child has to grow up and go away and the man has to learn to forget’.
I think that the climax of dramatic tension happens in the closing scene of Act One . Eddie returns home to an extremely tense and claustrophobic apartment, he supposedly taught Rodolfo how to box but in Eddies mind he was challenging Rodolfo to a fight. Rodolfo escapes the “mock boxing match” with a slight graze, however I think that Catherine is so overwhelmed with Eddie’s attempt to include Rodolfo that she doesn’t see through to his real thoughts. Miller has used this in the plot and it is significant to the storyline as it shows Eddies ‘controlling behavior’ and how he likes to keep an iron fist over the apartment. Beatrice and Catherine are now worried over the safety of Rodolfo. Rodolfo is nervous and unsure about the angry Eddie who is full of passionate hate for him.
After the fight, Rodolfo and Eddies characters act together to add more dramatic tension to the last scene of the first act. There is evidence of this occurring when:
‘he takes her hand…….Rodolfo takes her in his arms’.
In my opinion, this aggravates Eddie’s situation and it stirs up his emotions. The self-destructible Eddie is trapped in the claustrophobic apartment with no place to go and is forced to sit and watch them dance together. The climax of dramatic tension during Act One then happens in the last scenes when a silent Marco, who has been sitting quietly in the background, steps out and retaliates to Eddie’s behaviour towards his younger brother. Marco next challenges Eddie to a chair lifting contest. Marco shows Eddie how he can lift a chair over his head using only one hand, Eddie attempts to prove himself worthy of the same thing but fails. Miller adds this part of the scene to the play because it shows the two strong dominant men battling it out to show who is the prevailing male of the household. I think that this is Marco’s silent warning to Eddie that says “lay off my brother”. There is now pressure on Eddie – who was previously the strongest character and this causes the dramatic tension to carry on increasing.
One aspect of the play, that in writing that can be noticed is that Miller is very specific in his stage directions. A quote I have taken from Millers stage directions reads:
‘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 eddies head.’ The way he uses stage directions allows the audience to see the emotions and feelings that the characters are undergoing. I think that this assists in maintaining the dramatic tension throughout the play as it is giving the audience a clear image of what each of the characters truly feels and also their state of mind.
Eddie has now been driven to pressing his ‘self destruct button’ when he makes the call to the immigration office that he cannot undo. After this we have reached the peak point in the story. I think this because Eddie has now betrayed his family and there is now a vendetta between Marco and Eddie. Because of the mafia code that Marco follows he believes that there is only one way to resolve the situation: Eddie must die. Now that the audience are aware of this the dramatic tension has reached its climax, the audience are sitting waiting for the tragic death of Eddie Carbone- the plays tragic hero.
The last quote that Alfieri uses in the play is that :
“most of the time no we settle for half and I like it better”
In my opinion I think that this is Alfieri’s way of telling the moral of the story. If Eddie had only settled for half he would still be alive and the family would be happy, but most importantly of all…, Catherine who he has always been so eager to please.
From my essay I have shown how Miller cleverly creates dramatic tension and maintains it throughout his play. The dramatic techniques Miller uses to create this are: his precise stage directions; dramatic irony at the start of the play; and the use of his climatic points. The dramatic irony is important because it means the audience are aware of something that the characters are not. Also, Millers use of climatic points rite through the play generate tension between the characters, he uses this dramatic device wisely by accumulating lots of intense moments.
However, I think the most important technique that Miller use to create his dramatic tension is specific stage directions. I think this because it creates an intimate and claustrophobic atmosphere on the set on which the characters live. He creates zones on the stage were the action takes place, this changes the entire atmosphere of the play. These zones that Miller has created make it more intimate and therefore adds dramatic tension.