Catherine is also fairly naive, and does not seem to notice Eddie’s unnatural desire for her. She views Eddie as a father figure and is always striving to appease him. This is shown particularly clearly in the form of stage directions.
For example, when she discusses with Eddie the job offer, his traditional role of dominance within the household is upset. We see her pick up on this when she ‘hurries out’ to fetch him a cigar, to restore her in his favor.
Immediately she humbles herself to him, by lighting it. Her body language and eagerness to restore the balance of the household, makes her seem like a small child, hankering for approval.
This stereotypical behaviour of the ‘traditional’ family unit connotes that Catherine respects Eddie, and treats him as her male role model. She asks him for permission to take the job, and asks his opinion constantly, even on her clothing, and seemingly behaves, as the ‘baby’ Eddie wants her to be.
Initially, the audience might think that Eddie is in control, as he seems to be over Catherine, but as the play progresses, we see that he is not. This begins to become apparent when the cousins arrive.
At first Eddie tries to behave in a relaxed and controlled manner, but the arrival of the cousins threatens his male role within the household. There is a strong sense of anxiety and panic within the house even before Marco and Rodolpho have arrived.
The separate subtle anxieties of each character, build up the tension within this scene. Firstly, Beatrice is clearly worried, as we see from her anxious behaviour. Her concern about the tablecloth and dirty walls, make the audience begin to anticipate the cousins arrival and consider what they are like.
Secondly, Eddie tries to fill the role of dominant male that he has set himself, by appearing unconcerned about the tablecloth. His true fears are revealed to the audience when he reaches in his pocket for some money to give Catherine to buy a tablecloth. He is worried after all, as his erratic and edgy behaviour seem to suggest.
The arrival of Rodolpho particularly threatens Eddie, because he challenges Eddie’s notion of manliness. This is revealed by Eddie’s own reaction to Rodolpho’s possible effeminacy. When he finds out that Rodolpho sings, cooks and can mend clothing, he feels threatened, and it is at this point that Eddie voices his concern that Rodolpho is a homosexual due to his blond hair and the fact that he can sing. Catherine’s comment (‘He’s a real blond!’) about Rodolpho’s hair leads to friction between Eddie and Rodolpho, and it almost pre-empts how fraught their relationship will be. This creates dramatic tension, making the audience feel uncomfortable.
Eddie’s comment on Rodolpho’s sexuality creates tension in the group, as all eyes are on Eddie. He is almost a human time bomb, which both the audience and the other characters wait to see whether or not, will explode. The audience also picks up on an element of male rivalry between Eddie and Rodolpho, as Eddie does not believe that Rodolpho is ‘a real man’. The audience is very much held in suspense as we wait to see how Eddie will react.
The argument about oranges and lemons is also another way of Eddie making implications about Rodolpho’s sexuality. Eddie says how they paint oranges so they look orange. Rodolpho says about lemons being green at first. Eddie explodes (‘I know lemons are green for Christ’s sake! I said oranges they paint, I didn’t say nothing about lemons!’) humiliating Rodolpho. The audience could interpret the fact that Eddie mentioned the oranges being painted as an indirect implication to Rodolpho covering up his true identity. It could be reinforcing Eddie’s point about Rodolpho’s sexuality e.g. that he makes out that he is someone that he is not. He is ‘painting’ his character.
With all this turmoil between characters, Beatrice is an essential character for the pace and sobriety of the play. It is Beatrice who is quick to 'keep the ball rolling' in a conversation and to help gloss over and neutralise difficulties between Eddie and Rodolpho. Beatrice is very attentive and she begins to develop her 'mediator' role within the play, and is viewed very much as the pacifier by the audience. Beatrice also features heavily when not speaking, it is in the stage directions that we can see how she diverts attention calmly and swiftly away from trouble and diffuses arguments.
This is apparent in the conversation about lemons and oranges. The stage directions say about Beatrice- (sitting, diverting their attention) and this is exactly what she does. She promptly asks Marco about his wife, breaking up what could have become a darker, more sinister argument.
Rodolpho’s singing also creates friction. The song choice of ‘Paper Dolls’ makes it obvious to the audience that there is a problem between Catherine and Eddie. The lyrics are highly relevant and a deliberate choice by Miller. Up until this point, the audience could have happily placed Eddie as an overbearing paternalistic figure, but now the boundaries have been moved and Eddie’s true motives are implied.
Again the lyrical content within the line, ’those flirty, flirty guys, with their flirty, flirty eyes,’ also highlights how Eddie perceives the way other men, and in particular Rodolpho, view Catherine. The singing also unsettles the audience, as it is a change in pace. Dialogue has been swapped for song, causing the audience to sit up and follow with gathering unease.
Rodolpho’s presence aside from the singing, also threatens Eddie, because it is as though Rodolpho is trying to muscle in on ‘Eddie’s’ community. Since Eddie likes to think of himself as the dominant member of the family and assumes head roles when confrontations and difficulties arise, it is natural for him to 'test' and subtly challenge this outside force which is trying to make itself part of the recognised community. In the extract when Rodolpho sings, we see Eddie intentionally create an uncomfortable or 'charged' atmosphere by telling Rodolpho to stop in case they get ‘picked up’, when really it is Eddie himself who is uncomfortable with this person, that he considers to be deviating from his own categorised ideas of how men should behave. Marco on the other hand, seems of little threat to Eddie in Act 1, and treats Eddie with the respect Eddie believes he is owed. When Marco says for example, ‘I want to tell you now Eddie when you say we go, we go,’ we can see the effort Marco is making to maintain trust and respect between the two parties. He is letting Eddie feel in control of the situation, and is attempting to oblige Eddie. This however, is of course, not the case, as we know by the end of the play. Marco also seems older, as we gather from his formal behaviour and stiffness. Eddie feels no threat from Marco and so focuses his attentions on Rodolpho.
Eddie wants to prove to Rodolpho in particular, that he is the man of the house and that the women are beneath him. We get a sense of this when Eddie sits in his rocker while Catherine fetches the coffee. This is an important connotation of the way Eddie views himself in the family unit. He sits like a king on his throne, surveying his territory, and considers his role to above the station of helping with classically stereotyped women’s work. This also shows how Eddie wants to be viewed by visitors to his house. He is showing off, displaying how well ‘his’ women treat him, and trying to make Rodolph and Marco jealous or to show that he is above them in status. This reveals to the audience a little of Eddie’s true persona.
More of Eddie’s true opinions and views are revealed, during his interview with Alfieri, when several differences in their respective viewpoints are explored. The most obvious conflict between their views is their notion of justice. While Eddie believes in physical justice, and the Sicilian way of settling disputes, Alfieri believes in American justice, settled amicably and without violence. He would rather ’settle for half.’
Tension is built up in the subtext of the interview as the audience are held in suspense, waiting to hear what Alfirieri’s thoughts on Eddie’s situation are, but we are kept waiting while he tries to phrase his thoughts more delicately-‘sometimes there is too much love for the daughter or niece’- creating a gradual build up as Eddie won’t listen, and ends in an anti-climax when Alfieri says,’ well she (Catherine) can’t marry you can she?’
The tension reaches its peak here, as Eddie has been ‘unmasked’ and the audience recoil in horror at this exposition of his fatal flaw. Eddie’s motives have been laid naked for all to see, making the audience feel pity for a man who has fallen so low.
There is also physical confrontation between them, shown in the stage directions when both characters stand up. This use of body language reflects their conflict in views, and adds to the dramatic tension felt by the audience.
We pick up on yet more of Eddie’s beliefs when he tells Catherine the story of Vinny Bolzano. To an outsider it would seem that the boy was brutally punished and ashamed, but to Eddie and his community, this was justice. There is an irony to this as later Eddie acts out the same actions of which he has spoken with such horror. Eddie has already warned Catherine that; "you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away". Now he finds this to be true: when he later phones the Immigration Bureau, he discovers it is too late to undo his ‘crime’.
Grammatically the tension builds too. Eddie’s use of long sentences followed by short, shows that he is desperate. His last cry for help as it were, leads to him not finishing his sentences, showing he is desperate to get his feelings out, but has lost control.
At the end of Act 1, the events signify the tragic course of events beginning to unfold. Eddie challenges Rodolpho’s masculinity when he ‘teaches’ him to box. Eddie feels insecure because Catherine chose Rodolpho over Eddie, and tries to restore his dominant role within the group.
Marco’s character changes for the worse, and shocks the audience when he breaks the reserved mould he set before. Having said this we don’t know much about Marco’s character before he arrives in Act 1. But when Marco challenges Eddie using the chair, this subtle challenge and suppressed violence pre-empts the end of Act 2.
On one level Marco just lifts a chair and issues a challenge, but on another level Marco is challenging Eddie’s
masculinity, and also revealing his deeper frustrations with Eddie. On yet another level, the chair could be considered symbolic of the deadly weapon used to kill Eddie and the tragedy to come.
The facial expressions of characters are equally important, especially at the end of act one, as non-verbal communication becomes very important. The ‘glare of warning’ that transforms into a ‘smile of triumph’ unsettles the audience and shifts Marco into a whole new position in both the eyes of the audience, and Eddie. The tension is high and the audience is left poised, and waiting for the next act. The element of impending tragedy has not gone unnoticed by the audience who are left in suspense.
Eddie’s decision to ‘phone the Immigration Bureau reveals a lot about him. The phone booth glowing draws the attention of the audience and plays on the idea of the tragic hero always making the wrong decisions and succumbing to his fatal flaw. It shows that Eddie has become desperate and isolated, and the audience can pick up on his state of mind from the symbolism Miller has incorporated into the play.
This symbolism is brought to our attention chiefly by phone booth at the middle of Act 2, and the booth reveals several messages about Eddie’s inevitable fatal flaw. The blue colour that is said to emanate from the phone booth in the stage- directions could be used to represent Eddie’s state of isolation, sad confusion, and the distance, which Eddie has placed between himself and the community. The lonely stand of the phone booth could also symbolize Eddie’s loneliness.
The story of Vinny Bolzano that Eddie tells at the very beginning emphasizes just how important the Italians feel that justice is. It also shows how far Eddie has fallen in terms of his moral ideas that we learn of in the beginning. When he first tells the story he tells it with disgust. However, he then ends up on the outside of the community like the boy in the story, highlighting how his unnatural acts lead to his own isolation and reveal how far he has dropped since he held his own ‘standards’.
The reference to Vinny Bolzano also creates turmoil in the minds of the audience as it raises several key questions about how the community will react when Eddie’s flaw is revealed to them, and whether or not he will be pushed out of the community and turned on by his family.
Later on, when Alfieri says ‘History repeats itself,’ this is another explicit reference to the story of Vinny Bolzano. There is a profound irony to this as Eddie repeats the same actions he has snubbed to Catherine.
Another key event in the play is the kiss that Eddie gives Catherine and then Rodolpho. This is possibly the most revealing event in terms of Eddie’s persona and motivation. It can be viewed on several levels; firstly that Eddie is so desperate, that he is clutching at anything, which might delay Catherine, and stop her leaving. He is so frightened that his chance with Catherine will vanish forever, that he tries to reveal to her how he feels before it’s too late, but due to his confused and desperate state of mind, this emerges as a totally improper action. He then tries to cover up his mistake through the hazy smoke of his drunken mind, by kissing Rodolpho. We as the audience could presume that Eddie is trying to give the message that he is just friendly, and kisses everyone. Eddie cannot however, quite pull this facade off, as this is not the sort of action in keeping with what we know of him and isn’t really feasible.
Secondly, it could be jealousy that motivates Eddie into doing outrageous and terrible things, perhaps because he was jealous of Rodolfo and Catherine’s developing relationship. This is also hinted at in the interview between Eddie and Alfieri, when Eddie says, ’but he’s (Rodolpho) stealing from me.’ As I mentioned before, Eddie sees Catherine as his possession.
Thirdly, the kiss could be interpreted by the audience, as revealing Eddie’s own homosexual tendencies, and lead us to consider that Eddie only kissed Catherine to cover up his desire for Rodolpho. This however, is doubtful when we look at Eddie’s strong homophobia and fear of anyone defying convention.
Finally, because Eddie thinks that Rodolfo is gay, he might have then kissed Rodolpho as an afterthought, in a half-hearted attempt to make Catherine realise that Rodolpho is gay.
In summary, we can say that the kiss reveals Eddie’s deep jealousy toward Rodolpho, because Eddie knows he cannot have Catherine. The kiss is a last desperate attempt to snatch Catherine from Rodolpho, but this futile attempt does not succeed, it just drives Catherine further away from him.
The ending of the play confirms Eddie’s position as a tragic hero in several ways. Characters like Lipari, his wife, Louis and Mike, are the stage representatives of the wider community, and one by one leave Eddie, symbolizing the tragic hero’s isolation.
In the very end we see that as the traditional tragic hero, Eddie remains or at least seems to remain, oblivious of his harmatia even to his death. His cry of ‘My B!’ could show some acknowledgement of his fault, and realization that he was wrong.
However, his penultimate words of, ‘then why?’ leads the audience to conclude that Eddie must still remain deluded and that he hasn’t realized his flaw at all. If at this point, and after all that has happened, Eddie still has to ask why he is suffering and carry on behaving as if he has been wronged, he is still clearly in denial about his own unnatural desires and bad judgements.
From his final comment the audience have no choice but to conclude that Eddie still refused to acknowledge that he is part of the problem to the very end and maintained that he was the victim.
This again links back to the idea of Eddie’s tunnel vision, as he is so proud that he has an almost disjointed vision of himself, and can’t see his flaw.
Dramatic tension is increased within the scene, when Eddie fights with Marco. This is an especially tense part of the play, because if Eddie doesn’t take on Marco he will lose everything. If he does however fight Marco, he has at least stuck to his ideas and beliefs, and in a perverse way, is behaving in a noble fashion, by honouring his ‘commitment‘ to fight, when he probably knew what the outcome would probably be.
In the final confrontation between Eddie and Marco, tension builds for the audience as the tables are turned, and although Eddie started the fight by producing the knife, he is the one that dies. This also links to Eddie’s self destructive edge, as he has died, to quote the old expression, ‘by his own sword.’
The knife is also symbolic of his fatal flaw, which leads to his eventual downfall. His flaw has drawn him slowly toward his final act of violence, but it is the knife that kills him in the end. Eddie’s ‘murderous eyes’ pre-empt the murder, and give a sense of static electricity, as we feel the tension build.
Act 1 is similar in structural layout to Act 2, as both start to contain violence. In Act 1 when Eddie rubs his fists together, and then in Act 2 when he cracks his knuckles, both these actions are an exaggerated cry of the violence to come. The boxing in particular, the challenge Marco sets with the chair, pre-empt the murder, and violence in the very end scene.
However, Act 2 is different, because in the final confrontation, Marco, not Rodolpho, challenges Eddie, turning the tables as the audience expected Rodolpho to be involved in the penultimate scene.
The pace within the scene also keeps the dramatic tension high. The pace speeds up, event after event, throughout Act 2, as though the play is gathering momentum, moving toward the inevitable conclusion. Eddie’s death creates tension, as it raises several questions within the audience’s minds.
After Eddie’s death, the audience feels shocked and can’t grasp what is happening. We feel pity for Eddie, as his crime is disproportionate to his flaw. Since we have witnessed Eddie drop his own morals during his fall from grace, we empathise with him, as we know that deep down he is not evil.
Alexa Downing 10:9
