The conversation carries on as Eddie inquires about the voyage to Africa on boat. It is clear he carefully avoids Rodolpho’s comments. For example whenever Rodolpho speaks the next thing Eddie say would have stage direction of ‘to Marco’. This shows us that Eddie purposely ignores Rodolpho, implying his dislike. It is significant the stage direction of either Catherine or Beatrice would be ‘exits into the kitchen’ when they felt uncomfortable or out of conversation. The smooth conversation builds up to a peak of tension when Eddie says, “I heard them paint oranges to make them look orange”. At this point, both Marco and Rodolpho correct him. When Rodolpho says, “lemons are green”, Eddie over reacts and almost shouts at Rodolpho. In the quote “for Christ sake” it shows that he is angry and annoyed about being corrected. At this point Beatrice deliberately changes subject inquiring to Marco about his family and wife.
The change of subject didn’t bring the tension down but instead back to the peak after Eddie’s comments. Marco was talking about his wife and how he misses her and children. Eddie compounds Marco’s misery when he suggests Marco’s wife might be unfaithful. “I betcha there’s plenty surprises sometimes when those guys get back there, heh?” Marco assures Eddie that “woman wait” and Rodopho states it is “stricter” in Italy and not as free as in America. Eddie now turns his attention to him in the stage direction [Eddie looks at him now] and uses this opportunity to turn the conversation to his advantage. We can see he is uneasy and quite angry in the stage direction [rises, paces up and down]. He points out that Rodolpho is wrong, the way he has been taking Catherine out “without permission”. Eddie ensures that Rodolpho shouldn’t dare think that it is less strict in America. This also shows us some historical context in terms of social attitudes in 1940s. “It might be a little more free here but it’s just as strict”. In this situation, Marco agrees with Eddie and advises Rodolpho.
“You come home early now, Rodolpho”, portrays Marco as a responsible character. Eddie also points out Rodopho should be working not having a good time. We can see Eddie’s stage directions show his anger and impatience. [Holding back a voice full of anger], fact that Eddie [goes to his rocker] and [reads the newspaper] are significant show of his Alpha male status. It is clear that stage directions imply a lot of Eddie’s character as it shows his actions in addition to the speech.
To Eddie’s surprise Catherine puts Paper doll record on and asks Rodolpho to dance with her. We can see Eddie is definitely shocked by Catherine’s open behavior in the stage direction [Eddie freezes]. Beatrice encourages them and turns the conversation to fishing boats again. At this point Marco sates “when Rodolpho comes along; everybody gets fat” meaning he is a great cook. Eddie sneers at his ability to cook, sing, dance and make dresses implying that it is not manly. Catherine however, defends him by stating how Rodolpho could earn a good living. Eddie reflects darkly that Rodolpho’s abilities do not qualify him to work on the dockyards and suggests what he would do if he was Rodolpho- find another job. We see that he is grabbing everyone’s attention as both Catherine and Rodolpho stopped dancing. This is another peak of tension as Eddie has [unconsciously twisted the newspaper to a tight roll and torn in to two] implying he, a real man could quite easily break Rodolpho if he so wished. This reaction builds tension within the audience.
Eddie reacts from what he has seen by inviting Rodolpho for a boxing fight. This is another peak of tension in which the audience would anticipate different character’s reactions. Eddie starts it in perspective of “showing” or “teaching” Rodolpho “how to do a couple of passes”. Eddie encouraged him to stab harder and harder each time. He calls Rodolpho “Danish” due to his hair colour, which shows disrespect and insult. As the audience anticipates how far Eddie may take the boxing match, he ends up hurting Rodolpho. “He feints………right. It mildly staggers Rodolpho. Marco rises” This shows Marco’s tolerance has ended. Eddie starts to loose his respect as Rodolpho recovers and dances with Catherine, this time without any hesitation. Eddie sits back in his rocker, shows that he is defeated. Rodolpho and Catherine dancing in front of Eddie is quite significant. Specially, when they know Eddie dislikes their relationship. However, it is quite symbolic- that they are strong and fearless to accept that they like each other.
Marco challenges Eddie inviting him for a chair-lifting contest. Till this moment, we have seen Marco respecting Eddie’s status. When Eddie overreacts in situations, Marco never disrespected him. However, after he insulted his brother Rodolpho , Marco ends up challenging Eddie. The act end with the tension peak still remaining at it’s highest as Marco lifts the chair above Eddie’s head in one hand. The “strained tension gripping” through Marco and his look is a huge warning sign for Eddie. This is a pivotal point for Eddie where he will be loosing his status, respect and power as he “absorbs” Marco’s look.
The audience see this particular scene as a turning point for Eddie’s character. Before scene six he managed to protect his status and power. However, there were some incidents that built up the uneasiness between characters in scene five which summed up to tension in this scene.
Eddie’s obsessive and forcefulness started showing in scene five where he waits for Catherine and Rodolpho to arrive. The audience starts to feel Eddie is a character with few interests. Especially when he refuses to talk about their marriage with Beatrice in scene five. Instead he is obsessed with his relationship with Catherine.
Catherine’s personality change sums up to Eddie’s pivotal point in this scene as he overreacts to gain his power over Catherine. Instead, the audience starts to realise he is loosing his power.