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At the beginning of the extract, Miller shows that Beatrice and Catherine are trying to change the subject to avoid an awkward silence by making them talk about random things. Catherine says: “I know it’s like oranges and lemons on a tree. [To Eddie]I mean you ever think of oranges and lemons on a tree.”

 Before Catherine says this, they are talking about Rodolpho marrying Catherine for an American passport. Catherine knows this will annoy Eddie and changes the subject dramatically. By doing this Miller shows that she only said this for the sake of changing the subject and avoid confrontation. Beatrice also does this when in the stage direction Miller says “sitting; diverting their attention.” This is done to avoid the sensitive topic of Rodolpho marrying Catherine. this is an underlying tension in the room which the characters are trying to ignore if this is not ignored it makes it an awkward situation from everybody in the room.

However, trying to talk about oranges and lemons doesn’t work, as Eddie just wants to have and argument .Miller shows this by making Rodolpho and Edie have a disagreement over oranges and lemons. Eddie still takes offence and says: “I know lemons are green for Christ sake, you see them in the store, and they’re green sometimes I said oranges, they paint. I didn’t say anything about lemons.” The tension rises which causes Rodolpho to stay quiet and again Beatrice tries changing the subject.

Eddie shows his anger towards Rodolpho when Miller says in the stage direction; [rises, paces up and down] people tend to do this when they are angry and by doing this he tries to hint that he is at a higher status. “It aint so free here either Rodolpho like you think.” By saying the name Rodolpho, it shows that Eddie is older and knows more. He has experience living in the country and shows his authority. At the same time Eddie has a characteristic of those who treat others with a lower status and sees himself as having more .

To avoid awkwardness Catherine gets up and begins dancing with Rodolpho, which makes Eddie even more angry and jealous about the fact that Rodolpho is touching Catherine. Instead of avoiding the awkwardness, it creates a harder situation, As Eddie does not want anyone touching his niece Catherine of  which he has inappropriate feelings about her and again Eddie attempts to increases the tension. Eddie wants to make Rodolpho feel out of place and therefore tries to give the impression that Rodolpho’s homosexual, this makes all the characters uncomfortable, Eddie does this by saying: “It’s wonderful, he sings, he cooks he could make dresses.” Eddie sees this as a man who is gay. Miller shows that Eddie is angry and the other characters are uncomfortable by showing in the stage directions that all the characters are doing something, as said in the stage direction, [Catherine and Rodolpho continue dancing] they are not just sitting there, they are sitting uncomfortably finding something to do. Miller shows Eddie is even more furious and tense than the others by saying; [He has been unconsciously twisting the newspaper into a tight roll and he has bent the rolled paper and it suddenly tears in two.] This shows how jealous and tense he really is. This may symbolically mean that what Eddie is doing to the newspaper he would want to do to Rodolpho.

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Later, Eddie challenges Rodolpho in a physical, manly manner. After implying that Rodolpho is homosexual, he tries to prove he really is gay and at the same time showing himself as a proper man. To do this he confronts Rodolpho by asking; “You ever do boxing?” and Rodolpho replies,

“Well I don’t know how to”. This makes Rodolpho feel very small and embarrassed, knowing this, Eddie implies he is more like a proper man. At this point Eddie has more authority as Rodolpho is asking something of him. Eddie demonstrates it to him and trying to seem as if he ...

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