In the scene after the monologue when the “family” are talking about oranges and lemons Rodolfo corrects Eddie and the stage directions say that Eddie “resents his instruction” and Eddie comes out with an outburst of “I know lemons are green, for Christ’s sake!” This tension is a surprise, designed by Miller to shock you. Beatrice has to “divert” their attention by talking to Marco about his wife. Later Rodolfo says that it is stricter in his town and yet again Eddie doesn’t like being corrected by Rodolfo and has to get up and pace to calm himself down. This makes the audience tense because by making himself taller than Rodolfo, he is therefore more masculine and is stronger so he could get violent while he is stood up.
This last point links to characterisation through actions because, by standing up and making himself dominant over Rodolfo, he is showing that he is stronger through an action. Later on in the play when Marco says that Rodolfo can cook, Eddie has a dig at Rodolfo, even though Rodolfo doesn’t realise this. Eddie says “he sings, he cooks…” and Rodolfo smiles. This is where Eddie is saying something and Rodolfo takes it as a compliment. This point is again proving Eddie’s theory to Rodolfo being gay, which is why Eddie picks on him because Rodolfo is of inferior masculinity to Eddie. He is an easy target. By picking on Rodolfo, Eddie is creating tension within the characters, and by doing this; it is creating tension within the audience. When this play was set, being gay was seen as a weakness and you were seen as being abnormal, or in Eddie’s point of view, Rodolfo “aint right”.
When Rodolfo and Catherine were dancing, Eddie and Marco were talking about ships and how Rodolfo cooks. Whilst they were talking Eddie is screwing up a newspaper unconsciously and making comments about Rodolfo, implying once again that Rodolfo is gay. Eddie calls Rodolfo “Danish”. This is possibly making fun of Rodolfo’s blonde hair. Eddie thinks he can make fun of Rodolfo because he appears to be less masculine than Eddie or Marco. Rodolfo proves that he is not much less stronger than Eddie because when Eddie is “teaching” him how to fight, Rodolfo “grazes” Eddie’s jaw. By hurting Eddie, even though Eddie doesn’t admit that it hurt, he has angered Eddie more, because it shows that Rodolfo isn’t so weak. This creates further tension, as Eddie may want to get Rodolfo back at some point. Eddie chooses Boxing as it is considered to be very manly and shows strength. Rodolfo and Marco don’t really want to stand up to Eddie, as he is housing them and hiding them from immigration. Eddie keeps threatening Rodolfo by saying, “you don’t wanna get picked do ya kid?” Or “if he gets knocked over, where’s his papers? Who is he?” threats like these will keep Rodolfo under Eddie’s control because the moods that Eddie throws hold the audience in suspense, as we don’t know what Eddie is going to do next. This fear of the unknown keeps us tense throughout the play. Also the irregularity of the scene structure contributes to the tension because the tension subsides, builds, subsides, builds and then reaches its climax. Just when we think we know what’s going to happen, Miller puts a twist in; he adds one at the end of act 1. Eddie thinks he’s regained his top position, then Marco squashes that with a simple command – “can you lift this?” meaning lift the chair from it’s leg. When Eddie discovers he can’t do this and sees Marco’s look of warning then triumph, he gets worried. This yet again causes tension because it looks like Eddie will do anything to gain his respected position back. Miller creates further tension throughout the audience with this narration because we don’t know what Eddie will do in the next act to regain his position. As we know, Eddie’s family lived in the “rough” parts of America, so the manly kind of sport was boxing. This creates tension, as the audience knows that Eddie is a violent man, we see this because he goes to the “bouts” on a Saturday night.
Finally there is tension throughout the entire play because Marco and Rodolfo shouldn’t even be in America, and as such they are illegal immigrants. The tension is there all the time because you don’t know if the immigration police are going to come and find them at any point during the play, especially when Eddie is at his rowdiest.
I think Miller creates tension throughout this play, but in different amounts, and in different places, just to keep us guessing. The main way he has created tension is through suspense; this is very effective in a play as it is felt all through the audience.
By Kathryn Langham 10.1
