‘…. I heard that they paint the oranges to make them look orange’, and Marco replies with:
‘No, in Italy the oranges are orange’.
Eddie takes the correction form Marco because he respects Marco and sees him as being a proper man (physically strong)unlike Rodolfo and when Rodolfo tells him that:
‘Lemons are green.’ Eddie doesn’t miss his chance to try to humiliate Rodolfo and he replies with:
‘I know lemons are green, for Christ’s sake, you see them in the store they‘re green sometimes. I said oranges they paint, I didn’t say nothin’ about lemons.’
The kind of words Eddie uses for example: ‘Christ’s sake’ tell us that he is starting to become agitated, building the tension and anticipation in the audience.
Soon after Beatrice asks Marco that are his kids O.K. now after they got the money and Marco tells her that:
‘Yes, they are fine now.’
At this point Eddie makes a very rude comment showing his unpredictable behaviour. He asks Marco:
‘I mean, you know – they count the kids and there’s a couple extra than what they left’, then Rodolfo tells Eddie that it is more “strict” in their town and its not so free there as Eddie thinks. Eddie gets really angry with what Rodolfo said, because Rodolfo is telling Eddie something that Rodolfo is not following him self and Eddie also tells Rodolfo clearly that it is not so different here as well. Just because Catherine is an orphan doesn’t mean Rodolfo can take her out when ever he wants to, he should ask for Eddie’s permission first and Marco agrees with what Eddie said. This argument increases the interest and builds the anticipation in the audience.
Shortly after when Eddie tells Rodolfo this, Catherine invites Rodolfo to dance with her:
‘You wanna dance, Rodolfo’, She does this deliberately
because she wants to tell Eddie that she is independent now and she can do what ever she wants, she does not need Eddie’s permission and Eddie can not stop her. Eddie’s anger grows and he becomes very unpredictable because Catherine is now going against Eddie and he finally bursts out off his chair in anger ripping his newspaper, when he hears Marco saying that Rodolfo cooks. Now Eddie becomes certain that Rodolfo is homosexual, because he doses all the things that men don’t do traditionally, for e.g. Rodolfo sings, he cooks, he makes dresses, he is not masculine enough (physically strong) and people also laugh at him wherever he goes. Eddie defines masculinity as being physically strong and he imply that Rodolfo is not a “real” man because he does things like cooking that women tradionally do and he is not even physically strong even though he is young. Eddie changes the subject cleverly by first appreciating the things Rodolfo can do like: cooking, singing, dancing and etc, to Boxing. Eddie tells Marco this:
‘What do you say Marco we go to the bouts next Saturday night. You never seen a fight, did you?’ and Eddie continues in his plans and he persuades Rodolfo into learning boxing form him. While teaching Rodolfo boxing Eddie throws a bunch at Rodolfo’s face, hurting him. Then Marco can not take it any more because Eddie has hurt his brother and Marco knew his intentions and then he takes his anger out by challenging Eddie to lift a chair, however Eddie try’s but he fails and he makes up reasons for his failure.
‘It’s on an angle, that’s why, heh?’
Then Marco turns the chair at the point that Eddie tried to pick it up and he lifts it high over Eddie’s head without saying a single world and just staring at Eddie’s face, building the tension in the audience because they were expecting Marco to hit Eddie in the head with that chair because of what he has done.
This Scene is important in the developing of the plot because the boxing and the chair lifting occur in the scene. As a direct result of the boxing and chair lifting Eddie loses the confidence that he had in Marco and Marco also loses the respect that he had for Eddie. If Catherine had not invited Rodolfo to dance with her then Eddie probably would not have invited Rodolfo to Box and he would not have punched Rodolfo in the face and if he had not done that then Marco would not have raised the chair over Eddie’s head. So this scene revolves around a series of actions and reactions from all the xters involved. After this incident the audience know that something bad will happen soon because Marco has raised a chair over Eddie’s head and being the man that Eddie is he is not going to take this form Marco, building the excitement and anticipation in the audience and the audience become really involved in the play.
After the boxing incident Rodolfo and Catherine are alone in the house and Catherine asks Rodolfo that is he really after his papers or does he really love her. Rodolfo starts to get angry because he is shocked that Catherine asked him that and Catherine makes up with him by saying:
‘Well……. When we get married’, and they both go along sharing their emotions in the bedroom.
Because of the boxing and the chair lifting incident Eddie thinks he is loosing his power of controlling the people in his home, so in depression he starts to drink and when he get home drunk he sees that Catherine and Rodolfo were in the bedroom together. This is when he bursts out completely and looses it and he tells Rodolfo to leave his house now and Catherine interrupts by saying:
‘I think I have to get out of here, Eddie’, Eddie gets hurt emotionally when Catherine said that. To show Catherine how much he loves her, he tries to stop her from leaving him by kissing her on the lips, this is not a normal response from an uncle and Eddie is in denial about his true feelings for Catherine. When Rodolfo try’s to stop him, Eddie also kisses him on the lips, to show Catherine that Rodolfo is not straight, that he is gay. If Eddie was not drunk then he probably would not have done all of this and he was drunk because of the depression and the pressure he was under after the boxing and chair lifting incident. After this event Eddie knows that he can not control Catherine anymore and he can not force her to stay with him, so he goes to Alfieri (a lawyer friend) to find a legitimate way to stop Catherine from marrying Rodolfo and leaving him. When Alfieri tells Eddie:
‘The Law is only a word for what has a right to happen. The law can’t stop a girl marrying an immigrant …. Let her go. And bless her.’
Eddie finds out that he can not stop her legitimately, so he calls the Immigration Bureau and gets Marco and Rodolfo arrested to stop Catherine from marrying Rodolfo. As a result of that Marco gets really angry and believes that Eddie does not have the right to live and while being arrested he spits on Eddie’s face and humiliates him in front of the neighbourhood. As a result of this Eddie knows he will be ostracized, so he pretends that he didn’t call the immigration Bureau but it is so obvious and Beatrice and Catherine know this because of the kind of thing Eddie said before the arrests and his today I anguage he always moved restlessly, as if he was worried about something:
‘Will you stop arguin’ with me and get them out’.
He wants Marco to apologise to him in front of the entire neighbourhood.
Marco and Rodolfo are soon after allowed to get out of jail on bail and Rodolfo try’s to set things straight with Eddie, by trying to make up with him. However Eddie refuses to and tells Rodolfo that he wants his respect back, by Marco apologising to him in front of the neighbourhood. Soon after Marco arrives outside Eddie’s apartment and he calls him out. Being the man Eddie is he goes outside and he fights with Marco and he ends up being stabbed and shortly after he gets stabbed he dies.
This would not have happened if Eddie hadn’t punched Rodolfo in the face while teaching him boxing, then Marco would not have raised the chair over Eddie’s head. Leading Eddie to get drunk and calling the Immigration Bureau. Which lead Rodolfo and Marco to get arrested and in revenge Marco stabbed Eddie, killing him.
Miller has made this scene dramatic by the way he has used stage directions, dramatic irony, mood and the atmosphere and the language used by the characters (verbal and body language). Here is one example: of the use of the stage directions.
[Eddie reads his paper. There is a pause, awkwardness. Now Catherine gets up and puts a record on the phonograph – Paper Doll].
The dramatic effect on the audience is that they know that something bad is going to happen. So they start to anticipate, this is very important because it keeps the audience interested in the play, otherwise the play gets boring and the audience loose interest in the play. The audience get the sense that something bad is going to happen because Catherine is going against Eddie. Eddie had told Catherine that he does not want her to be with Rodolfo. However Catherine is going against Eddie now and being the man Eddie is we know he is not going to take it easily. Miller has also cleverly used “Paper Doll” in the sound collage because it connects Eddie, Catherine and Rodolfo all together. The song tells us about Eddie’s feelings towards Catherine and it also gives a hint about what is going to happen in the future. The actions on the stage were quite dramatic them selves (boxing/chair lifting). The mood and atmosphere of tension had been created by Eddie. The audience was expecting Eddie to loose it any time. The audience expected this because of the verbal and body language Eddie had been using through out the scene, always looking angry, depressed and confused.
The boxing scene itself is incredibly dramatic.
[Rodolfo jabs at him, laughing. The others join in.]
This particular stage direction has a enormous dramatic effect on the audience because the audience already know that Eddie is doing this just to hurt Rodolfo (dramatic irony) and his is using boxing to do this because he can’t just go up to Rodolfo and beat him up, he has to try not to make it look obvious. An other characters don’t know what Eddie is trying to do, except Marco. We get the sense that Marco probably knows what Eddie is trying to do because he is just sitting down in the opposite corner from Eddie looking at what he is doing.
The final scene in Act 1 created a Climax.
[…. Marco takes a chair, places in front of Eddie, and looks down at it. Beatrice and Eddie watch him.]
This stage direction will also have a extremely great dramatic effect on the audience because Marco has done this right after boxing and the lack of great amount of eye contact showing anger and the lack of speaking showing how passionate Marco is while placing and raising the chair over Eddie’s head, proves that there will be trouble very soon, if Eddie try’s to hurt Rodolfo again. Leaving the audience greatly anticipated because things had changed so quickly form dancing to boxing and then to chair lifting in no time and everyone is also so silent at the end of this scene, telling us that nothing can be done to stop future conflicts between Eddie, Rodolfo and Marco.
The ending of the play was inevitable because Eddie was really pessimistic and uncompromising in the play. He had even had a chance to make up for what he had done wrong. However he refused to accept it. This is when Rodolfo says this to Eddie in Act Two:
‘It is my fault, Eddie. Everything. I wish to apologise’.
Rodolfo was apologising even though it was not his fault about what had happened and Eddie instead of apologising he didn’t even except an apologie that was un necessary. However even in the end Eddie refused to compromise and stop this tragic conclusion to the play. If only Eddie had been a bit cooperative then the play would not have ended like this. The ending was indeed as a direct result of the Key Scene because all the characters become aware of what is going on and what Eddie is trying to do. The play wouldn’t have had a tragic end if Eddie hadn’t punched Rodolfo in the face while teaching him boxing, then Marco would not have raised the chair over Eddie’s head. Leading Eddie to get drunk and calling the Immigration Bureau. Which lead Rodolfo and Marco to get arrested and in revenge Marco stabbed Eddie, killing him. I also agree that this is the key scene because all of Eddie’s thoughts and feelings are expressed clearly in this key scene.
BILAL JABBAR
D10F
