When the first scene begins, the audience does not know what to expect. It starts with Eddie and Catherine casually discussing Catherine’s new outfit and appearance. Eddies seems to be a loving, laid back parent and the conversation is innocent and low-key. The first signs of tension appear when Eddies notices and comments on how short Catherine’s new skirt is: ‘I think it’s too short, ain’t it?’ The scene is claustrophobic because it is set in a very small apartment and the size is exaggerated when there are more characters present. Also, a majority of the scenes take place in only one room, the living room, which seems inescapable, dull and depressing which mirrors Eddie’s feeling about life in ‘Red Hook’. Eddie feels suffocated and trapped. Criticism and negativity follow praise and compliments from Eddie. Eddie’s short temper and changing opinions also help to build up tension.
By the end of the scene, it is clear that Eddie does not particularly like to criticise Catherine but it is in his nature to be unable to stop himself. The audience sees this because he tells Catherine: ‘I don’t want to be a pest, but I’m tellin’ you, you’re walkin’ wavy.’ Eddie seems very possessive of Catherine: ‘ I don’t like the looks they’re givin’ you’. He feels that it is his duty to look after her: ‘I’m responsible for you’, but he does not realise that he is hindering Catherine and he is patronising as he still treats her like a child. He says: ‘ you’re a baby, you don’t understand these things’ and ‘you’re getting to be a big girl now’, ‘you can’t be so friendly, kid’. There is often a line that hints of Eddie’s hold on Catherine that hints at a build up of tension. At this stage though, the audience still think that Eddie is a caring, harmless man with Catherine’s best interests at heart.
Another factor that adds to the build of tension is Catherine’s constant seeking of approval. She is a very self-conscious girl who wants Eddie to agree with everything she does. She seems childlike and very eager to please in front of him but she seems helpless and heartbroken and ‘almost in tears when he disapproves of her. This is ironic because she wants to be mature and adult in her decisions but still asks and cares what Eddie thinks of them. Her insecurity is very obvious: ‘you like it, huh?’ and she also tries to convince Eddie to her way of thinking: ‘Eddie it’s the style now.’
When Beatrice enters the room the three discuss the arrival of her cousins, Rodolpho and Marco. There is a quite laid back atmosphere and the characters seem happy and relaxed. Beatrice declares Eddie an ‘angel’. Here Eddie seems like a loveable family man and quite generous in the eyes of the audience although they might, however, suspect some problems through the arrival of the cousins given the claustrophobic nature of the apartment and the bubbling tension between Eddie and Catherine. Beatrice’s frantic worrying also adds tension to this part of the scene and the audience find out that the cousins she is expecting are illegal immigrants which could create problems and further anticipation to fuel the tension. The tension is building up.
The characters then go on to talk about Catherine’s job offer which turns Eddie’s pleasant mood sour. The audience can tell that Beatrice and Catherine are apprehensive about telling Eddie which shows that Eddie’s reaction may not be a good one. They try making Eddie as excited as they are but they have already predicted Eddie’s judgement. He is quick to dismiss the idea at the first sound, which infers again, to Eddie’s sudden and spontaneous changes in mood. Another tactic Eddie uses is to try and make Catherine feel guilty for wanting to work and to make her think that he knows best for her:’ I supported you this long, I support you a little more.’ ‘I want you to be with different kind of people […] in a nice office.’ Here, the audience find out that Eddie can also be manipulative. Whilst this situation is finally resolved to Catherine’s satisfaction and Eddies unhappily does give way, the scene gives the audience some indication of how Eddie seems to want to control Catherine’s life and does not want her to grow up. By the end of this scene, the audience start to realise that Eddies is not such an ‘angel’ as they see more of him.
More tension is created as Eddie stresses how important it is to keep Beatrice’s illegal cousins a secret and goes on to tell Catherine about the case of Vinny Bolzano who ‘snitched to the Immigration’ about his hiding uncle. He tells Catherine: ‘you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.’ This is almost like a threat to Catherine and it is as though Eddie does not trust her to keep the cousins a secret. The case of Vinny Bolzano also highlights strong community values on informing on your own family and shows how a family can turn violent on one of its own if that person breaks community value. This possibly leads the audience to wonder about the future relevance of this story, preparing us for the key moment of the play. In this part of the scene there are also a few references to Eddie ‘taking out his watch’. Eddie must be waiting for the cousins to arrive and his anxiety may be reflected in the audiences.
Rodolpho and Marco arrive, just off the boat from Italy. At first the conversation is pleasant and Eddie is welcoming. Marco is the more straight talking of the two brothers but the conversation is manly dominated by Eddie who seems to prefer Marco as he is the more polite, serious and mature brother. Rodolpho gradually is introduced into the conversation and Eddie discovers that he is attractive, talkative and friendly individual and also has a good sense of humour. He can see that Catherine and Rodolpho are showing interest towards each other and again changes his mood. He becomes very defensive. The audience can see that there is a distinct fondness and Catherine is clearly interested in Rodolpho’s status: ‘You married too? No.’ There is also a lot of flirting and Rodolpho calls Catherine ‘beautiful!’ It is clear that Eddie does not agree with Rodolpho because of this and he does not think a lot of him: ‘he is sizing up RODOLPHO, and there is a concealed suspicion’.
He also thinks Rodolpho is quite effeminate because he has blonde hair and likes to sing. In this part of the scene, Eddie humiliates Catherine by making her take her high-heeled shoes off. He teases her by calling her ‘Garbo’ and tries to make Rodolpho think she is immature by dismissing her dream to become an actress. Catherine does as Eddie says and it makes her feel small but Eddie is happy if he can make Rodolpho uninterested and try to end Catherine’s rebellious flirting. This is the point of the play where Catherine and Eddie’s relationship starts to drift apart and it is ironic because although he thinks he is stopping her from straying from him, he is driving her away. Like Catherine’s anger and frustration, the tension is high.
A few weeks have elapsed dramatically but the audience sees how quickly events have moved on. Eddie’s hostility indicated in the previous scene is now open. His language now seems to insinuate that Rodolpho is gay and is embarrassed to know him because the men at the pier are calling him ‘Paper Doll’. He gives Eddie the ‘heeby-jeebies.’ Beatrice is uninterested in this and tries to bring up the subject of the lack of sexual intimacy in their marriage. Beatrice jokes that Eddie is ‘just jealous’ of Rodolpho and Eddie replies: ‘ Of him?’. Eddie feels that he is better than Rodolpho and does not take this as a joke. Eddie’s reaction gives the impression that he is attracted to Catherine and because of his impotence he does not want any man to have Catherine at all. Beatrice feels as though she has been forgotten about as a wife whilst Eddie has been involving himself in Catherine’s love life and she confronts him about it. She thinks ‘everything ain’t great’ with her and she has ‘got other worries’. Eddie tries to shrug the matter off and his only reply to their lack of sexual intimacy is that he ‘don’t feel too good’ and that he ‘got nothin’ to say about it!’ His language is very negative and the argument quickly turns to Catherine and Rodolpho again. The audience are now beginning to realise that Eddie is pushing away all of the people who are closest to him and the tension is ever increasing.
In the next part of the scene, Eddie tries to show Catherine how Rodolpho is not a good choice for a future husband. Arthur Miller has slowly built up the tension up to this point. Eddie tells Catherine that Rodolpho ‘don’t respect’ her and tells her that he only wants to be with her so they can marry and he can be an American citizen. Catherine is ‘pained’ as he goes on to say that Rodolpho is a ‘hit-and-run guy’ and that ‘them guys don’t think of nobody but theirself!’ Catherine pleads with Eddie to stop and she does not understand why he is not happy for her, neither does Beatrice. Eddie does not show remorse. At the beginning he was trying to control Catherine’s appearance and now he’s trying to control who she marries. The difference now is that Catherine is growing increasingly defiant of him and with the encouragement of Beatrice, is more and more tempted to make a bid for freedom. After this extremely tense scene, Arthur Miller follows with a change in pace before the climax – a calmer scene between Beatrice and Catherine. In this scene, Beatrice broaches the subject of Eddie’s jealousy concerning Catherine and other men. Catherine, for the first time may have some understanding of how Eddie truly feels for her. Beatrice helps her realise that she is responsible for how Eddie treats her and she has a change of attitude: ‘ I know honey. But if you act like a baby and he be treatin’ you like a baby. Like when he comes home sometimes you throw youself at him’ It is as though Catherine has gained confidence and the audience no longer sees her as the immature, fragile girl that she was at the beginning of the play. Beatrice also shows a hint of jealousy towards Catherine because she may feel that she is the reason why her relationship with Eddie is slowly disappearing. By the end of this scene, Catherine is very confused. Eddie wants her to do one thing and Beatrice wants her to do the other. She does not want to upset either one of them but does not know what to do next. She did not know she was causing stress between Beatrice and Eddie.
The next two scenes before the end of the act each convey escalating tension, emotion and potential violence. The first scene is in Alfieri’s office. Eddie appears and is physically changed: ‘His eyes were like tunnels’, Alfieri’s first thoughts were ‘that he had committed a crime.’ Eddie is clearly distressed – he was ‘like a stranger’. Eddie desperately does everything he can to try to convince Alfieri to lawfully get rid of Rodolpho. Eddies use of language has also become stronger. He swears and uses derogatory language about Rodolpho, a ‘son-of-a-bitch punk’ and a ‘goddam thief!’ Eddie also constantly interrupts Alfieri from speaking and becomes increasingly emotional which the audiences have not previously seen before from Eddie: ‘he feels the threat of sobs’. Alfieri goes on to prepare the audience for some traumatic events, as the only advice anyone can give him about this issue is to ‘pray for him’. This implies that only God can help him and that there is nothing more that Alfieri can do. Eddie is on the road to ‘ruins’ and ‘disaster’. The tension is almost at its highest as Eddie is close to breaking point.
In the final scene, the tension between Eddie and Rodolpho becomes open and physical as Eddie challenges Rodolpho to a boxing match. Eddie is slightly threatening as he has boxed before and Rodolpho has not. He teaches Rodolpho the basic moves but takes advantage and tries to scare Rodolpho: ‘he gently moves his left into RODOLPHO’S face’. As the boxing lesson gets more intense, Rodolpho is mildly staggered when hit by Eddie. Marco rises in Rodolpho’s defence as he feels that Eddie taking advantage of his lack of skills. Catherine is shocked and openly revolts against Eddie by dancing with Rodolpho. Marco who is aware of Eddie’s dislike for his brother and objecting to the humiliation he just caused him, shows a different side by implicitly threatening Eddie with his show of strength, to lift a chair with one hand only. He feels that Eddie has been too confident in himself and that he is influencing Rodolpho to do something out of character. Just like the incident where he made Catherine take off her shoes, he is trying to embarrass and scare Rodolpho because everything else that he had tried had failed. There has been no tension linked with Marco up until this point. Eddie is shocked when he cannot lift the chair but Marco wants Eddie to realise that he will fight for Rodolpho and that Eddie is not as clever or strong as he thinks. In any other circumstance, Eddie and Marco could have been good friends because they are both very similar; they both have a strong value for family; not much to say; respectful and strong. At this point, the tension is extremely high, even Rodolpho and Catherine stopped dancing. ‘MARCO is face to face with EDDIE, a strained tension gripping his eyes and jaw, his neck stiff, the chair raised like a weapon over EDDIE’S head – and he transforms what might appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph, and EDDIE’S grin vanishes as he absorbs his look.’ Finally, Eddie is left utterly humiliated and he knows that he cannot do anything to stop Catherine and Rodolpho marrying. He gives up.
To conclude, Arthur Miller has built up tension by hinting at various issues and then slowly developing them, scene by scene, juxtaposing scenes that are distant in time for dramatic purposes. The tension in the scenes is gradually built up until the climax, the moment where Marco picks up the chair and Eddie is left stunned. Miller uses Alfieri to direct the audience towards anticipating some violent end to this play. He also uses Eddie’s continual spontaneous changes in mood to make the build up of tension more intense.
