This has created a dramatic impact towards the audience as they know Eddie is a jealous person and because he is close to his niece she has all of a sudden drifted away from him towards a man whom ‘doesn’t love her enough’. This has created an impression that revenge may be in order.
In order for Eddie to try and cast revenge he approaches Alfieri in order to aim to find a way to snitch Rodolpho,
Alfieri: Well they entered illegally
Eddie: Oh, Jesus, no, I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that, I mean – (page 32)
Eddie can’t snitch Rodolpho and Marco firstly, because of honour it is considered to be the most important thing in life particularly from Eddie’s point of view, however if Eddie done the dishonourable thing and snitched Marco and Rodolpho then he will lose all his respect within the entire community as a whole and no-one will want to talk to him. As a result of this his anger of not being able to do anything has caused a sense of impetus towards the audience because at this point in dramatic terms the audience will be aware of the fact that Eddie will either snitch Rodolpho and Marco or drive them out of the country so tension has already arisen here now all that is left is what is going to happen later in the play.
Later in the play we report back to the household in which we find out that Eddie has picked up an unusual conversation with Marco about painting oranges on pages 26-27. And when Rodolpho interrupts Eddie gets frustrated and takes it out on Rodolpho because he wants to make Rodolpho look stupid in front of everyone. He has a go at Rodolpho by saying. ‘I said oranges they paint not lemons.’ Eddie is resenting his instruction in the stage direction. In dramatic terms you can tell that this has created a sense of tension in the household as Eddie has said a sharp and short line (short syntax). And has made the people in the house wonder and what is going on since Eddie is picking Rodolpho on every little thing he does.
Eddie then says to Rodolpho to serve as a warning on page 37 and 38. ‘It aint so free here either… I know, but in your town you wouldn’t just drag off with some girl without permission.’ The conversation develops when Rodolpho recognises Eddie’s point is about him and Catherine and Rodolpho develops it by stating that he would do nothing to hurt her. This sets the ball rolling in this key scene as this has just made Eddie even more jealous and he has got Catherine’s reassurance that Rodolpho wouldn’t hurt her. This is exactly what Eddie does not want to hear.
On page 38 Eddie tries to stop Catherine and Rodolpho from going out at night by saying. ‘Well Marco, till he came here she was never out on the street at twelve o’clock at night.’ And now that Rodolpho has arrived she has only started to that now. However, his justification is feeble because he resorts to saying, ‘I mean suppose he gets hit by a car or something. Where’s his papers, who is he?’ But Beatrice fights back by saying that it could happen in the day as well so how is he going to work? Every time Eddie tries to separate Catherine and Rodolpho it backfires. This part of this major scene is partly Eddie’s fault as his jealousy has been expressed in anger towards the audience as well as the characters. However, Catherine has a part in all of this by not compromising with Eddie about coming home late to aim to diffuse the situation.
Eddies response to Rodolpho being able to cook forces him to desperately outline all the feminine things that Rodolpho does as said on page 39. ‘Its wonderful, he sings, he cooks, he could make dresses…’ He is trying hard to ‘subtly’ approach to Beatrice that Rodolpho could really be gay. His infatuation has made him look pathetic and in dramatic terms the audience can feel that his obsession is going to end drastically. Beatrice is at fault here as she has refused to see what Eddie is trying to do and confront his feelings. However, she can’t do this because of the family laws in the Sicilian Code of Conduct because it was much harder for a woman to voice their opinion.
Eddie reaches the end of his tether on page 40. By twisting his newspaper and then shows signs of losing his self control when he tears the paper in two. This shows that metaphorically the twisting of the paper represents his anger towards the audience that observe this play
On page 41 Marco and Rodolpho demonstrate that they know the underlying threat of the ‘boxing match’. Eddie lays a fist at Rodolpho in the stage direction, ‘…It mildly staggers Rodolpho, Marco rises.’ We as a reader and the audience can figure that Marco is Rodolpho’s older brother he naturally wants to protect him and will fight for him no matter what. Marco is determined to warn Eddie from Rodolpho.
Also to warn Eddie away from Rodolpho he conducts a test of strength with a chair to show the level of his strength compared to Eddie. The stage direction highlights this scene clearly. ‘Marco is face to face with Eddie, a strained tension… the chair over his head like a weapon.’ This stage direction clearly shows that Marco and Rodolpho know Eddie is up to something.
On page 41 we see more defiance in Rodolpho. He says to Catherine, ‘Dance Catherine, come.’ to show to Eddie that he has a sensitive side and treats Catherine right and to leave out of the relationship.
Beatrice is constantly persuading Rodolpho to fight Eddie until she realises what Eddie is trying to achieve. This is evident in the stage directions. ‘Sense only in the comradeship in it now.’ When Rodolpho gets hurt she then attempts to stop it.
Catherine’s behaviour towards this scene indicates a sense of tension. Like, when show n in the stage direction ‘rushing to Rodolpho’ and ‘with beginning alarm’ on page 41 this is to show that her loyalties lie with Rodolpho now not with Eddie.
Beatrice is at fault here as she doesn’t tend to confront the situation or Eddie before it too late. Say for instance when Eddie aims to hit Rodolpho the first time Beatrice should have stopped it otherwise Rodolpho may get hurt. Catherine is at fault here as she has literally grown independent overnight and has cast revenge in a way by showing clearly where her faithfulness lie, and that’s with Rodolpho. Marco has shown a possibility of being a threat physically; he has also shown a sign of disrespect to his brother by taking upon the situation himself and not letting Rodolpho fighting his own battles this has caused a lot of tension because this has not only involved Marco into the situation it has set the ball rolling as Eddie will still want to prove that he is better then Marco and Rodolpho.
In dramatic terms this scene happens right before the curtain falls so there is increased tension as towards the audience as the will want to know what happens next. How does Eddie react? How much further will Catherine’s and Rodolpho’s relationship go? Will Beatrice confront Eddie?
We find in Act two on page 46 where Catherine and Rodolpho are talking about marriage so early in their relationship and what Eddie’s possible reaction may be. Only as a result an argument forms between the two of them particularly about Catherine’s suggestion to move to Italy. In the end they both make up and Catherine asserts her independence by sleeping with Rodolpho. In a way its Catherine’s fault as she does this to prove to Eddie that she doesn’t need him all the time and that she has moved on. Also, she may have done this as an act of revenge towards Eddie because Eddie is always having a go at her or controlling her life in one way or another.
Eddie kisses Catherine he then kisses Rodolpho on page 47,’… and as she tries to strive herself he kisses her…’ because he wants to prove to Rodolpho that he still owns Catherine but then he also wants to desperately prove to Catherine that Rodolpho is gay. It emasculates Rodolpho – Eddie is to a great extent trying to show to Catherine that he is trying to get his papers and is gay.
Here it is obvious that Catherine is doing this to get revenge on Eddie as he embarrasses her, and doesn’t want her to have her independence particularly when she gets her job. Therefore, we as an audience know that it is Catherine’s fault as well as her forcing Eddie to go and snitch Rodolpho and Marco to the immigration.
What happened in the last scene leaves Eddie in a desperate situation to come up with another alternative to get rid of Marco and Rodolpho until he then decides to snitch them. Alfieri warned him of the consequences on page 49 ‘…I’m warning you – the law is nature.’ Basically is pointing out to Eddie that the neighbourhood will turn against him and all of his respect that he earned whilst working in the docks will become tarnished and he will lose his respect with the neighbourhood as well as the family.
On page 58 we learn of the immigration arriving to pick up Marco and Rodolpho and the two other men. Marco has spat in Eddies face ‘…and First officer rush in as Marco spits in Eddies face.’ This now means that Eddie has lost all of his respect particularly with Marco and Marco spat in his face as a message from the community as well as everyone hates him for what he has done. This is Eddie’s fault as now Marco’s family in Italy have a very little chance of surviving and he has lost all of his value with everyone around him. In terms of dramatic impact towards the audience it is a reference to fate as they remember what happened to Vinny Bolzano. So we as an audience were prepared for this similar situation to happen in one form or other.
On page 59 Alfieri made Marco promise not to kill Rodolpho as what Eddie done was still right even though he has lost all respect for everyone in the community. ‘You won’t touch him. This is your promise.’ This is to not make things bad for Marco as well as Eddie has with the community.
Later as a result we find that after bringing Catherine up all her life Eddie has even lost all the respect Catherine ever had for him on page 61 and stand up to him when he doesn’t allow Beatrice to attend Catherine’s and Rodolpho’s wedding. ‘How can you listen to him? This rat!’ This has shown how independent she is now and proves how much closer she has gotten to Rodolpho. Eddie has brought upon his downfall himself – he was the one who let his jealousy get out of control. However, Beatrice is also at fault as she was always scared to confront Eddie whenever he committed a wrong doing.
On page 64, we find that Eddie has totally lost his cool and doesn’t think f anything else like his family and just wants his name back honour is so important to him he even lashes out at Marco again, ‘Come on liar, you know what you done!’ As a result Marco then stands on him then on page 65, Eddie brought out a knife however Marco intercepts it and turns it towards Eddie and stabbed him. The consequence being Eddie’s life being taken way from him.
Eddie brought this situation on himself from beginning to end and made matters worse when his jealousy got completely out of control as that was evident when he snitched Rodolpho and Marco to the immigration. His obsession with Catherine was the reason for his jealousy. We know that it is Beatrice’s fault as she knew deep down Eddie’s feelings for Catherine however, she didn’t bring the situation up earlier particularly when she tried to confront Eddie about being his wife again, this could have helped diffuse the situation in a way so then at least everyone’s true feelings would have been out in the open. Marco was at fault for what happened at the end of the play was he provoked the situation at eh end of the play by saying that he wouldn’t give Eddie back his name, and causing a great deal of tension in the household in the boxing scene. Catherine was remotely responsible for Eddie’s death at the end of the play by getting involved with Rodolpho too early and against Eddie’s will and so it lead to Eddie snitching on Rodolpho and Marco.
Rodolpho was responsible as he got involved with Catherine and didn’t ask Eddie for permission in the first place, that is regarded as a sensible thing for a gentleman to do.
Out of both quotations made by Beatrice and Alfieri I think that Beatrice’s quote summed up the truth of the play.