Catherines developing relationship Essay Example for Free

Catherines developing relationship Essay On one level Marco just lifts a chair and issues a challenge, but on another level Marco is challenging Eddies  masculinity, and also revealing his deeper frustrations with Eddie. On yet another level, the chair could be considered symbolic of the deadly weapon used to kill Eddie and the tragedy to come.  The facial expressions of characters are equally important, especially at the end of act one, as non-verbal communication becomes very important. The glare of warning that transforms into a smile of triumph unsettles the audience and shifts Marco into a whole new position in both the eyes of the audience, and Eddie. The tension is high and the audience is left poised, and waiting for the next act. The element of impending tragedy has not gone unnoticed by the audience who are left in suspense. Eddies decision to phone the Immigration Bureau reveals a lot about him. The phone booth glowing draws the attention of the audience and plays on the idea of the tragic hero always making the wrong decisions and succumbing to his fatal flaw. It shows that Eddie has become desperate and isolated, and the audience can pick up on his state of mind from the symbolism Miller has incorporated into the play. This symbolism is brought to our attention chiefly by phone booth at the middle of Act 2, and the booth reveals several messages about Eddies inevitable fatal flaw. The blue colour that is said to emanate from the phone booth in the stage- directions could be used to represent Eddies state of isolation, sad confusion, and the distance, which Eddie has placed between himself and the community. The lonely stand of the phone booth could also symbolize Eddies loneliness. The story of Vinny Bolzano that Eddie tells at the very beginning emphasizes just how important the Italians feel that justice is. It also shows how far Eddie has fallen in terms of his moral ideas that we learn of in the beginning. When he first tells the story he tells it with disgust. However, he then ends up on the outside of the community like the boy in the story, highlighting how his unnatural acts lead to his own isolation and reveal how far he has dropped since he held his own standards.  The reference to Vinny Bolzano also creates turmoil in the minds of the audience as it raises several key questions about how the community will react when Eddies flaw is revealed to them, and whether or not he will be pushed out of the community and turned on by his family. Later on, when Alfieri says History repeats itself, this is another explicit reference to the story of Vinny Bolzano. There is a profound irony to this as Eddie repeats the same actions he has snubbed to Catherine.  Another key event in the play is the kiss that Eddie gives Catherine and then Rodolpho. This is possibly the most revealing event in terms of Eddies persona and motivation. It can be viewed on several levels; firstly that Eddie is so desperate, that he is clutching at anything, which might delay Catherine, and stop her leaving. He is so frightened that his chance with Catherine will vanish forever, that he tries to reveal to her how he feels before its too late, but due to his confused and desperate state of mind, this emerges as a totally improper action. He then tries to cover up his mistake through the hazy smoke of his drunken mind, by kissing Rodolpho. We as the audience could presume that Eddie is trying to give the message that he is just friendly, and kisses everyone. Eddie cannot however, quite pull this facade off, as this is not the sort of action in keeping with what we know of him and isnt really feasible. Secondly, it could be jealousy that motivates Eddie into doing outrageous and terrible things, perhaps because he was jealous of Rodolfo and Catherines developing relationship. This is also hinted at in the interview between Eddie and Alfieri, when Eddie says, but hes (Rodolpho) stealing from me. As I mentioned before, Eddie sees Catherine as his possession.  Thirdly, the kiss could be interpreted by the audience, as revealing Eddies own homosexual tendencies, and lead us to consider that Eddie only kissed Catherine to cover up his desire for Rodolpho. This however, is doubtful when we look at Eddies strong homophobia and fear of anyone defying convention. Finally, because Eddie thinks that Rodolfo is gay, he might have then kissed Rodolpho as an afterthought, in a half-hearted attempt to make Catherine realise that Rodolpho is gay.  In summary, we can say that the kiss reveals Eddies deep jealousy toward Rodolpho, because Eddie knows he cannot have Catherine. The kiss is a last desperate attempt to snatch Catherine from Rodolpho, but this futile attempt does not succeed, it just drives Catherine further away from him.  The ending of the play confirms Eddies position as a tragic hero in several ways. Characters like Lipari, his wife, Louis and Mike, are the stage representatives of the wider community, and one by one leave Eddie, symbolizing the tragic heros isolation. In the very end we see that as the traditional tragic hero, Eddie remains or at least seems to remain, oblivious of his harmatia even to his death. His cry of My B! could show some acknowledgement of his fault, and realization that he was wrong.  However, his penultimate words of, then why? leads the audience to conclude that Eddie must still remain deluded and that he hasnt realized his flaw at all. If at this point, and after all that has happened, Eddie still has to ask why he is suffering and carry on behaving as if he has been wronged, he is still clearly in denial about his own unnatural desires and bad judgements.  From his final comment the audience have no choice but to conclude that Eddie still refused to acknowledge that he is part of the problem to the very end and maintained that he was the victim.