Act 1 Flashcards
talks about how justice is sometimes dealt with outside the law
“Justice is very important here.”
He has a timeless story to tell, one that ran …. which he was powerless to prevent. He introduces the hero, Eddie Carbone.
“a bloody course”
What does alfieris limes at the start tell us
He sets us up to expect a tale which can only end badly.
quotes from alfieri at the very start
“Justice is very important here.”
“A bloody course “
“I am a lawyer “
Eddies comment about the way Catherine was walking
“I’m tellin’ you, you’re walking’ wavy.”
Eddies comment about Catherine’s late mother
“I promised your mother on her deathbed”
Eddie feels his responsibility keenly and wants to be seen as a good father. He calls her a “baby” and is emotionally controlling.
“You’re a baby, you don’t understand these things.”
Eddies disapproval for Catherine wanting a job
“You can’t take no job.”
Eddies realisation Catherine is growing up
“I just never figured one thing. That you would ever grow up.”
Type of girl Eddie describes Catherine as
“the Madonna type”
Beatrice talking to Eddie bout Catherine working
“She’s gotta work sometime.”
Beatrice trying to explain to Eddie Catherine is grown up now
“She’s no baby any more.”
Rhetorical question asked by Beatrice to Eddie to make him realise he is being too strict
“You gonna keep her in the house all your life?”
Beatrice telling Katie she shouldn’t care about eddies opinion
“Be the way you are Katie. Don’t listen to him.”
Quotes that suggest loyalty to the community
“It never comes out of your mouth….”
“Just remember kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word you gave away.”
Eddie seems generous as he invites the brothers to stay longer.
“It’s no skin off me”
Catherine wondrously asking about the cousins skin colour
“How come he’s so dark and you’re so light, Rodolfo?”
Eddie humiliates Catherine in front of Rodolfo by making her change her shoes
He mockingly calls her Garbo, after the film star. He controls how she dresses – like a conservative father and jealous admirer.
“What’s the high heels for, Garbo?”
Beatrice is unhappy that Eddie has neglected her sexually. He claims he isn’t feeling well but later on we realise that Beatrice suspects the real reason is his attraction to Catherine
“everything ain’t great with me”
“When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?”
“It’s almost three months”
“You gonna stand over her till she’s 40?”
Eddie Sounds more like a jealous boyfriend
I don’t see you no more.
finding fault with Rodolfo.
“He don’t respect you”
He is prepared to hurt Catherine’s feelings in his attempts to get rid of Rodolfo.
“Katie, he’s only bowin’ to his passport.”
Eddie playing victim and making it about himself
“Don’t break my heart”
Beatrice is telling her to start acting like a grown up. Beatrice encourages her to marry Rodolfo and defy Eddie. Beatrice hints at Eddie’s sexual feelings
“You’re not a baby any more”
“He’s not your father”
“You can’t act the way you act”
“Now the time come when you said good-bye”
This hints at the anger and passion in Eddie’s eyes.
When speaking to alfieri
“ his eyes were like tunnels”
Eddie is implying that Rodolfo is homosexual as he doesn’t conform to Eddie’s ideas of “masculinity”.
“The guy ain’t right, Mr Alfieri”
when Alfieri refers to the illegal way the cousins enter the country, Eddie is shocked at the suggestion he would inform on them. It would be dishonourable.
“Oh, Jesus, no, I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that”.
Emotive language revealing the strength of his feelings. Why thief? Does he see Catherine as an object which belongs to him and only him?
“he takes and puts his filthy hands on her like a goddam thief!”
Eddie angrily rejects Alfieri’s implied suggestion that his concern for Catherine has gone beyond parental and is now sexual.
“What’re you talking about, marry me! I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about!”
Eddie is casting doubt on Rodolfo’s sexuality. By listing things he does
He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses …..
Marco is warning Eddie to stop bullying Rodolfo. He is stronger than Eddie and at this point, Eddie starts to lose some of his power. This also foreshadows the confrontation at the end of the play.
“..the chair raised like a weapon over Eddie’s head ….”
Catherine is desperate to be with Rodolfo and away from Eddie.
“I’m afraid of Eddie here”
Catherine also points out that Beatrice is at fault too as she goes on at Eddie.
“Then why don’t she be a woman?”
Eddie is shocked that Catherine and Rodolfo have slept together. Twice he tells Rodolfo to leave, and Catherine then decides that she is leaving too. She is making a stand.
“I just can’t stay here no more.”
Alfieri warns Eddie to let Catherine go, that he can’t stop the wedding.
“The law is only a word for what has a right to happen”
Eddie does the unthinkable, and phones the Immigration Bureau. He has broken his own code.
Stage Directions attract our attention to the phone and Eddie’s attention too
“The phone is glowing in light now”
“With greater difficulty”
“Slowly hangs up”
Eddie does the unthinkable, and phones the Immigration Bureau. He has broken his own code.
Stage Directions attract our attention to the phone and Eddie’s attention too
“The phone is glowing in light now”
“With greater difficulty”
“Slowly hangs up”
When he goes home, he blames Beatrice for everything.
He feels he has been let down by everybody.
“I want my respect”
Marco denounces Eddie in front of the whole neighbourhood.
“That one! I accuse that one!”
. Marco wants revenge, something very important to Sicilians.
“In my country he would be dead now”
Eddie needs to get back his reputation
He bans Beatrice from attending the wedding.
“I want my respect”
“I want my name”
[shocked, horrified, his fists clenching]
He still doesn’t understand his own feelings for Catherine when Beatrice finally confronts him with the truth.
“You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!”
Again, Eddie cannot believe what Beatrice thinks of him.
He wants his reputation back, and wants Marco to apologise.
They fight, Eddie pulls out a knife – hardly sporting of him – but it is used against him and he dies.
Marco has not kept his word to Alfieri, but he has kept to his own code of honour.
(crying out in agony) “That’s what you think of me, that I would have such a thoughts?”
His final words show how he realises that he has neglected his wife for something he could never have and was wrong to want. This is how a “tragedy” ends, the central character must learn his fault before his inevitable death.
“My B”
