STAGE DIRECTIONS: Instruct the actors how
they should act – how they move, talk and
appear to the audience
A tragedy in terms of drama is like a
genre/structure and therefore it follows
certain rules and will share certain
characteristics. The characteristics may
include:
• It is likely the play will have a tragic end –
usually there will be bloodshed
• It is important that the audience feel that
the tragic end is inevitable
• The protagonist will normally be an
ordinary person, who is fairly noble and
virtuous
• The protagonist’s fate will come about
due to a fatal error on the part of the
protagonist
• The error the protagonist makes will
usually be tied to one of his
characteristics – hamartia
CHARACTERISATION IN DRAMA: Body
language, the way they speak, behaviour,
environment – where they are shown,
relationships with characters; how they act
towards them, how others act toward them,
speak about them
Characterisation of Eddie, Catherine, Beatrice
Setting
Important Plot Points
1. What do we learn about the view of the
law back in the old country ‘Sicily’?
2. What can we tell so far about the
relationship between Eddie, Catherine
and Beatrice?
3. Characterise what type of relationship
there exists between Catherine and Eddie
– Use Quotations to support your answer.
The relationship between Eddie and Catherine
is a fatherly one. Eddie is protective over
Catherine. When Catherine has all the boys
“heads turnin’ like windmills” Eddie “[doesn’t]
like the looks they’re giving [her].” This
suggests Eddie is very protective over
Catherine because he hopes to protect her
from the attention of other males.
Early Characterisation of Eddie (1-15)
- Man of the house
- Female characters run around after him
- Catherine “Here! I’ll light it for you” and
“I’ll get you a beer”
- Idolised by Catherine
- Catherine “I just got it. You like it?... You
like it?... You like it, huh?”
- Idolised?Respected by Beatrice
- Beatrice “You see what he is?... You’re
an angel! God’ll bless you.” – example of
dramatic irony
- Very protective of Catherine’s virginity
- Eddie “With your hair that way you look
like a madonna, you know that? You’re
the madonna type?”
- Wants the best for Catherine
- Eddie “No-no, you gotta finish school.”
“You’ll never got nowheres unless you
finish school.” “I want you to be in a nice
office. Maybe a lawyer’s office someplace
in New York in one of them nice buildings.
I mean if you’re gonna get outa here then
get out; don’t go practically in the same
kind of neighbourhood.”
- Treats Catherine like a child
- Calls her “Katie” and “Baby” “I guess I
never figured on one thing… That you
would ever grow up.” Stage Direction
“with a sense of her childhood, her
babyhood, and the years”
- Agrees with brutal consequences of being a
snitch
- Beatrice “Oh it was terrible. He had five
brothers and the old father. And they
grabbed him in the kitchen and pulled him
down the stairs – three flights his head
was bouncin’ like a coconut. And they spit
on him in the street, his own father and
his brothers. The whole neighbourhood
was cryin’.” Eddie “A guy do a thing like
that? How’s he gonna show his face?”
(15-23)
Marco
- Thankful and respectful towards Eddie
- When first arrives Marco “I want to tell
you now Eddie – when you say, we will
go”
- Stage directions “To Eddie, calling off to
bedroom” “Thank You”
- Proud
- Stage directions “Shrugging shyly, even
embarrassed” “Whatever there is,
anything” when talking about what work
they would do back in Italy
- Mason – Manly job, working with hands with
stone
- Virile/Masculine
- Talking about children “I have three
now. Four years, five years, six years.”
- Secure in his marriage
- Rodolpho “He trusts his wife.”
- A provider
- Marco “My wife – I want to send right
away maybe twenty dollars”
- Keeps Rodolpho in check
- Marco talking about Rodolpho’s dream
of being a motorcycle courier “He dreams.
He dreams.”
- Corrects Rodolpho’s exaggeration about
how much money he made singing “Two
months.”
- “He sang too loud.”
- Heeds Eddie’s warning about informants
hearing Rodolpho’s suspicious singing
“Yes, yes. You’ll keep quiet, Rodolpho.”
Rodolpho
- Sure of himself/cocky
- Talking about why he is not married “I
have a nice face”
- Talking about his singing “Three arias I
sang without a mistake.” “Oh sure! I sing
jazz.”
- Ambitious/Dreamer
- Asking how much they could earn “How
much? We hear all kinds of figures. How
much can a man make?”
- Talking about his dreams “Me, I want to
be an American. And then I want to go
back to Italy when I am rich, and I will buy
a motorcycle” “With a motorcycle in Italy
you will never starve any more.” “The rich
people in the hotel always need someone
who will carry a message. But quickly, and
with a great noise.”
Relationship between Eddie/Rodolpho
- A bit frosty initially
- Stage Direction “Eddie – he is coming
more and more to address Marco only”
- Tries to rubbish Rodolpho’s dreams of
owning a motorcycle to deliver messages
“Why can’t you just walk, or take a trolley
or sump’m?”
- Stage Direction “Eddie laughs” at
Rodolpho’s claim that he was regular
singer when Marco points out it was only
for two months.
- Tries to stop Rodolpho’s singing with a
flimsy excuse “Hey, kid – hey, wait a
minute-“ “Look, kid; you don’t want
picked up, do ya?” “Because we never
had no singers here… and all of a sudden
there’s a singer in the house, y’know what
I mean?”
- Stage Direction “he is sizing up
Rodolpho, and there is concealed
suspicion”
Relationship between Catherine/Rodolpho
- Very interested in him
- Catherine “You married too?” “I know, I
just thought maybe he got married
recently”
- Catherine “Did you ever hear of jazz?”
“You could sing jazz?”
- Flirtatious
- Rodolpho “Especially when they are so
beautiful” Catherine “You like sugar?”
Rodolpho “Sugar? Yes! I like sugar very
much”
1. How would you describe Catherine’s
reaction to Rodolpho?
2. Are there clues that Eddie is a bit wary
about Rodolpho and Catherine’s reaction to
him?
3. If Marco is an ‘alpha male’ type how
would you describe Rodolpho?