tally's blood - family love/relationships

“Rosinella and Massimo up to her, fussing over her with delight: she loves it.”

In the second scene of the first act, we see Rosinella and Massimo showing their affection and love towards Lucia. It is established very early on in the play that Rosinella and Massimo love Lucia like a daughter and that family plays an important role

“Who does your Auntie Rosinella love best in the whole wide world?” / “Rosinella looks at her adoringly and hugs her.”

Rosinella is a doting and loving maternal figure towards Lucia. She fills the gap that was created in Lucia’s life when her mother died and shows her love and affection in many ways

“You love her that much you don’t want her to love anyone else. You love her that much, nobody else has to get loving her.”

Rosinella loves Lucia so strongly that she becomes possessive over her. Her affection reaches a point so extreme that it becomes harmful - she holds Lucia back from Hughie, who she loves, not only because of her prejudice but also because of her possessiveness

“Let them take what they like, waste what they like. So long as they leave you two alone.”

Massimo puts Rosinella and Lucia before his shop and work when these things are very important to him. This shows how much he cares about his family and how important they are to him

“Nobody loves their families like the Italians.” / “No thanks, Mrs Pedreschi. I better get up the road. Bridget’s going out and I don’t like my mammy left on her own.”

Hughie contradicts Rosinella’s generalising and nationalistic comments about Italians valuing family more than anyone else. He displays commitment to and love for his mother by being there for her whilst she’s grieving heavily

“And I kept looking for my faither, asking everybody if they’d any word about my faither.”

Even in a stressful situation, the first thing on Massimo’s mind is his father, where he is and how he’s doing. Family are of great priority to him

“Listen, Rosie, I thought you went to Glasgow to buy yourself a new coat.” / “Last year when I gave you money for a coat you bought jumpers to send to Italy.”

Rosinella is extremely selfless when it comes to family, spending little money on herself in order to buy things for the people close to her and her relatives living further away