After Eddie, Alfieri's Is Probably the Most Important Rôle in the Play

Alfieri

After Eddie, Alfieri's is probably the most important role in the play. He is, of course, in some (not much) of the action, as Eddie consults him. This is essential, as it explains how he has come to know the story. Miller has said that he wanted to make this play a modern equivalent of classical Greek tragedy. In the ancient plays, an essential part was that of the chorus: a group of figures who would watch the action, comment on it, and address the audience directly.

In A View from the Bridge, Alfieri is the equivalent of the chorus. He introduces the action as a retelling of events already in the (recent) past. By giving details of place, date or time, he enables the action to move swiftly from one episode to another, without the characters having to give this information. This is often skilfully mixed with brief comment: "He was as good a man as he had to be...he brought home his pay, and he lived. And toward ten o'clock of that night, after they had eaten, the cousins came". Because much of this is fact, we believe the part which is opinion.

We also trust a lawyer to be a good judge of character and rational, because he is professionally detached. Alfieri is not quite detached, however. His connection with Eddie is slight: "I had represented his father in an accident case some years before, and I was acquainted with the family in a casual way". But in the next interlude, Alfieri tells us how he is so disturbed, that he consults a wise old woman, who tells him to pray for Eddie. You should consider what Alfieri says in each of the interludes, and you must be able to find them quickly.

In the brief scenes in which Alfieri speaks to Eddie, we gain an insight into his idea of settling for half. He repeatedly tells Eddie that he should not interfere, but let Catherine go, "and bless her", that the only legal question is how the brothers entered the country "But I don't think you want to do anything about that".

As Eddie contemplates the betrayal, Alfieri reads his mind and repeatedly warns him: "You won't have a friend in the world...Put it out of your mind".

Alfieri as the chorus/narrator need never leave the stage. Stage directions refer not to exits and entrances but to the light going down or coming up on Alfieri at his desk, as we switch from the extended bouts of action (flashbacks to Alfieri) to the interludes which allow him to comment, to move forward in time, and give brief indications of circumstantial detail, such as the source of the whisky Eddie brings home at the start of Act Two. Alfieri's view is also the "view from the bridge" of the title. To those around Eddie, those "on the water front", the events depicted are immediate, passionate and confused. But the audience has an ambiguous view. In the extended episodes of action we may forget, as Marco lifts the chair, or as Eddie kisses Rodolpho, that Alfieri is narrating. What we see is theatrical and exciting; we are involved as spectators. But at the end of the episode, as the light goes up on Alfieri, we are challenged to make a judgement. If Eddie, as we see him, appeals to our hearts, Alfieri makes sure we also judge with our heads.

Only Alfieri is a properly articulate, educated speaker of American English: for this reason he can explain Eddie's actions to us, but not to Eddie, who does not really speak his language.

He is a lawyer, born in Italy, who has been working in Brooklyn for 25 years. He is part of the same immigrant Italian community as Eddie.
He acts as a commentator on the action: he sets the scene and introduces the characters. He is telling us the story of the play in flashback: right from the start we know that it is going to run a bloody course. Do you feel that he needs to tell us about what he has seen?
He is compassionate. He tries to save Eddie and, later, Marco, from the fatal course that they have set out on.
When Eddie first goes to see him, Alfieri warns, there is too much love for the daughter, there is too much love for the niece. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
When Eddie visits him the second time to try to prevent Catherine and Rodolpho's wedding, Alfieri's warning is more explicit: You won't have a friend in the world, Eddie!
He tells Marco, Only God makes justice, trying to prevent Marco from taking the law into his own hands.
However, really he is powerless to change what he knows is inevitable. Even though he can explain the law to Eddie and Marco, he knows deep down that they will do what their code of honour requires. He is like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, commenting on the action and explaining it to the audience, but unable to alter it.

Alfieri is established immediately as the commentator. He introduces the play, narrates the story in flashback, focussing on key scenes, then closes the play. He is in control and we trust him.

He is like the Chorus in a Greek tragedy, explaining the events on stage to the audience without actually participating in them.
Although he does play some part in the action, it is clear that he was powerless and that nothing he could have done would have altered the bloody course. He tells us right from the start what is going to happen: dramatic interest is maintained because we want to find out how.
He reminds us at various intervals during the play that the ending is inevitable, such as near the end of Act 1: "I could see every step coming, step after step, like a dark figure walking down a hall towards a certain door."

The ending is poignant. A private tragedy ends up being acted out in public. All the main characters and other people are on the street outside the apartment to see Eddie killed by Marco. Alfieri rounds off the drama by reminding us that Eddie's death was useless and that he loved him, but that he mourns him with "a certain... alarm." What does Alfieri mean by this?

He is thinking that even though he could predict what was going to happen, even he - a lawyer - could do nothing to prevent it.
Probably he is thinking that Eddie's faults are common ones, and that his story should be a warning to us all to be more self-aware.
Perhaps another, equally disturbing thought has occurred to him: that when it finally comes, Eddie's destruction feels not only tragic, but in some way right and appropriate: like the old generation making way for the new.

Alfieri, the lawyer, establishes that justice and the law are going to be important in the play in his opening speech. He sets the story that he is going to tell us in the context of history, both ancient and modern.

"In Sicily, from where their fathers came, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten.."

"I only came here when I was twenty-five. In those days, Al Capone, the greatest Carthaginian of all, was learning his trade on these pavements, and Frankie Yale himself was cut precisely in half by a machine-gun on the corner of Union Street, two blocks away."

The fact that Alfieri goes on to state that lawyers in ancient times, as well as he in modern times, were unable to prevent a "complaint" running a "bloody course" causes us to question the power and influence of the law. In other words, although justice is very important, often the law as it stands is incapable of delivering justice.

Alfieri believes that it is best to "settle for half": it is better to rely on written law as far as possible and accept it even when you are only 'half' satisfied. The written law may not always act in favour of justice yet it is better to follow the law than to take it into your own hands. In the play we see that Eddie betrays Marco and Rodolpho, there is no law to punish Eddie so Marco takes the law into his own hands, the play ends with a fight to the death. Alfieri reiterates his beliefs at the end of the play: "Most of the time now we settle for half and I like it better." Alfieri values the law more than justice, he sees that when people go against the law to assert justice it can lead to conflict and death.

The play encourages us to ask what is justice? What makes justice? Both Eddie and Marco have strong ideas of what is 'just' and are prepared to go to great lengths to achieve it. The characters often mistake their own desires for justice, they fail to look for a higher principle of justice seperate from their own feelings, this is what leads to conflict.

Here are some more instances in the play when justice and the law feature:

The story of Vinny Bolzano is an example of how someone obeying the law (as Vinny technically was when he informed on his uncle) is actually doing something unjust. Do you think the treatment of Vinny by his relations was just?
Alfieri tries to warn Eddie about his relationship with Catherine and argues with him to allow her to marry Rodolpho. When the law is wrong it's because it's unnatural, but in this case it is natural and a river will drown you if you buck it now. He is suggesting that it is Eddie's feelings for Catherine that are 'unnatural'.
Eddie makes recourse to the law that he spurned when he telephones the Immigration Bureau. Eddie has no fixed principle of justice, his feelings dictate what he believes to be 'just'.
Alfieri tries to make Marco realise who is the real 'judge' of events - God. "You hear? Only God makes justice.".
Alfieri warns Eddie that he will lose the respect of the neighbourhood if he betrays the brothers. "You won't have a friend in the world, Eddie!" It is significant that a lawyer (whom we would expect to uphold the law) is encouraging Eddie to do something illegal by continuing to keep the brothers hidden.

Alfieri is the symbolic bridge between American law and tribal laws. Alfieri, an Italian-American, is true to his ethnic identity. He is a well-educated man who studies and respects American law, but is still loyal to Italian customs. The play told from the viewpoint of Alfieri, the view from the bridge between American and Italian cultures who attempts to objectively give a picture of Eddie Carbone and the 1950s Red Hook, Brooklyn community. Alfieri represents the difficult stretch, embodied in the BrooklynBridge, from small ethnic communities filled with dock laborers to the disparate cosmopolitan wealth and intellectualism of Manhattan. The old and new worlds are codified in the immigrant-son Alfieri. From his vantage point, Alfieri attempts to present an un-biased and reasonable view of the events of the play and make clear the greater social and moral implications in the work.

From his narration, it seems that Alfieri has decided to tell the story for his own reasons as much as anyone else's. He does not find a conclusion after telling the Carbone story, but tells it nonetheless and he speaks and reveals his honest view of the facts. He is cast as the chorus part in Eddie's tragedy. Alfieri informs the audience and provides commentary on what is happening in the story. The description of the people within the play and narration at the beginning of every scene change helps to distinguish the short chapters of the tale. Alfieri is fairly inconsequential in the action of the play in general, but more importantly frames the play as a form of a modern fairy tale. Alfieri admittedly cannot help Eddie Carbone, but must powerlessly watch the tragic events unfold before him. There is no illusion of reality, Alfieri purposely breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience during the reenactment of the story. Alfieri is in many ways like Arthur Miller, when he first heard the tale of the Longshoreman. He is the teller of and incredible story that he cannot change.

Allegiance to community law

There is great conflict between community and American law in the play. The community abides by Sicilian-American customs protects illegal immigrants within their homes, values respect and family, is hard working and know the shipping culture, has strong associations with names, believes in trust and wants revenge when a member has been wronged. Some of these values, however, come in conflict with those of the American system of justice. Eddie Carbone chooses to turn against his community and abide by the state laws. He looses the respect of his community and friends—the name and personal identity he treasures. Eddie Carbone, with a stronger allegiance to the community, reverts back to another custom of Sicilian-Americans: revenge. Not only is Eddie pulled back to the values of his community, but the final victor of the play is symbolic of community values—the Italian, Marco. Thus, the small community is stronger than American law.

Community

Community is a powerful context for the play; it dictates very specific norms and rules for the family that controls the actions of the characters. All of the characters are forced to reconcile between American culture and the Italian community culture that surrounds. The cultural and moral difference between the two provides one of the great conflicts in the play. The tight community around them also creates great tension in the Carbone family because they are constantly being watched. The neighbors knew when Marco and Rodolpho arrived, saw Marco spit in Eddie's face and Eddie die by Marco's hand. The community is the watcher; the group controls and monitors the behavior of every member. Although Eddie takes a substantial turn away from the community by calling the Immigration Bureau, he still needs acceptance and spends his last moments fighting Marco for his good name in the community.

Brooklyn Bridge

The BrooklynBridge is symbolic of a pathway of opportunity to Manhattan and also the linkage between American and Italian cultures. The bridge, which is very close to the Red Hook community, is a constant reminder of American opportunity and industry. From the bridge, one can see the community below and, like the title of the book, one can see the entire community and seek greater abstract meaning from his viewpoint. Alfieri is symbolic of the person on the bridge looking down upon the Red Hook community or, perhaps, he is the bridge himself, allowing the people to cross into Manhattan and modern, intellectual American culture. Alfieri attempts to unite the American laws with Italian cultural practices and negotiate a place in between the two. Alfieri, narrating the story from the present looking back to the past, has the same vantage point as one looking from the bridge. After some time passes, he is able to process the events and see the greater societal and moral implications it has for the community as a whole.

“His eyes were like tunnels; my first thought was that he had committed a crime, but soon I saw it was only a passion that had moved into his body, like a stranger.”

In this quote, found in Act I, Alferi describes Eddie's appearance at their first meeting, to the audience. Alfieri almost seems to fear Eddie as a paranormal beast, a remnant of the great Greek or Roman tragedy. Alfieri truly believes that Eddie was possessed with, "passion that has moved into his body, like a stranger," and was unable to control him. The passion that Alfieri describes is the passion for his niece Catherine. The passion, unreleased and suppressed in his unconscious was a stranger to Eddie's conscious self that actively denied any thoughts of incest or otherwise. This quote also reveals the style of Alfieri. Alfieri tells the tale of Eddie Carbone as if he is a legend. Eddie is described with dramatic and literary descriptions that are unusual in the dramatic form.

“Most of the time we settle for half and I like it better. Even as I know how wrong he was, and his death useless, I tremble, for I confess that something perversely pure calls to me from his memory—not purely good, but himself purely And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! And so I mourn him—I admit it—with a certain alarm.”

This quote deals with the central conflict of A View from the Bridge: the self will verses the will of the community. The whole man that Alfieri describes in Eddie is the self-interested man. Eddie's actions within the play are completely motivated by his own desires at the expense of others. Thus, humans must act halfway to preserve the rules of the community and lives of others. The idea that Alfieri suggests, that Eddie acted as a whole person, unrestrained and uninhibited is true. However, Eddie's wholeness was at the expense of his own family and eventually himself. He only escaped restraint because he escaped consideration of other people or the community at large. Eddie's wholeness is a whole interest in his own life. His tragic flaw is this self-interest—a flaw that seems both admirable and alarming to Alfieri.