The audience also hears that he ‘no longer keeps a pistol in his filing cabinet’. This suggests that when he lived in Sicily there was need to keep a pistol but he feels safer living in New York.
At the end of Alfieri's opening speech he foreshadows what is going to happen in the rest of the play, we know that it will be ‘bloody’ where he states that another lawyer, faced with a similar situation, could just watch it ‘run its bloody course’. From this the audience knows that there will be death and, as Alfieri is speaking in past tense the audience therefore knows what is going to happen at this point in the play. However before he says this, he mentions how the other lawyer, be it in ‘some Caesar’s year’ and ‘in Calabria’, ‘sat there as powerless as I’. This brings a similarity with American and Italian culture and justice, where the law in both countries can do nothing to prevent what is to happen. This line also tells the audience that what is to happen is also inevitableand that it is all down to fate.
Alfieri's second appearance in the play also starts at the chorus. This appearance is very brief, however it does give the audience a very detailed description of Eddie. It tells the audience things about him which they may not have picked up on and also tries to erase any preconceptions they have of him at this time. At the end of this appearance Alfieri also sets the scene for the next scene. This helps the audience to understand what is going on before it starts.
His next appearance is also very brief and once again he is acting as the chorus. However, this appearance is very significant. ‘Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny’. This line gives further evidence that what is going to happen to Eddie is fate and cannot be changed. This is also supported by Alfieri saying ‘Now, as the weeks passed, there was a future, there was a trouble that would not go away.’ Saying the trouble would not go away tells the audience that there is nothing that can change what is going to happen.
After this is Alfieri's first part in the play where he is acting as another character that interacts with other characters, however he does start if off as the chorus. The line, ‘it was at this time that he first came to me’. This lets the audience know that Eddie is going to see Alfieri at least one more time. The next line ‘I had represented his father in an accident case some years before’ lets the audience know that he is familiar with the family without it having to be acted out. He also uses a lot of similes, ‘His eyes were like tunnels’. This gives the audience more information, which they might not be able to pick out, especially if they are near the back of the theatre. When Alfieri is acting as a lawyer he is very aware of the American justice and does not let his Italian heritage show, ‘I’m a lawyer. I can only deal with what’s provable.’ He lets Eddie know that the American law cannot do anything. About half way through his conversation with Eddie here he starts to interpret what Eddie it thinking into words. ‘There is too much love for the daughter, there is too much love for the niece’. Before this there was nothing said in words to suggest that Eddie was in love with Catherine, now the audience knows exactly what Eddie is feeling.
In Eddie’s last encounter with Alfieri he makes it clear that in America there is nothing the law can do ‘Morally and legally you have no rights, you cannot stop it’. Alfieri knows however that in Italy there would be a way to stop it, not involving the law.
Alfieri's conversation with Marco lets Marco know about the differences between American and Italian cultures. ‘In my country he would be dead now. He would not live this long’. We know from this that in Italian culture people and families take matters into their own hands and seek revenge but Alfieri lets him know that it is different from this, ‘to promise not to kill is not dishonourable’. Alfieri knows what Italian culture is like and what honour is about but he doesn’t let this get to him and states what is the truth, especially in America. Alfieri knows what Marco is feeling and lets the audience know what this is when he says ‘only God makes justice’. As Marco and the American law have different views on justice.
Alfieri plays a vital role of ‘filling in the gaps’ to the audience with what they may not have picked up or not being able to see. He does this by speaking directly to the audience as the chorus by breaking down the fourth wall, and as another character that helps express other characters’ feelings. By doing this he highlights cultural differences and develops the audience’s understanding of the play.