Explore The Function of Alfieri in A View From The Bridge

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                Manvir Sangha

A View From The Bridge Coursework:

Q. Explore The Function of Alfieri in A View From The Bridge

The book ‘A View From The Bridge’ is a book written by Arthur Miller that is set is the 19th Century, and starts as a love story and develops into a dramatic story that was not meant to be. Alfieri, the narrator who is pivotal, has an important function throughout the play, this essay will explain this.

In the play Alfieri is contrasted against Justice and Law, right throughout it, because he being the Lawyer has the solution and conclusion to everything. In his opening speech he quotes ‘people having the right to do certain things that they are held back in’, he also says ‘I no longer have to keep a pistol in my filling cabinet, and my practice is entirely unromantic’ (meaning he doesn’t like going into court and doing exciting things). People in the community are willing to do anything, if it includes breaking the law.

Justice differs from the law, because Justice is when you can break and set rules and the law is a set of rules that you must follow. In the book it gives an example of a person named Vinny Bolzano and says ‘and they grabbed him in the kitchen and pulled him down the stairs, three flights his head was bouncing like a coconut, and they spat on him in the street’. Yet Eddie does not fear this will happen to him, as he goes and tells on Rodolpho and Marco. This shows how disgusted they were with him. Eddie in the book pursues the right of Justice, as he thinks that his daughter getting married to Rodolpho (an illegal immigrant) is wrong. Marco however pursues Justice, because of Eddie going and telling the immigration office that he and Rodolpho are in the country is wrong, because the neighborhood, all agree on not telling anyone, but he does.

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Alfieri, Eddie and Marco show their Manliness a lot throughout the book, in various ways. Alfieri shows his Manliness by being a lawyer, and sticking up for the people to get equal rights. His attitude towards this is very calm, yet passionate, although he quotes ‘And my practice is entirely unromantic’. Eddie shows his manliness, by demonstrating that he will not tell on any of his neighborhood, if they do something wrong, or illegal. Eddie breaks this rule by going and telling the Immigration Office about Beatrice’s cousins, Marco & Rodolpho, and gains a bad reputation.

Marco ...

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