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 shows his Manliness by sticking up for his brother Rodolpho, when Eddie tries to threaten him, by lightly punching him in the face; in a way threatening him if he touches Catherine ever again. If we look at the language spoken by the actors, it is quite the same and then a bit different. Alfieri is calm and settled about what he does. We get a good example of this when he says ‘Compensation cases, evictions, family squabbles – the petty troubles of the poor’. Alfieri uses this term ‘petty’, this gives the audience an image that he has the careless image and is very peaceful.
Eddie on the other hand is vigorous and forceful about things and Marco is calm and strong and on the other hand can be enthusiastic about things when he wants to be.
Alfieri is naturally compared to Eddie very much, because of the way they act together. Alfieri is very calm and peaceful, and follows the right of Justice and The Law, whereas Eddie is against Justice and The Law, he is breaking the law by letting Rodolpho and Marco into the country. Alfieri makes the audience change their view on Eddie by changing the way he acts, talks and how he does things. For Example Alfieri says ‘humans must act as a half, or restrain some of our instinctual needs or wants for reason’. This is telling the audience that Eddie cannot control his feelings and anger for his niece.
In the book Arthur Miller used many ways to express things in others ways rather then saying it. For Example at the end of Act 1, when Marco is holding the chair above Eddies head, he is meaning that if you hurt my brother, I will kill you. This could be viewed as Technical Codes
Both Marco and Eddie consult Alfieri (who has an important part in the play), and he tells Eddie that there’s nothing he can do to stop Catherine from getting married, and he also tells Marco that there’s nothing he can do, because he came into the country illegally.
The book A View From The Bridge has an important Structure of how it is laid out. Eddie is the Protagonist who is the main character in this tragedy, who has a downfall meanwhile Alfieri narrates it. Alfieri has an important role in the book, he plays the narrator, and a character in the book. It is almost like he Plays God. As Alfieri being the narrator, and having two parts, he actually plays being Arthur Millers voice in his narrator bits. Throughout all his speech’s he talks about what is happening through out the book, and describes the scenes for us so we know what’s happening. In his last speech he says ‘Most of the time now we settle for half and I like it better’. Here he is talking about, that we can’t get everything that we want, like Eddie wanted everything (Catherine not to marry Rodolpho). Alfieri divides the scenes into separate bits, by adding extra information about what’s going on.
Alfieri in the play is a sign in Compromise, because as I said he has the solutions and conclusions to everything. He can be contrasted with Eddie, because as in Alfieris last speech he talks about settling for half, whilst Eddie is not settling for half he wants it all. He wants to dominate Catherine’s life.
Alfieri has the voyeuristic element though the book, because it is like he watches the characters in the book from start to finish, he tells the audience what’s happening at what times in the play. Alfieri is the Chorus (someone commenting on the action in a play).
The Language in the book is at times like slang, like gangster type language, because Eddie is kind of like a gangster. He lives in a neighborhood where there is violence and unlawful things going on. Alfieri however isn’t like this he is a lawyer, with a good heart and follows the ways of the law. We see that Alfieri admires his job a lot when he quotes ‘In this neighborhood to meet a lawyer or a priest on the street is lucky’. Alfieri’s language is not colloquial (slang). He is very calm and relaxed when he talks, and doesn’t raise his voice.
Alfieri adds tensions to the play, by illustrating what is going on more in the book, and describing his surroundings. An excellent example of this is also in his first speech when he says ‘Frankie Yale himself was cut precisely in half by a machine gun on the corner of Union Street, two blocks away’. By doing this the audience get a better picture of what it’s like. He also adds strong words, which forces a big impact on the audience, he makes us think, that we are in the position of the characters in the book. When he starts off and closes the scene in the book, he starts by telling us about his environment he is in now, this shows us already how he feels, and what he is.
From what we have gone over, Alfieri has an important function in the book, he has to maintain being the narrator as well as being the lawyer in the book. He acts as the Chorus. He has an representation between the American and Italian law. Alfieri in the book thinks himself as someone very important throughout the book. He says ‘the flat air in my office, suddenly washes in with the green scent of the sea…another lawyer…set there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course.’ Alfieri adds tension to the book, from start to finish, starting with a Longshoreman leading into an epic tale about a Protagonist, directing his course into a downfall in some way or another.