Alfieri’s role as the narrator creates a step-by-step guide of the play for the audience to follow. He guides the audience through all the heightened moments during the play. He talks directly to the audience as the narrator all the way through, so that the audience can capture a clearer understanding of what the play is about, what the characters are feeling and what their motives are. He prepares the audience for the tragic and inevitable ending by revealing parts of the story and slowly placing them together like a jigsaw to create the full image. He has knowledge of both past and present, and an example of this ids when Eddie says “my father said you were a good man” this shows that he has been around for a long time. His role as the lawyer enables him to assist the family. It also means that his able to see the full impact and devastation of what their decisions are causing. He can also see the entire progression of Eddie’s deterioration and can see the whole situation evolve, having an overview of their lives, watching their ties become more and more strained and desperate. He who knows both the Italian and American laws so he can see the arguments from both sides of the culture in the poem. He is able to see what the others cannot see and can help the people who cant see it realise what they are doing, even if it does not have any effect. He is a very central character and the rest of the characters seem to look up to him as an authoritative figure in their community.
The step-by-step guide he creates also adds the dramatic effect of the play. His soliloquies, which he uses to move the story forward, create cliff-hangers to make the reader become unable to stop reading. His conversation as the lawyer add to the drama in the actual play, and his soliloquies as the narrator create a tense atmosphere and leave the reader hanging in suspense to read more to find out what he means, because he never lets you know the full story until the very end.
The line “he was a good man” is a significant line in the play because Alfieri basically reveals the ending to the play but in a very subtle way and because he is so subtle most of the audience would probably still think that Eddie was a good man but he adds to the drama because the audience do not know what he is talking about. Alfieri uses phrases like “ I knew why I had waited.” Implies that he had a sense of knowledge and a sense of doom, like he somehow knows the end is near. “His eyes were like tunnels; my first thought was that he had committed a crime” this adds to the dramatic effect to the play because it is such powerful imagery and it suggests the his eye were pitch black, like he had no soul, taken over by the very reason he had come to seek help on. Because of the story line Alfieri has to constantly keep telling Eddie that he cannot do anything “There’s nothing you can do”, this ruins the dream of Eddie because it means that there is no hope in the situation and that nothing can be done.
The soliloquy in act 1 page 35 has a lot of dramatic language, imagery and adds to the tragedy of the story. The section “ There are times when you want to spread…. Story that afternoon” shows that Alfieri knew what was coming, knew it would end in catastrophe and knew how to stop it, but nothing was happening to stop. He also extends this concept when he says, “I was so powerless to stop it” in the same section of speech. This adds to the drama as it makes the audience think that the events in the play are because of a force like destiny, that what happened or was going to happen had to happened and everyone was powerless to sop it, however hard they wanted to help.
“I had lost my strength somewhere” suggests that the intensity was so forceful that it drained him of all energy and made him powerless to stop listening to the person sitting in front of him. He emphasises this notion why he says “But I will never forget how dark the room became when he looked at me; his eyes were like tunnels”. When Alfieri says this it implies that he has a kind of control over him and that he had no free will, because he is so attached to Eddie, Eddie suddenly has the power to control his actions because of the bond between the two of them.
Alfieri express the authority he has in the society when he says “ I’m warning you” he shows the control he has gained over Eddie from being such an influential and authoritative figure he is, in their culture. He shows this again when he says “Even those who understand you will turn against you, even the ones who feel the same will despise you”, this illustrates that he knows what Eddie wants to do, it shows he is educated but it also shows that he is a desperate man, and it is this that furthers the drama. In both quotation it demonstrates that he is loosing is control over Eddie, that Eddie no longer wants to listen to him, and this scares him. He is desperate to stop Eddie doing what he is about to do. This also displays the tyre of culture that they live on, and this emphasizes the importance of his character as well as his ability to further the drama.
The play ‘ A View From The Bridge’ relies heavily on the Italian culture, and it having to be modified because of the environment the characters are in. this is the reason Alfieri’s role as the lawyer is so important. His role as the narrator is also very important because he gives the audience an insight into the minds of the characters. He involves the audience in their actions, their thoughts, and the motives for their actions. These roles enable him to make a dramatic impact on the audience and to advance the tragedy in the play. His role as the lawyer is also to help and guide the characters through their struggles until then very end. People can relate to Alfieri and understand what he is doing. The audiences are able to get involved in the story through Alfieri. His roles are crucial to the story and are vital in expressing opinions and feeling throughout the play. Through Alfieri, Arthur Miller could communicate to the audience about what he felt the play was about, and what he wanted they moral to be. His ability to further the drama in the play also adds to the effect of his character, which makes him one of the central characters. For this he has become whether intentionally or not one of the most essential characters in the play, not necessarily the most central character, but the one needed to develop and advance the plays drama.
