Alfieri’s office symbolises the codified law that all Americans must follow and having it on stage all the time shows the very definitive split between the different types of law. Alfieri himself is Italian, which makes him a participant in the play, but he is also a lawyer, which gives him the position of commentator and makes him slightly excluded from the community. It is with him that issues to do with the law “not always being enough” are brought up and the way in which different cultures define a criminal act differently. In Red Hook it is almost as if the American rules do not apply, everyone is ‘pieced off’. Finally, because the office and Alfieri symbolize the codified law it is shown that this is powerless in Red Hook as he has to watch the play “run its bloody course”.
The unwritten law is based very strongly on loyalty and trust, coming from when the Greeks were beaten in Sicily. When people break this then the punishment is often much worse than for breaking the codified law. An example of this is Vinnie Bolzano, who reported his immigrant uncle to the authorities and was shortly after kicked down three flights of stairs by his family and spat on in the street. “I never seen him again, did you?”. Another example is what eventually happens to Eddie, when he ‘rats’ on Marco and Rodolpho. Beatrice is ashamed, Catherine is distraught and Eddie’s own friends, Louis and Mike, leave him, disgusted. There is a strong sense of corruption in Red Hook too, the coffee and whiskey which are stolen from the ships. This shows once again that the immigrants do not abide by the same rules as the Americans. “A case of Scotch whisky slipped from a net – as a case of Scotch whisky is inclined to do on 23rd of December on Pier Forty-one.” “I still remember that spider coming out of that bag he brung home.” The ‘Spider in the coffee’ story represents this underlying theme of corruption, with the spider symbolizing the corruption in the seemingly law-abiding community of Red Hook, shown by the coffee. The reason people steal in Red Hook is because they are poor. This is ironic as the Statue of Liberty stands over them, which promised wealth, happiness and the American dream, but failed to deliver.
The tenements in Red Hook are very important. They show the strong, close knit community that the characters are living in. They are government owned and the neighbours live only a floor away. This is important as it means they can see and hear everything that goes on in the community. Eddie is a provider, a family man. That is his idea of himself but poverty makes this impossible. Because Eddie cannot provide a permanent job, due to the insecurity of longshoreman work, he has to look for the neighbours to see how well he is being ‘a man’ as they determine his reputation. That is the most important thing in this community and when he loses that, he loses everything. That is why he is so desperate for Marco to ‘give him his name back’. Louis and Mike are important as they show that, at the beginning, Eddie has a certain standing within the community. They represent this deteriorating standing all the way through the play.
They are also used to show the job of a longshoreman is boring with little work. Louis carefully notes Marco and Rodolphos’ presence with slight disdain as he hangs around waiting for work, “I see they’re getting work allatime.” Mike agrees, “That’s what we oughta do. We oughta leave the country and come in under water. Then we get work.”
Sicily and Greece, while never shown in the play, are talked about by Alfieri in some depth. Sicily represents lawlessness. Greece represents law. The Romans beat the Greeks in 300BC to rule Sicily. Alfieri notes that “The law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten.” Also, the Mafia, along with its own unwritten laws of the Omerta, originated form Sicily. Alfieri acknowledges that the codified laws aren’t enough when he says “Many have been justly shot by unjust men.” This shows that sometimes, American written justice isn’t enough. He explains how in the 1920s New York was a lawless city, but how he now does not have to keep a gun in his filing cabinet. Nevertheless he notices that sometimes there is a case which reminds him of the primitive customs of Sicily or the tragedies of the Ancient World.
The references to Greece and Alfieri’s emphasis on the tragic tradition and inevitable outcome raise more important issues about destiny.
The sense of inevitability is explored more in Act 1 which foreshadows the more ‘bloody’ Act 2. In a way Act 2 is just a heightened and more dramatic replica of Act 1. This is displayed a number of times; Rodolpho’s boxing lesson is a prelude to Eddie’s aggressive kiss and Marco lifting the chair above his head is a prelude to the murder. The telephone booth, which comes on whilst Eddie is still talking to Alfieri, adds to the inexorableness of the play as well. It pulls Eddie towards it like fate. Finally, the narrative structure, with flashbacks to Greece, Sicily and Vinnie Bolzano increase still the sense of inevitability and tragedy.
