How does Arthur Miller use the character of Alfieri in A View from the Bridge to critique the conflict between justice and the law in 1950(TM)s America?

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Will Dixon -10B        Page         11/10/2008

How does Arthur Miller use the character of Alfieri in A View from the Bridge to critique the conflict between justice and the law in 1950’s America?

A View from the Bridge is a play written by Arthur Miller in the mid-1950’s.  Set in the 1940’s, when America was being subjected to many immigrants arriving from other countries, Miller explores the effect that these immigrants had on working class society.  These immigrants were taking up hard-working jobs, such as those available in the docks of Brooklyn.  Arthur Miller was a playwright who worked in the docks during the 1940’s and met many Italians who were also working in the docks – he listened to and learnt about how Italian communities work.  Using his experience from anecdotal evidence, Miller took his inspiration for this play through one story about a boy report his immigrant family to the authorities.  Miller was accused of being a communist during the post-war paranoia of the Red Scare.  Miller was on the Hollywood blacklist, and he had many of his rights taken away due to this naming of names instigated by Joseph McCarthy.  Miller uses this ‘name’ theme during his play.  He uses this play as an allegory to critique the evils of McCarthyism.  Alfieri is the narrator of the story and is the lawyer in the story; he is also used as a foreshadowing device, hinting at the tragedy, which will unfold.  Miller also presents, through Alfieri, differing views on law and justice.  Alfieri is an imposing figure throughout the play, who conveys feelings from each of the characters and also clarifies any ambiguities in the dialogue.  Miller, essentially, uses Alfieri as a dramatic device that builds the tension and brings closure to many of the scenes, as well as a way of putting his own views about his own name across to the audience.

The audience first see ‘The street and the house front of a tenement building’ in the play.  The tenement building conveys the theme of entrapment, of close community and sets up Eddie Carbone to be in a position where he will fall out of favour from this close-knit community.

Moreover, there is a desk ‘at the right forestage’, which is ‘Alfieri’s law office’.  The fact that is at the forestage shows the importance this ‘law office’ is going to have during the course of the play; furthermore, it is at the right of the stage, which infers that it is good, rather than bad.  In addition, the desk is there throughout the play, showing that the threat of law is ever-present during the play.  This not only represents law, but Joseph McCarthy was ‘right-wing’ which shows that Miller has put Alfieri’s office there to show his views on law which assumed guilt and background, not facts, such as happened with McCarthyism.  This ironic placement infers that law should be a good thing, but when taken over by the right wing, it is not.

An uphill struggle for Eddie Carbone throughout the play against the law and for justice is inferred by ‘Ramps, representing the street, run upstage and off right and left.’  They go upstage, away from the law office, moreover, the fact that the ramps go left and right, shows that the uphill struggle is for what is seen as a good cause for some people, but this cause is bad for others.  This is the difference between ‘moral’ good and ‘moral’ bad.  Additionally, ‘moral’ indicates someone’s opinion, which would normally be justice, but when law came into it ‘moral’ good and bad were sometimes even reversed, showing how law and justice never intertwined very well.  The uphill struggle is representative of Eddie struggling against Rodolfo and Catherine’s relationship.  The fact that the ramps run upstage, shows that Eddie was well respect at the beginning of the play and his popularity has degenerated, as the ramps are running away from importance, being at the front of the stage.  This links in with the end of the play, when Eddie wants his ‘name back’ as his respect has degenerated into insignificance along with his cause.

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‘The round dining table’ is a visual metaphor for the American Dream and the fact it is in ‘Eddie’s apartment’ shows he is going to be brought into the heart of the community searching for the dream.  Moreover, the table is at the centre of the stage, which means that this search for the American Dream is going to be the heart of this story.  In addition, the table shows how this story is universal and that the tension and conflict between different perspectives of justice historically recur because of man’s fatal flaw; self interest.

The ‘rocker down front’ is ...

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