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At the start of the play Alfieri introduces himself as a lawyer originating from Sicily, Italy but who moved to Red Hook, New York when he was 25 years old, due to the uncertainty of what may happen to him because of the risk of the Mafia. He talks of how many people in the Red Hook district are from Sicily and he states that he isn’t trusted as a lawyer due to the fact that the law was not a friendly idea in Sicily since the Greeks were beaten. At the end of his speech he introduces Eddie Carbone, a longshoreman from the docks near Brooklyn Bridge.
Eddie lives with his wife Beatrice and his niece Catherine. Catherine and Eddie are very close, Eddie being like a father to Catherine as her parents had died. They are like any normal family until Beatrice’s cousins, Rudolpho and Marco, show up as illegal immigrants from Italy. Alfieri is used as a scene breaker between a discussion between Catherine and Eddie and the entrance of the cousins. When they enter they are very polite with Eddie, Beatrice and Catherine. Catherine at an early stage takes a liking to Rudolpho due to his singing ‘I’m crazy for Paper Doll. Go ahead, sing it,’ but Eddie stops him and warns him to keep a low profile. Eddie already shows a slight disliking but nothing major at this early stage.
Catherine plans on going out for the evening with Rudolpho, she gets very dressed up to impress him but Eddie makes her change into different clothes, to embarrass her and to make it look like he thinks Rudolpho wasn’t worth the effort. Alfieri is brought up as a scene breaker once again and talks of how Eddie lived his life like any normal person, ‘a man works, raises his family, goes bowling, eats, gets old and then dies,’ but since Rudolpho has entered his life everything changed, Rudolpho was a trouble that wasn’t leaving.
In the next scene Eddie and Beatrice are waiting up for Catherine and Rudolpho to return from the theatre. Eddie argues with Beatrice over Rudolpho gaining himself a high profile and how he is degrading Catherine, ‘I don’t see her practice no more.’ Beatrice tells Eddie he’s just jealous but he ignores the comment. He says how he didn’t raise Catherine to get married to somebody like Rudolpho. When Rudolpho and Catherine arrive home he sends Rudolpho inside, ‘Go inside will you,’ and talks with Catherine. He says how ‘I don’t see you no more’, it seems as if he is showing slight jealousy. Eddie tells Catherine ‘He don’t respect you’ and that Rudolpho is just trying to hurt him and that all Rudolpho wants is his papers. Eddie gets very irritated. Catherine and Beatrice have a conversation, she wants to keep Rudolpho as a very close friend, or maybe more, but in doing this she doesn’t want to loose Eddie as her father.
Up to this point in the play Eddie has not done anything to harm anybody, there is no sign that he will hurt anybody, just that he might stop talking to Catherine but this isn’t certain. It is at this point Eddie pays a visit to Alfieri, Alfieri’s role at this point is as a lawyer and not as the narrator.
Eddie confidentially talks to Alfieri on the subject of if there is a law against Catherine falling in love with an immigrant, the only reason for it being for the papers. Alfieri says ‘I can only deal with what’s provable’ but Eddie ignores this comment and constantly brings out comments such as ‘this guy is here’ and ‘the guy ain’t right’, none of these points being a valid point towards the law. He gets very agitated and annoyed with Alfieri, he starts to feel as if everybody is against him. Nobody is on his side and he is loosing his family. Alfieri says the only way he can separate Rudolpho and Catherine with the help of the law is by ‘The manner in which they entered the country’ but Eddie knows if he influenced the cousins being deported that Catherine and Beatrice wouldn’t forgive him and that would mean he lost his whole family. The last comment Alfieri makes to Eddie is a strong one, ‘she can’t marry you, can she?’ This is a very good point as it seems as this is what Eddie wants, to have Catherine as his own, Eddie then says ‘it’s breakin’ my heart, y’know’ and leaves Alfieri’s office.
At this point Alfieri can tell something serious is going to happen, ‘there are times when you want to spread an alarm, but nothing has happened’. As there has been nothing to show for the threat of Eddie, Alfieri is helpless, ‘I could have finished the whole story that afternoon’.
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In the play ‘A View From The Bridge’ Alfieri is a very important role. He ends the first act with a speech about how ‘there are times when you want to spread an alarm, but nothing has happened.’ The character of Eddie has been very forceful with his family and Rudolpho and so he visited Alfieri. With Alfieri he brought up the question of law and if there was any law that could separate his niece, Catherine, from Rudolpho, Eddie’s wife’s cousin that entered the country illegally. Eddie is very hurt when he finds out from Alfieri that he cannot help and that he has to deal with loosing Catherine. At this point in the play it is obvious that Eddie is going to take action against Rudolpho that will probably end up with a fatality, but there is no evidence of this that Alfieri can put forward so Eddie cannot be stopped with his rampage. Alfieri is worried for Beatrice and Catherine but especially Rudolpho. Alfieri is completely vulnerable, he doesn’t have the power to stop Eddie do what is obviously about to happen.
