How does Alfieri help the audience to appreciate the action of the play?

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How does Alfieri help the audience to appreciate the action of the play?

In 1947, Arthur Miller was doing research on Pete Panto, a young Longshoreman who was executed by the mob for attempting to revolt against union leadership. He was told an interesting story about another Longshoreman in the area who had ratted to the Immigration Bureau on his own relatives. The Longshoreman was attempting to prevent the marriage between one of the brothers and his niece. The man was beaten and intimidated in the community and soon disappeared. In the community it was rumored that one of the brothers had killed him. Eight years later, in 1955, the one-act version of A View from the Bridge, based on the story of that same Longshoreman, was produced. The play was presented with another one-act Miller play, A Memory of Two Mondays.

, an Italian-American lawyer in his fifties, enters the stage and sits in his office. Talking from his desk to the audience, he introduces the story of . Alfieri compares himself to a lawyer in Caesar's time, powerless to watch as the events of history run their bloody course. Alfieri, himself the son of an Italian immigrant, acts as a chorus in the play. He gives his perspective from his position on the bridge or meeting ground between Italian and American cultures. Alfieri attempts to portray the characters objectively, but, especially in the case of , narrates the play as if it were a great legend. Alfieri positions himself as the great scribe or teller of an epic tale: "the flat air in my office suddenly washes in with the green scent of the sea the thought comes that in some Caesar's year another lawyer set there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course." Alfieri adds power and fate to the story and transforms the story of a Longshoreman into a larger than life tragic tale.

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The first paragraph of a view from the bridge describes what the setting of the play looks like. There is then a single paragraph describing what Alfieri is doing on stage. ‘’Enter Alfieri a lawyer in his fifties turning gray…He crosses the stage to his desk, removes his hat, runs his fingers through his hair and grinning speaks to the audience.’’ This quotation explains that he is almost at unease, You can tell from the audience when he removes his hat and runs his fingers through his hair, He has a story to tell. But when he begins ...

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