The Brooklyn Bridge is symbolic of a pathway of opportunity to Manhattan and also the link between American and Italian cultures. The bridge, which is very close to the Red Hook community, is a constant reminder of American opportunity and industry. From the bridge, the community is viewable below and, like the title of the book; one can see the entire community and seek greater meaning from his viewpoint. Alfieri is symbolic of the person on the bridge looking down upon the Red Hook community or, perhaps, he is the bridge himself, allowing the people to cross into Manhattan and modern, intellectual American culture.
Alfieri attempts to unite the American laws with Italian cultural practices and negotiate a place in between the two. Alfieri, narrating the story from the present looking back to the past, has the same vantage point as one looking from the bridge. After some time passes, he is able to process the events and see the greater societal and moral implications it has for the community as a whole.
Alfieri attempts to give an unbiased and reasonable view of the events of the play also making clear the moral implications in the work
Alfieri is not a character who is involved in the thick of the action. He does not drive the action like Eddie or Marco. However he does converse with both of them and advises them on the law and what they should do.
As Alfieri is the narrator he knows what will happen and when it will happen, he knows more than the other characters. This is why he foreshadows Eddie’s fate. His fate is preordained and is a fatal flaw for tragic hero Eddie. Alfieri describes Eddie as a ‘dark figure walking down a hall toward a certain door’. This tells us that Alfieri knows what will happen. Alfieri also describes Eddie’s eyes which were ‘like tunnels’. This emphasises his fate and he darkness surrounding it. It also tells us of his isolation from everyone else. Alfieri almost seems to fear Eddie as a paranormal beast, a remnant of the great Greek or Roman tragedy. Alfieri truly believes that Eddie was possessed with, "passion that has moved into his body, like a stranger," and was unable to control him. The passion that Alfieri describes is the passion for his Catherine. The passion, unreleased and suppressed in his unconscious was a stranger to Eddie's conscious self that aggressively and ‘furiously’ denied any thoughts of incest or otherwise. This quote also reveals the style of Alfieri. Alfieri tells the tale of Eddie Carbone as if he is a legend and a hero. Eddie is described with dramatic and literary descriptions that are unusual in the dramatic form.
Although Alfieri knows what will happen to Eddie, his function in the play makes him ‘so powerless to stop it’. His function doesn’t allow him to do more than observe.
When Eddie and Alfieri have private discussions, the dialogue opens up Eddie’s feelings to the audience. This allows him to be himself and not bottle up all of his emotions, ‘he brings out his thoughts’. In these discussions, it is here where Eddie decides what to do about Beatrice’s cousins and also where Alfieri tells him to ‘put it out of his mind’.
In his prologue, he introduces the audience to the hero Eddie Carbone and indirectly briefs them of the themes in the play. He says that “justice is important” where he is. This along with law is one of the main themes of the play. Another theme is loyalty and betrayal. During Alfieri’s conversions with Eddie, he warns him of how the people will react towards Eddie if he betrays his family.
‘You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie!’
This theme of betrayal links with loyalty and justice very well. Sicilians are dependent on loyalty and if someone betrays someone in their family then they will be hated by all. If someone is disloyal, then those who have been betrayed will demand justice. This is exactly what Marco wanted, he wanted justice but not through the American way, but the Sicilian way of Machoism and being a hero while settling old scores. He wanted revenge for what Eddie had done. When Alfieri told Marco about the law, Marco replied by saying ‘I don’t understand this country’. This shows us that Sicilians are not accustomed to western ways of life and the law.
Another theme in the play is fate. Eddie’s fate in the play has been preordained by Alfieri because he cannot control what happens in it.
‘I knew where he was going to end.’
Alfieri gives the audience a slight clue on what will happen and when he explains his helplessness, the audience want to know more and watch how Eddie’s downfall progresses and why an old woman said ‘Pray for him’.
Alfieri is a very important device that Arthur Miller uses so that the audience get the full impact of the play. He explains situations well and without him, the audience wouldn't be able to understand what the society in Red Hook was like, as they wouldn't have had all of the background information, which Alfieri offers. Alfieri is able to interact with the audience and talk about the drama from a different perspective. He builds up a lot of tension in the audience, who are then eager to watch what is going to happen next. By giving those hints and clues, it builds up even more tension, as they want to know how the play is going to unfold. He makes it clear to the audience the differences between the different societies, which are only separated by a bridge.
When Alfieri says his epilogue, he says ‘now we settle for half’ this means that when the law is used, sometimes personal justice needs to be achieved. This is because the legal system does not provide complete justice.
This quote deals with the central conflict of A View from the Bridge: the self will verses the will of the community. The whole man that Alfieri describes in Eddie is the self-interested man. Eddie's actions within the play are completely motivated by his own desires at the expense of others. Therefore, humans must act halfway to preserve the rules of the community and lives of others. The idea that Alfieri suggests, that Eddie acted as a whole person, unrestrained and uninhibited is true. However, Eddie's wholeness was at the expense of his own family and eventually himself. He only escaped restraint because he escaped consideration of other people or the community at large. Eddie's wholeness is a whole interest in his own life. His tragic flaw is this self-interest—a flaw that seems both admirable and alarming to Alfieri.
In conclusion Alfieri’s main role is to narrate the play and inform the audience of what is happening. But his job as a lawyer makes him involved a lot more. This role is a key role, as he has conversation with Eddie and then has to be impartial when narrating and informing the audience.
