Rodolpho and Catherine become very good friends. Eddie becomes very suspicious of Rodolpho – he accuses him of being gay and only wanting to marry Catherine so he can be a legal citizen of the U.S.A. Eddie tries to warn Catherine of his beliefs about Rodolpho, but she refuses to believe a word of it. Beatrice meanwhile, wants Catherine to grow up and so encourages her to marry Rodolpho.
Eddie becomes more and more jealous and angry about the amount of time Catherine and Rodolpho spend together. He visits the local lawyer, Alfieri, and asks him if there is any way he can get rid of Rodolpho legally. Alfieri informs him that there is nothing he can do, and that he should just let Catherine go.
The situation starts to grow worse and worse. One night, Eddie comes home drunk. He desperately tries once more to split up Catherine and Rodolpho, but he once again fails. After kissing Catherine and then Rodolpho, Eddie goes to visit Alfieri again. Alfieri once again advises Eddie to just let go of Catherine, but Eddie can’t do it. Instead, he calls the Immigration Bureau and reports Marco and Rodolpho’s illegal entry to the U.S.A. The Immigration Bureau come and arrest Marco and Rodolpho, and after a big fight in the street, Marco spits in Eddie’s face (a huge insult).
Alfieri pays bail for the two cousins and then arranges the wedding of Catherine and Rodolpho for the following day. Eddie is furious that Marco spat in his face, and so is desperate for revenge. Marco returns to the house angry for his own revenge, when Eddie turns a knife on Marco. Marco manages to turn the knife around and stab Eddie- who then dies of his injuries. However, it is the character of Alfieri that I will now be focusing on.
Alfieri is the first character we meet in the play, which therefore means that everything he says must capture the attention of the audience immediately. In this first opening speech of his, he acts like a special kind of narrator; a character who is filling us in on a brief background of the setting, and setting the scene for the rest of the play. He appears at first walking along the road outside Eddie’s house, which is where the majority of the play is set. He informs the audience about the neighbourhood where the play is set, and tells them that this particular neighbourhood has no place for law and order:
“A lawyer means the law, and in Sicily, from where their fathers came, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten.”
This particular extract tells the audience that a lot of the neighbourhood are Sicilians, and that they don’t like the law. He has previously revealed that people feel very awkward with him around:
“In this neighbourhood, to meet a lawyer or a priest in the street is unlucky.”
“I often think that behind that suspicious little nod of theirs lie three thousand years of distrust.”
This can instantly grab the audience’s attention, since they realise that the neighbourhood is a rough place to live, and that means that something exciting is bound to happen. They are also interested in the actual character of Alfieri, since he appears very mysterious and dangerous in himself. He explains that although he didn’t settle in that well at first due to his job as a lawyer, he is slowly becoming more comfortable:
“I no longer keep a pistol in my filing cabinet.”
This hints to the audience that he has settled down there and possibly made a few friends. It is this idea of having friends in the neighbourhood where it is common to only look after yourself and your family, that plays a key role in one of Alfieri’s appearances later on in the play. Lastly, Alfieri acts as a way of starting off the story in other terms:
“This one’s name was Eddie Carbone…”
After briefly mentioning Eddie and thus introducing him to the audience, it is possible to turn the spotlight directly onto Eddie and his family, and get the play properly started. These lights can also be used to great effect themselves; the differing of spotlights can be used to focus on individual characters at different times, especially Alfieri during his speeches. These changes in lights appear in the stage directions:
“[Alfieri walks into darkness]”
Alfieri then pops up again after the scene where Eddie first enters his house. During this scene, Eddie informs Beatrice that her cousins, who are illegally entering the U.S.A, will be arriving that very night. He also lets Catherine get a job in another rough area of New York. Miller this time uses Alfieri to speed things up:
“And towards ten o’clock of that night, after they had eaten, the cousins came.”
This allows the story to progress more quickly, and also in a way introduces the two cousins, Marco and Rodolpho. During this same speech by Alfieri, he also tells us a bit about Eddie’s background:
“He was as good a man as he had to be in a life that was hard and even.”
This brief background of Eddie lets us know that Eddie is a hard-working man who looks after his family in hard times. It later helps to put into context the change of Eddie’s attitude towards family, after Rodolpho and Catherine fall in love. It also adds a bit more mysteriousness to Alfieri, who this time acts as a narrator, and also ends the previous scene whilst starting a new one. This provides a convenient and simple way to link various scenes together, thus moving the story on.
Shortly after this second speech of his, the play continues with the Carbone family meeting the two cousins, Marco and Rodolpho. Everybody gets along fine, although the atmosphere of the scene finishes off quite tight. It is then that Alfieri makes his third appearance of the play. This time he also acts as the narrator, speeding time up for the benefit of the audience. This particular speech is one of the most significant of the play, since it leaves the audience with their biggest clue of what is going to happen. He starts off by going over his belief that Eddie is a happy family man, who wasn’t anything special:
“Eddie Carbone never expected to have a destiny. A man works, raises his family, goes bowling, eats, gets old, and then he dies.”
This emphasizes to the audience that Eddie was just an ordinary man who looked after himself and his family in times of trouble. But then Alfieri drops the subtle hint of trouble to Eddie’s life, which really sets the main part of the story off:
“…there was a trouble that would not go away.”
This is likely to grab the audience’s attention, since they will naturally be intrigued as to what “trouble” is going to happen. In this speech, Alfieri informs the audience that something bad will happen. He voices out what he truly believes, and says things that no other character would dare say. The audience have begun to trust him as a character, and since most of what he says in fact, later on in the play when he starts voicing his own opinion in matters as a character rather than a narrator, the audience also dismiss these opinions as fact, providing further speculation as to what will happen. This means that Alfieri also helps to plant possible ideas in the heads of the audience.
Alfieri soon appears in the play again, but this time he takes on a slightly different role. Alfieri appears as an actual character in the play – interacting with the other characters and influencing the story. In the story, Eddie, who is becoming increasingly concerned about Catherine’s love affair with Rodolpho, visits the local lawyer, Alfieri, to ask if there is any lawful way he can prevent Rodolpho from marrying Catherine. We also earn a bit more understanding about Alfieri’s friendship with members of the neighbourhood, especially Eddie and his family. The scene starts off with one of these friendship hints:
“His eyes were like tunnels. My first thought was that he had committed a crime.”
This tells the audience that Alfieri is obviously worried about Eddie, which makes the audience think that their relationship is more than that of just normal lawyer and customer, especially since Alfieri knows straight away that something is wrong with Eddie. Thus, Alfieri is yet again used to plant possible ideas and theories into the heads of the audience.
Alfieri then goes on to say something else, which hints towards a possible friendship between Alfieri and Eddie:
“I had represented his father in an accident case some years before, and I was acquainted with the family in a casual way.”
This fills in some of the character’s past for the audience, but also provides them with more speculation about a friendship between Alfieri and Eddie, since the two characters go back a long way, and have a form of respect for each other.
The audience are confirmed that the two characters are friends, with something Eddie later says:
“Even my wife I didn’t exactly say this…”
This is spoken just before Eddie tells Alfieri that he thinks Rodolpho might just want to marry Catherine so he can be a legal citizen of America. Since Eddie can’t even share these personal beliefs with his own wife, Alfieri must be a good friend of his, is he is to share these beliefs with him. This quote also helps to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, since they will naturally be curious into what Eddie is about to reveal, which means Alfieri is used as a device that allows us to hear Eddie’s true thoughts. It is also confirmed with the way that Alfieri calls Eddie “Eddie,” rather than “Mr Carbone.”
As Eddie asks Alfieri if he can lawfully do anything about Rodolpho, despite the two being friends, Alfieri remains true to the law, and doesn’t really take sides:
“Let her go, that’s my advice.”
He remains calm at all times, whereas Eddie grows angrier and angrier, especially when Alfieri starts voicing his personal opinions, and saying things that other characters might not dare say, as he isn’t scared of offending Eddie:
“She can’t marry you, can she?”
So the scene ends with Eddie even angrier than he originally was, since Alfieri has informed him that there is no legal way he can stop Catherine from marrying Rodolpho. The idea of friendship is played once again, since the audience knows Alfieri knows Marco and Rodolpho have illegally entered the U.S.A, but as a friend to Eddie, Alfieri turns a blind eye to that fact.
Alfieri’s next job is to start off Act Two of the play. Here. Alfieri is used as a device to speed up time to the day where the climax of the story takes place. He fills the audience in on where all the main characters are at this time:
“…his wife was out shopping…”
Alfieri also hints at what will happen in the upcoming scene, and also plants ideas into the audience’s heads:
“Catherine told me later that this was the first time they had been alone together in the house.”
By saying the little bit extra (“this was the first time”) the audience can easily guess as to what we happen, and they will also be kept on the edge of their seats, since they will naturally wonder what the increasingly paranoid Eddie’s reaction will be, especially since Alfieri hints Eddie has been drinking:
“…a case of Scotch whisky slipped from a net…”
The story then goes onto Eddie arriving home drunk, to find Catherine and Rodolpho there. His paranoia reaches an all time high, and so Eddie once again goes to see Alfieri to see if there is anything he can do, and Alfieri makes another appearance in the play as a participant, rather than a narrator. As Eddie’s friend, Alfieri can already tell what will happen, and so launches a desperate last attempt to stop Eddie from telling the Immigration Bureau about Marco and Rodolpho:
“I kept wanting to call the police, but nothing had happened.”
Having already predicted what will happen, Alfieri starts off by trying to sympathize with Eddie:
“I guess they didn’t tell him, heh?”
However, as Eddie’s paranoia and desperation grow and grow, Alfieri’s calmness vanishes, and his desperation starts to show in both his tone of voice and comments:
“[with a tougher tone]”
“You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie!”
However, despite being very worried for Eddie, as well as be coming less calm and desperate, Alfieri still manages to avoid taking sides and still takes a lawful outlook on things:
“Morally and legally you have no rights.”
“This is my last word Eddie, take it or not.”
The latter of the above two quotes backs up the idea that Alfieri still cares for Eddie as a friend. However, despite Alfieri’s last chance attempt to prevent Eddie from informing the Immigration Bureau about Marco and Rodolpho, that is exactly what Eddie does. The Immigration Bureau come and arrest Marco and Rodolpho, and on their way out, Marco, having guessed at what has happened, spits in Eddie’s face in public, which would have been a huge insult, and fuels the dramatic way in which the play finally ends.
Marco and Rodolpho are taken to Alfieri’s Office, where he bails them out before his hearing:
“I can bail you out until your hearing comes up.”
This shows another sign of friendship between Alfieri and Eddie, since Alfieri is willing to bail two people out of jail, who are complete strangers to him, for Eddie’s sake. Alfieri (appearing yet again as a participant of the play,) refuses to let Marco go until Marco gives him his word that he will not go anywhere near Eddie, which Alfieri has to persuade him to do. This means that Alfieri is obviously used here as a device to let the story continue, since if Marco and Rodolpho were to remain in jail, the final dramatic scene would never happen.
Alfieri’s next and final appearance in the play is in the final scene, where despite having given Alfieri his word, Marco still goes looking for Eddie. Eddie, having had his face spat in by Marco, is furious and is determined to either make Marco apologise or have his revenge. When the two characters clash, and Marco refuses to apologise, Eddie draws a knife on Marco and tries to kill him. Marco however, manages to turn the knife around and stab Eddie, thus Eddie dies in Beatrice’s arms.
Alfieri then appears as a narrator again, and closes the play with a final speech, similar to his first opening speech. He says that sometimes it is better to settle for something you’re only part happy with, rather than try to be fully happy and risk losing everything:
“…we settle for half and I like it better.”
“And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be!”
This very same sentence was used in Alfieri’s opening speech, which the audience may recognize, and draw their own conclusions of the play from. Alfieri also finally confirms that he and Eddie were good friends, and does so in a moving speech that concludes and ends the play, but also hints that just because Eddie is now dead, life for the characters will not become much easier:
“I will love him more than all my sensible clients.”
“And so I mourn him – I admit it – with a certain… alarm.”
In conclusion, Arthur Miller uses the role of Alfieri to do many jobs in the play. First and foremost, Alfieri is a narrator, and explains the situations to the audience, to help them understand more of what is going on. He fills in missing pieces in the audience’s heads about the pasts of the characters, at the same time drops possible hints about the future of the characters and what will happen, thus keeping the audience hooked on the play, and wanting to know what we happen. He is used as a device to speed time forward, as his narrations can easily end some scenes off, tie loose ends together and just as easily start others off at whatever period of time needs to be visited and told of. Finally, Alfieri also plays the role of an actual character and participant in the play on various occasions, where his actions and opinions affect those of the main characters, letting Alfieri affect how the story takes shape and progresses. He can be used to say things other characters may think but don’t dare say, since his character is a friend to most others and they respect him. He gives them advice, and acts as a bridge between the lawful world of New York and the world of Red Hook, where the play is set and where law and order are not welcome, just like Brooklyn Bridge links the two. That is why Alfieri is such an important character to the play, and why Alfieri can be thought of as “The View From the Bridge.”
