Alfieri is a lawyer and he respects the law. In his first monologue, he tells the audience, "Now we are quite civilized, quite American. Now we settle for half, and I like it better". When he says "settle for half" he means that the community of Red Hook rarely resolves its feuds with violence anymore. Now they compromise and rely on the law. When Eddie and Marco duel in order to regain their honor, they're adhering to a much older law, the tribal laws of Italy.
Alfieri isn't very active in the play. Ha introduces the audience to the world of the play and the protagonist, he advises Eddie to let Catherine make her own decisions, he bails Marco and Rodolfo out of jail andhe concludes the play with a lamentation for Eddie. For the entire play, Alfieri seems to be on the side of American law and he is the voice of reason. When Eddie first comes to him for help, Alfieri tells him, "You have no recourse in the law". There's nothing illegal about Catherine and Rodolfo's relationship and Alfieri advises Eddie to let Catherine live her own life. It's not until Alfieri's second meeting with Eddie that we get a hint that some part of him might actually be attracted to the violence that Eddie is revealing. Alfieri tells the audience about how "almost transfixed [he] had come to feel".
In his final monologue, Alfieri admits to the war that's been going on inside him. "And so I mourn (Eddie) – I admit it – with a certain…alarm". While Alfieri's logical mind knows what Eddie did was wrong, some part of him seems to admire the longshoreman's refusal to "settle for half". This really shows that Alfieri is stuck in the middle.
This play is a Greek tragedy. Greek tragdies often have a chorus, and In A View from the Bridge, Miller uses Alfieri as the chorus. In Athens, the chorus made comments on the action of story and Alfieri does the same thing. In between scenes, he connects the play with larger moral and societal implications. Alfieri does a lot of talking about the contrasting Italian and American ideas of justice.The chorus's sympathy was the audience's window into the horrific events of the play. While Alfieri doesn't make a big show of his sorrow, he comments several times on how terrible everything that goes down is. He even ends the play by telling the audience that he mourns Eddie.
