Miller's Use of Alfieri in A View From The Bridge and Theatre Traditions

Miller's Use of Alfieri in A View From The Bridge and Theatre Traditions

The play A View From The Bridge, which was written by Arthur Miller,

is a play, which on the whole, is written in the style of an old Greek

tragedy. A Greek tragedy has a chorus (narrator) telling the story

from an overhead view and who can see the picture of the play from

both sides point of view. In the play A View From The Bridge, the

person who plays the chorus is a lawyer called Alfieri who plays a key

role in the play mainly when Eddie visits his office for advice on the

Rodolpho Catherine situation, he wants to know how he can stop them

getting married.

Alfieri is a key member of the community where Eddie and Catherine

live. The community on the whole is very close and they strongly

belive in justice which is what Alfieri is expected to help the

members of the community with day in day out. Alferi is where the

people of the community go when they are in trouble or needing advice.

Alfieri is whom Eddie turns to when he needs advice about how to get

Rodolpho out of the way so he and Catherine can be together. The

community is close, none of the people who live there would turn any

member in for committing a crime. This is exemplified when Eddie is in

Alfieri's office and Alfieri tells Eddie that the only way to get rid

of Rodolpho is to phone the immigration bureau and tell then how Marco

and Rodolpoho had entered the country illegally. But Eddie's response

emphasises how close the community is as Eddie replies "oh, Jesus no,

I wouldn't want to do anything about that" This shows that Eddie would

not do anything that would jeopardise his place in the community. The

community would do anything to protect each and every member. On

Eddie's street there is another family who have entered the country

illegally from Sicily in Italy and the community has accepted them.

In America the law is very powerful.