A View From the Bridge by Miller

A View From the Bridge by Miller "A view from the bridge" is a play scripted by Arthur Miller in 1955.

The play is based in a city called Brooklyn which is situated in the

state of New York. A view from the bridge is presented to the audience

by a prominent character called Alfieri. Alfieri is the most

significant character in the play because he is known as a good

lawyer, a good friend to Eddie Carbone (a longshoreman) and

surprisingly he is also the narrator. Alfieri is obviously the most

significant character in the play.

Alfieri as a character is known as a well respected lawyer and a close

friend to Eddie. Throughout all the play Alfieri is helping Eddie with

all his problems.

"I know it Mr Alfieri, the guy ain't right".

Alfieri does not only help Eddie, he also helps his niece, Catherine.

Catherine has strangely fallen in love with an immigrant from Sicily

called Rodolpho and has promised to marry him in the near future. She

speaks to Alfieri about Eddie's disapproval of the wedding and how he

doesn't like Rodolpho. Without letting the audience know, Alfieri is

showing himself as an educated and intelligent man by staying neutral

and not taking sides in all the situations he had come across.

Another one of Alfieri's roles in the play is a narrator. A narrator

is an important role in any play, and to be a character and a narrator

is very distinct. Throughout all of the play he introduces the scenes

with a small speech or a prediction. The most significant speeches

Alfieri makes are the first and last. The first speech is about life

in Brooklyn an...

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...nce an insight into the Sicilian

ethics and culture.

Alfieri also explains to the audience the compromise the community has

made, half accepting the rule of law, and half living with their own

codes. The Sicilian community used to be very unruly and violent and

settled disputes and vendettas the way they wanted to with total

disregard for the American law. This was the mob law practiced by

Italian-American mafia gangsters like Al Capone. However Alfieri

states that the American system of law has now been accepted as in

they settle for half. When this statement is repeated at the end of

the play, he adapts the statement to 'most of the time now we settle

for half'. This means that there are still violent resolutions of

arguments and conflicts which show that the Italian concept of justice

still remains in America.