Personal Narrative – Role of Alfieri

An integral part of a narrative is character interaction. An author can manifest the overall mood of a story in this way. However, in A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, the reader is immersed in the story line by a character that is not an innate part of the plot. In fact, Alfieri interacts little with other characters; he is the storyteller, but more importantly, he communicates a vague overlap of American law and his Tribal law.

This “view from the bridge” that connects American and Italian customs is employed by Alfieri to explain many parts of the story that may be confusing to those who are not familiar with foreign customs or practices. There are several moments in the play where there is a pause in the action and Alfieri enters to clarify for the reader the life that the main character, Eddie, lives now that he is in America and the struggles Eddie faces as he acclimates to the norms of society in the United States. For instance, when Alfieri enters at one point in Act One he provides this clarity when he states, “He was as good a man as he had to be in a life that was hard and even. He worked on the piers when there was work, he brought home his pay, and he lived. And toward ten o’clock of that night, after they had eaten, the cousins came. “ This allows the reader a moment to compile what they have heard through the conversation about Eddie’s role in America and how this role has become that of survival in order to enjoy the freedoms of this new country that he has come to be a part of to live a better life, in contrast to the life he lived in Italy, and to provide an opportunity for others like his cousins to come to the United States and enjoy these same freedoms.

As the story progresses, Eddie is met with a difficult decision to trust one of the immigrants in his home to engage in a relationship with his niece he cares for. He seeks the advice of Alfieri, who is his family lawyer, who again appears to help the main character, Eddie, understand the law in America as is relates to his situation. During the initial meeting between Alfieri and Eddie, Alfieri provides Eddie with legal advice for his problem. In Act 1 of the play, Alfieri says, “let Catherine go...That’s my advice. You did your job, now it’s her life; wish her luck, and let her go...Because there’s no law, Eddie; make up your mind to it; the law is not interested in this”(42). No matter how hard Alfieri pushes, he can not get Eddie to come clean and realize that this situation is out of his control. Instead, Eddie prolongs his state of denial; telling Alfieri that he does not know what he is talking about. Eddie is grasping to find a way to put a stop to this marriage, not only because he finds the boy as he states, “... ain’t right,” but also because he does not want to let go. “ I worked like a dog twenty years so a punk could have her, so that’s what I done”(42). The fact that Alfieri had to remind Eddie that a marriage between an uncle and his niece would not be allowed in America is a major cultural contrast embedded in the story. “She wants to get married, Eddie. She can’t marry you, can she? “(43). According to an article by Marco Fraccaro of the State Institute for Human Genetics in Sweden, in 1953 there were 287 recorded marriages between an Uncle and his niece that took place in Italy. (Fraccaro) He also reminds Eddie that the marriage of his niece and an illegal immigrant is not against the law according to law in the United States.

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Alfieri’s role is also to signal for the reader what will happen next in the play. He does this at one point when he states, “Now, as the weeks passed, there was a future, there was a trouble that would not go away.”In other words, the reader is left to think about what may happen now that Eddie has invited illegal immigrants to share his home as they establish work for themselves in America. Alfieri reminds him of this when he says, “Well, they entered illegally”(42), and Eddie acknowledges this with, “ Oh, Jesus, no, I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that, I mean –”(42). Aldieri also reminds Eddie of the legality of the marriage and what may happen to Eddie as he continues to resist his niece’s desire to have a relationship with one of the immigrants who comes to live with them. “Because there’s no law, Eddie; make up your mind to it; the law is not interested in this”(42). Again, the reader is given the opportunity to reflect on the situation at hand and to predict what may come to be in their future because of the rules that are set forth in America for those who harbor immigrants who illegally come into the United States and the trouble that may come to Eddie if he continues to set out to stop this marriage.

His tone is often that of concern and helplessness, as Alfieri worries for Eddie and feels he can do nothing to help him with his situation. “I was so powerless to stop it. I even went to a certain old lady in the neighborhood, a very wise old woman, and I told her, and she only nodded, and said, ‘Pray for him . . . ’ Alfieri becomes Eddie’s voice of reason as he tries to rationalize with him during his several meetings with him that this marriage between his niece and the illegal immigrant is not a situation that Eddie can control. Alfieri tells Eddie, “This is my last word, Eddie, take it or not, that’s your business. Morally and legally you have no rights, you cannot stop it; she is a free agent. “

Without hearing the legal advice he wants to hear, Eddie decides to take matters into his own hands when he witnesses his niece engaging in an affair with the boy he feels is unfit for her. We are made aware of this early when Alfieri enters the storyline again in Act Two. “The boy had not been hired that day; Catherine told me later that this was the first time they had been alone together in the house”(53). It is at this moment that Eddie comes home in a drunken state and comes face to face with the indecency of his niece and the boy in question,Randolph, as they both exit the bedroom. He then responds by telling Randolph to leave immediately as Catherine chooses to leave with Randolph. He has now lost her in the process. Alfieri’s foreshadowing of this moment allows the reader to piece together the events that have unfolded as they are immersed in the dialogue between Eddie, Randolph, and Catherine.

Alfieri’s last bit of advice for Eddie falls on deaf ears in Act Two when Eddie makes one last visit to Alfieri desperate to hear what he wants to hear to end this relationship between Randolph and his nice, Catherine. Alfieri warns him. “You won’t have a friend in the world, Eddie! Even those who understand will turn against you, even the ones who feel the same will despise you!”(60). Trying again to be his voice of reason, Alfieri warms him that his actions will have lasting effects not only on the enemy, but on those near him that he loves so dearly. In his rage, Eddie makes the final mistake of reporting Randolph to the Immigration Bureau.

Nonetheless, it is the nature of the story; no matter what Alfieri advises him, Eddie will always face his fate as the tragic hero. When Eddie succumbs to death because of his fight for what he thinks is right, Alfieri allows the reader to sympathize with Eddie’s wrongs when he says, “I know how wrong he was, and his death useless, I tremble...And so I mourn him.” Alfieri foreshadowed this fateful outcome in the opening lines, saying, “in Calabria perhaps or on the cliff at Syracuse,another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same complaint and sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course.”

The absence of Alfieri would not allow the reader the ability to piece together the events as they unfold. Alfieri also helps the reader make the connection between the American culture and the culture of the immigrants. Without Alfieri’s visits with Eddie, and the advice given to Eddie, Eddie may have reacted harshly from the beginning acting on the emotions of losing his niece to a man he deemed not fit for her.

All in all, Alfieri embodies the view from the bridge; the bridge connecting American and Italian Ideology. It is through his perspective that we see these unfortunate events unfold.

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