1. A View from the Alfieri

2. Alfieri’S ROLES - Characterisation
• Diversified Lawyer - who deals with problems of people
• “You see how uneasily they nod to me? That is because I am a lawyer”
• “I was born in Italy... I only came here when I was twenty-five”
• “ ... Who have I dealt with ... longshoremen and their wives, and fathers, and grandfathers,
compensation cases, evictions, family squabbles - the petty troubles of the poor”
• Sympathetic/ understanding ---> “another lawyer, quite differently dressed, heard the same
complaint and sat there as powerless as I”
• Very Observant
• “ I am inclined to notice ruins in things....”
• “ His eyes were like tunnels”
• Middle Aged
• “ A lawyer in his fifties turning grey; he is portly, good humoured, and thoughtful”
• Finds no romance in his job
• “My practice is entirely unromantic”
• Superior to other characters / Respected:
• “ A lawyer in his fifties turning grey” ----> His age

3. Alfieri’S ROLES - CHORUS
• Foreshadows and warns - reminding the audience that it is a tragedy play
• “ I knew then and there- I could have finished the whole story
that afternoon. It wasn’t as though there was any mystery to
unravel. I could see every step coming, step after step, like a
dark figure walking down a hall towards a certain door. I knew
where he was heading for, i knew where he was going to end. And
I sat here many afternoons asking myself why, being an
intelligent man, I was so powerless to stop it. ” <--- shows how
powerless Alfieri is.
• “ Now, as the weeks passed... there was a trouble that would not
go away”
• Comments on actions of characters
• Plays with the emotions
• Impartial --> doesn’t take sides
• Tells the audience what cannot be seen
• “His eyes like tunnels, my first thought was that he had committed a
crime... I saw it was only the passion that had moved into his body,
like a stranger”
• Frames the play as a modern fairy tale --- creates a break in action whenever he appears
• “ he was as good as a man as he had to be in a life that was hard and
even....”

4. OVERLAPPING ROLES -> as a character and a chorus
•PO W ERLES S T O C H A N G E T H E I N E V I TA B L E .
• “the flat a i r i n m y o f f i c e s u d d e n l y w a s h e s i n
with the gr e e n s c e n t o f t h e s e a , t h e d u s t i n
this air is b l o w n a w a y a n d t h e t h o u g h t c o m e s i n
that in som e C a e s a r ’ s y e a r , i n C a l a b r i a p e r h a p s
or on th e c l i f f a t S y r a c u s e , a n o t h e r l a w y e r ,
quite differently dressed, head the same
complaint a n d s a t t h e r e a s p o w e r l e s s a s I , a n d
w at ched it run its bloo dy c o u r s e . ”
Foreshadows the end of the play, which is the death by the “bloody course”.
It also shows it a old problem which lawyers had always had to deal with in
the ancient times.

5. •His eyes were like tunnels;
my first thought was that he
had committed a crime, but
soon I saw it was only a
passion that had moved into
his body, like a stranger.

6. •Most of the time we settle for half and
I like it better. Even as I know how
wrong he was, and his death useless, I
tremble, for I confess that something
perversely pure calls to me from his
memory—not purely good, but himself
purely And yet, it is better to settle
for half, it must be! And so I mourn him
—I admit it—with a certain alarm.

7. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Justice & Law
•"A lawyer means the law, and in
Sicily, from ... where there fathers
came, the law has not been a friendly
idea since the Greeks were beaten."

8. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Justice & Law
•"Oh, there were many here
who were justly shot by
unjust men. Justice is very
important here."

9. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Justice & Law
•"Now we settle for half,
and I like it better."

10. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Justice & Law
•"I kept wanting to call the
police, but […] Nothing at all
had really happened."

11. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Justice & Law
• "Only God, Marco."
•“You hear? Only God
makes justice”
Alfieri tries to make Marco realize that he cannot take the law into
his hands,like what is done in Sicily because he isn’t the true
judge, but God is.

12. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Justice & Law
•"it is better to settle for
half, it must...be! And so I
mourn him – I admit it–with a
certain…alarm."

13. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Justice & Law
•"When the law is wrong it's
because it's unnatural, but
in this case it is natural
and a river will drown you
if you buck it now."

14. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Codes of Honour
"You won't have a friend in the
world, Eddie!" ---> Alfieri
warns Eddie

15. Themes introduced by Alfieri ~ Codes of Honour
"To promise not to kill
is not dishonourable"

16. BRIDGES that Alfieri is involved ~ Old & New
World
• “I was just thinking ... suppose my father didn’t
come to this country, and I was starvin’ like them
over there... and I had people in America could keep
me a couple of months? The man would be honoured to
lend me a place to sleep.”
Old world is seen as Sicily, where is currently war-devastated and no jobs, leading
to starvation. America on the other hand is seen as the new world, because it was
described at that time, during which this play was written as the LAND OF
OPPORTUNITIES. It wasn’t war-devastated and had a lot of job opportunities enough
for immigrants and citizens too.

17. BRIDGES that Alfieri is involved ~ Eddie & Catherine
•'The child has to grow up and go away, and the
man has to learn to forget.'
•“This is my last word... morally and legally you
have no rights, you cannot stop it,; she is a
free agent.” ---> shows that he is unbaised
•“Somebody had to come for her, Eddie,sooner or
later”

18. BRIDGES - Alfieri & Rodolpho
•'When she marries him, he can start to become
an American.' ---> Alfieri is helping
Rodolpho.

19. BRIDGES that Alfieri is involved ~Audience & Characters
• “Alfieri who is in the crowd, turns out to the audience...”-->stage
notes
• “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”----> Indirect Characterisation, brings out
things the audience cannot see.
• “ Eddie Carbone had never expected to have destiny”
• “ ...There was no snow, but it was cold, his wife was out shopping.
Marco was still at work. 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.”

20. BRIDGES that Alfieri is involved ~Red Hook & Sicily
• “ But this is Red Hook, not Sicily.... And now we
are quite civilised, quite American.”
• “ There is no other law”
There is are located in two different countries with
huge differences in the early 50’s

21. BRIDGES that Alfieri is involved ~ American Law &
Sicilian law
•“In my country, he would be dead by now”
•“...Lie three thousand years of distrust.
A lawyer means the law, and in Sicily, form
where their fathers came, the law has not
been a friendly idea since the Greeks were
beaten.”
Sicilian law is a traditional law, such as an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth.

22. the END ☺