“Alfieri’s commentary gives a depth and complexity to what might otherwise have bean a sordid and uninteresting story.” Rebecca Howden

Alfieri’s commentary on the action of the play is integral to Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, communicating directly to the audience and presenting the events from a more impartial and credible perspective, forcing the viewer to consider the play’s greater social and moral implications. Yet while his speech contributes depth to the play, to dismiss the actual story as banal is vastly incorrect. Sordid it certainly is- repugnant currents of tension and squalor pervade the entire play- but if the action is lacking in any element, it surely is not intrigue. Alfieri’s commentary offers not additional colour and excitement to an uninteresting story, but, on the contrary, momentary relief from the passion and intensity of the action, interjecting a tense and highly emotional narrative with moments of clarity in order for the audience to reach a greater understanding of the events that have transpired.

Miller establishes Alfieri’s credibility as a narrator by presenting him immediately as an educated, articulate and insightful man, able to perceive and explain the action with greater clarity than those more closely involved in it. As a lawyer, Alfieri gains the audience’s trust that he is rational and logical, thus his judgment...