Alfieri
Alfieri’s Opening Speech
The play A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller is a short play with nine main characters. One of these nine characters is Alfieri. He is the first character that the audience meets. Alfieri is a lawyer to whom Eddie Carbone goes to for advice in the middle of the play.
Alfieri also plays a part role as a narrator. He is the character that starts and ends the play and gives the audience background detail as well as inside hints at what he thinks will happen.
Alfieri’s opening speech is a very long and detailed prologue with a lot of information for the audience. Some may say that it gets a bit boring as it is a lot to take in and in that sense Arthur Miller has taken a bit of a gamble choosing to start his play off with something like that. It is an introductory speech that introduces the play to the audience and finishes it.
Through this opening speech we learn a lot and it is a very thorough and informative piece of dialogue. One thing that we learn is that the events that are approaching will be bloody and tragic in their conclusions. Alfieri hints at the story and this is one of the tactics of keeping the audience interested.
“sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course.”
This last sentence in his speech while he is alone to the audience tells us what is to come and gets us ready for what is about to unfold in this play. To start off a play with a speech like Alfieri’s, leaving the audience with this sentence creates an atmosphere right at the start of the play and it makes the audience want to find out what he is trying to prepare them for.
Alfieri also gives some background to the play and some history to the setting. He gives part of a Sicilian background which gives us a broader view and some background information of the setting.
“ ..in Sicily, form where their fathers came, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were
The play A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller is a short play with nine main characters. One of these nine characters is Alfieri. He is the first character that the audience meets. Alfieri is a lawyer to whom Eddie Carbone goes to for advice in the middle of the play.
Alfieri also plays a part role as a narrator. He is the character that starts and ends the play and gives the audience background detail as well as inside hints at what he thinks will happen.
Alfieri’s opening speech is a very long and detailed prologue with a lot of information for the audience. Some may say that it gets a bit boring as it is a lot to take in and in that sense Arthur Miller has taken a bit of a gamble choosing to start his play off with something like that. It is an introductory speech that introduces the play to the audience and finishes it.
Through this opening speech we learn a lot and it is a very thorough and informative piece of dialogue. One thing that we learn is that the events that are approaching will be bloody and tragic in their conclusions. Alfieri hints at the story and this is one of the tactics of keeping the audience interested.
“sat there as powerless as I, and watched it run its bloody course.”
This last sentence in his speech while he is alone to the audience tells us what is to come and gets us ready for what is about to unfold in this play. To start off a play with a speech like Alfieri’s, leaving the audience with this sentence creates an atmosphere right at the start of the play and it makes the audience want to find out what he is trying to prepare them for.
Alfieri also gives some background to the play and some history to the setting. He gives part of a Sicilian background which gives us a broader view and some background information of the setting.
“ ..in Sicily, form where their fathers came, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were