A View from the Bridge

The law is multifaceted in this play. As a lawyer Alfieri speaks for the official law, but it is clear that this kind of law cannot reach into the personal lives of the characters and accomplish what they want it to. It cannot provide real justice and serves to frustrate and rend lives apart (as with the brothers being rounded up by Immigration). Moral law is different. While Eddie adheres to the official law, using his power as a citizen, when he reports on his wife's cousins, he breaks a moral code, and his community condemns him for it. Marco, by contrast, violates the official law but adheres to the moral law. It is this tension between the types of law that provides nuance and complexity to the story.