Many hundreds of years ago, the ancient Greeks produced the first theatre. This theatre, at first, had no actors, and the numerous chorus figures told the whole story, which was usually a tragedy. Later, in the 6th century B.C., Thespis introduced the actor. The chorus figure was still in plays - he now commented on the action, divided it into scenes and linked these scenes together by covering any action that the audience didn't see during a time gap. He represents sanity, reason and compassion in modern plays. The choric figure usually talks more standard English, and this is true in this play, where Alfieri is much more articulate than most of the characters.
Arthur Miller has used this trait in Alfieri to divide each act into unofficial scenes, and inform the audience on any missed action. As David Thacker, a Director said, Alfieri is the "mechanism by which the play unfolds."
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