Character Analysis
Argument and Re-Butler
At first glance, Alfred looks your typical butler who wandered in from the set of Upstairs Downstairs (the PBS show that preceded Downton Abbey and came out around when this movie did). He's old, white, and wears a tailored suit with a tie. Fancy-shmancy.
But Alfred doesn't just pick up glasses at parties—although he's really good at that. He also cooks all of Bruce's meals and does his laundry. Oh, and he also serves as a parent and mentor figure of sorts for Bruce, which is nice, we guess, but that better not cut into laundry time. Bruce needs his Batsuits dry cleaned and pressed on a regular basis.
Regarding the family connection, here is what Bruce and Vicki think of Alfred.
VICKI: He sort of reminds me of my grandfather.
BRUCE: Actually, Alfred is my family.
Alfred may be like a sweet, doting grandfather, but he's also the type of patriarch who wants the younger men in the family to live responsible, long lives, especially now that Alfred himself is much older than when Bruce was a child. He tells Bruce this late in the film:
ALFRED: I have no wish to fill my few remaining years grieving for the loss of old friends... or their sons.
Because Alfred cares for Bruce, he wants him to hang up the bat suit and stop fighting crime. To convince Bruce to do this, he lets Vicki into the Bat Cave, exposing his identity to her. He hopes that by showing Bruce that he can trust Vicki that he'll put his desire to single-handedly stop crime behind him and move on.
As we know from numerous Batman sequels, it doesn't work, leaving Alfred to fear that not only will he be scrubbing wine stains from the carpets of Wayne Manor for his final years, but he also might one day be scrubbing Bruce's blood from the walls. Bruce better pay Alfred the biggest salary in Gotham for this stressful job.