ENGL 314 Lecture 15: Six Characters in Search of An Author
Document Summary
One of the famous anecdotes was in the paris production of 1923, the characters were lowered down onto the stage rather than just entering from the side. The image brought an extra connotation to what the characters signify, the image of the characters descending from the heavens gave a sense of immortality. There is no essential self for pirandello, the essence to him is constant change. There is nothing true to us, we are just the masks we wear. There isn"t a lot of agency for the characters, they influe(cid:374)ce each others" perso(cid:374)as, they deter(cid:373)i(cid:374)e each other. There"s a(cid:374) a(cid:374)ti-essentialist argument explicit in the play. The characters represent a single mask they can not escape, there"s an abstract philosophical idea of never being able to change the self - life without flux (change) would be an eternal torment, a classical image of torture. There"s also an idea of being trapped in a repetitive loop.
