To What Extent Does The Character Of The Father Serve As A Mouthpiece For The Author In Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters In Search Of An Author?

International Baccalaureate World Literature

C. Wild

In Luigi Pirandello's play Six Characters In Search Of An Author the character of the Father can be interpreted in a number of different ways. It would appear to any analyst that his role is not purely a dramatic one, insofar as we see him continually stepping outside his dramatic purpose as a 'character' within the play to philosophise and deliver didactic monologues to the actors and the audience about the nature of theatre itself. But to what extent can the character of the Father be seen to serve purely as a mouthpiece for Pirandello? In this essay, I will answer this question by examining the dramatic purpose of the Father within the play, and also by comparing the content of his monologues to with that of the opinions expressed by Pirandello elsewhere in his works. Thus, I shall also be using the preface to Six Characters In Search Of An Author, written originally by Pirandello in 1925 to examine these similarities.

As soon as the six characters are ushered onto the stage by the doorman, the Father immediately begins to explore the nature of theatre as a form of expression, and its position within the 'reality' occupied by characters such as the Director. Indeed, as soon as he has dispensed with his exposition, 'We're here in search of an author', he begins to question the reality which the titular six character occupy. 'I'm sure you're very well aware that life is full of endless absurdities, which may be quite blatant, but don't even have to seem plausible, for the very fact that they're true.' On the surface one may consider this to be a simple echo of Pirandello's thoughts, or even his own justification to the audience for bringing the characters into the play without a reasonable explanation as to why, or how. However, it is far more than this. As we can see from stage directions such as 'the actors react indignantly', and also the aggressive reaction of the Director, the Father's monologues serve a dual purpose – the posing of questions examining the intrinsic nature of drama, but also the creating of conflict and tension that makes this play, which could be nothing more than a discussion between Pirandello and a critic, avaliable to an audience. The idea that this play is nothing more than a discussion can be seen in the pleas that the Father makes of the Director, '[Illusion], it's such a cruel word! Surely you understand that?', and this quotation also seeks to add strength to the argument that the Father, echoing Pirandello his creator, believes that the characters are far more than an illusion of reality. The 'illusion' they live is as real as life to the Director. As Pirandello says in his Preface to the play, 'creatures of my spirit, these six were already living a life which was their own and not mine any more, a life which it was not in my power any more to deny them,'From this we can see how the views and thoughts of the Father and Pirandello are entwined, as the Father's beliefs are echoing those of his author.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Another idea that both Pirandello explores through the Father in great detail is the idea of the mutability of reality; the temporary nature of man and the immutability of a character. Thus we see how the Father argues to the baffled Director that he and the other five characters are far more real than the Director and the actors can ever be. 'The entire reality of today, as it is now – is fated to seem an illusion tomorrow.'Pirandello, in order to emphasise the incomprehensibility of this idea even includes the stage direction for the Director, 'not fully comprehending, but dazzled by the specious argument.'Once again, Pirandello can be seen to be speaking through the character of Father here, he describes the nature of characters, and indeed the nature of drama as an art, as 'a form which does not delimit or destroy its own life and which life does not consume.'The nature of characters themselves mean that each time they appear they are 'suddenly born thus forever! embalmed alive in its incorruptible form.'It is here, in the closing sections of the play, where one must argue that the voice of Pirandello is most prevalent in the Father, as his monologues slowly increase in length, and his dramatic purpose changes from that of a father character in the tragedy of his story, to that of a philosophical device, and in many ways a foreshadow of the preface that will be written several years later. Such examples are free-flowing in the final fifth of the play, and must be laid out for analysis. The Father now speaks of Pirandello's own obsession and difficulty in dealing with characters he had created, and how they began to control his creative processes; 'When the characters are alive, truly alive, standing in front of their creator, all he has to do is follow the words and actions they suggest to him.' Compare this with the author's preface to the play, in which Pirandello muses, 'Thus it is that while I persisted in desiring to drive them out of my spirit, they, as if completely detached from every narrative support, characters from a novel miraculously emerging from the pages of the book that contained them, went on living on their own.'Indeed here the characters leave their own drama to discuss that of their creation, and we can see how the Father has taken over Pirandello's mantle, and is no less than acting as a spokesperson for his creative dilemmas. 'Just think what a disaster it is for a character[...]to be born into the world from the imagination of an author who then tries to deny him life.'

In conclusion, throughout this essay, as well as exploring the dramatic purpose of the Father character, I have also shown the links between his didactic monologues and the writings of Pirandello in the play's preface. But to what extent does the Father serve as a mouthpiece for the author, Pirandello? The answer is not an easy one. It is true that the Father serves his very own dramatic purpose, indeed, he would not have been created was this not so. Pirandello is quick to silence critics who say that the only purpose of the Father within the play is to act as a mouthpiece Pirandello's thoughts, 'he is a character in search of an author and nothing more.'But can this be said to be strictly true? Much evidence has been shown that the Father at times forgoes dramatic development in order to engage in probing conversations with the Director about the true nature of drama and the meaning and relevance of the actors' so-called 'reality'. I believe that the similarities these arguments of the Father hold with the preface of Pirandello are much more than simple coincidence, it reflects his use as a spokesman and as a mouthpiece rather than a dramatic character. Therefore, the character of the Father is indeed a mouthpiece for Pirandello to exploit, but the degree to which this occurs is not as great as may first be thought.

Bibliography

Pirandello, Luigi. Six Characters In Search Of An Author. Trans. Stephen Mulrine. London: Nick Hern Books Limited, 2003.

Pirandello, Luigi. Preface To Six Characters In Search Of An Author. Trans. Eric Bently. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1952. () Accessed 2nd Jan, 2009.

Pg 11

Pg 12

Pg 13

Pg 73

Preface

Pg 75

Preface

Pg 76/77

Preface