After Mattia returns from two years absence, Mattia wonders what his extraordinary life meant. Don Eligo is Mattia’s fellow librarian. He claims that the law alone and without individual characteristics that, happy or not, make us unique, it is impossible to live. Mattia disagrees. He claims that he has not regained his individuality but is a social free-floater. This position ironically provides him stability and peace. Mattia’s multiple experiences take him on a journey to discover his limits and choices. Mattia’s life experiences serve as a paradox in self-awareness. As Mattia learns more about his identity, he realizes that he can’t control his entire past, present, and future. Mattia realizes and accepts his inability to control his destiny. This story is about learning to reevaluate and grow one’s priorities. The novel illustrates that it’s possible to fully understand oneself and determine one’s effect on the environment. Anthony Caputi calls this “the matrix in which experience and art were made and deconstructed” and in this case, it is the determining element of fate. This is both a dangerous and an empowering quality (48). Mattia seeks to overcome what Jonathan Druker refers to as the “crisis today’s consciousness” and unwittingly acknowledges the “radical split between consciousness, unconsciousness, and human consciousness” (57). Druker’s definition of “Self” is “one’s consciousness about one’s own identity or self,” which can sometimes lead to a “greater awareness of the gap between the Self, the world, and ourselves” (57). The meaning of “identity” will be explored by looking at the connotations of individual and collective identity, dependent and independent identity, productive and barren identities, and other forms of identity. Mattia, at the beginning, is in escape mode. He’s disgusted at his domestic life and is trying to ignore it. He is unwilling to recognize the cruel twists and turns of circumstance, such as his youthful inertia and sexual promiscuity, or his adult inertia. These results in the deaths and disillusionment of his children and mother. Mattia blames fate for his “unseen” director leading him to “new chains” (38-49). He claims that “the immobility” of his existence has inspired him with “sudden, strange thoughts”, but not action. It is also why he feels powerless to change his situation. Mattia seems to be unable, strangely, to match his mother and daughter’s post-mortem control. Miragno was not something he made conscious of, but he “acted almost in the spur-of-the-moment” (48). However, this little spark of protest eventually leads to Mattia’s first attempt at self examination. He recognizes his dependency on the status quo and his life of mundane routine and “almost no hope” and is inspired to take action (33). The reader also encounters the Pirandellian mirror for the first time. Druker claims that it “reveals the socialized individual fleeing society.” Any number Pirandello’s protagonists could effectively isolate themselves form the outside world (59). Mattia is convinced that Miragno does not offer any opportunity for isolation, so he decides to go to Monte Carlo. It is an escape from his life of hardship and he finds that even the casino’s shabbiness thrills him. Mattia gets the illusion that he has finally escaped the bad luck of his past. His impossibly winning streak gives him the impression that he can “master Chance, charm it and make it my will” (58). Mattia is infatuated with the idea of finally having control over his own life. However he is not aware of the fact that the forces luck and fate are slowly enforcing a predetermined fate around him. He can’t resist the temptation of buying a roulette book, even though he is mockingly staring at it (49). After his first prize is taken, he keeps playing, even though he can’t resist the urge to buy it (49). Mattia becomes “the gambling fever”, a state in which Mattia acts almost automatically as though he is controlled by an outside force. He later reflects that he attributes his winnings a force beyond his control and thinks that “unhappily” Fortune had already chosen him in this way (63). Mattia’s inability to make autonomous decisions is perhaps the most interesting. He married Romilda when he was young, and it was the easiest thing to do. This is Mattia at the beginning of a promising new career. However, he is wary about leaving America and forgetting his obligations to Romilda to begin re-establishing his life. Mattia cannot manage to transition to Adriano Meis at that point. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead wrote that Mattia Pascal’s tragic struggle to find freedom from the constraints of society is reflected in his “tragic dichotomy” (16). Our protagonist struggles to shake off his Mattia-esque attributes in order to metamorphose to Adriano. At this point, he is most independent but also the most dependent upon his environment and, consequently, his fate. The transformation is quite seamless at first. He fabricates an plausible back-story (87), and adopts an untraceable, random name (83). After leaving the barber, he emerges as a “monster,” a German philosophy born from the “necessary and radical alteration to the features Mattia Pascal” (80-1). Mattia/Adriano feels satisfied with his ability to create an independent, sovereign entity and “cut off all memory of my past existence”. Mattia associates fate and identity and assumes it is only loosely connected coincidences. This leads him to believe that he can easily forget all the restraints and flaws that shaped his life in Miragno. Mattia enjoys his “unique, unlimited freedom” to be “Alone!” Alone! Alone! He is involuntarily a pawn of a greater plan (89). Mattia was converted by Chance/Luck of Monte Carlo. Mattia does not realize the dark undertones of his statement. It is only then that he realizes his limitations and has become a social dud. Radcliff-Umstead says that Hamlet is viewed by Pirandello as a modern hero paralyzed in the hands of superior forces. 16) The Pirandellian hero of the Pirandellian will be made to impotent by a puppet. Mattia is Frankenstein. She fears that she will have to buy a puppy. As I was about making a decision, it felt like I was being held back. I could see all the obstacles, shadows, and hindrances. Mattia is beginning to notice old habits resurfacing. As he attempts to integrate himself into Roman society, he begins to see the complicated maze that his past associations, neuroses and physical differences are keeping him from fully enjoying Adriano’s life. Mattia realizes he can’t escape his past, his environment and his context. He cannot live apart from it all. SignoraCaporale reveals that Mattia is reluctant to give away his wedding band. Signora Caporale also discovers that he has a mysterious past which he claims he has locked away. He also feels traumatized by the “poor wretch” (178). As Mattia’s consciousness about the network he is plugged in expands, Mattia accepts that some of Mattia is still there in the silence, present and invisible at my side. He believes that it is true that inventions cannot be made without deep roots. “How many threads bind the invention to the complex tangles of life, threads that we have cut to make our creation something apart!” (88). Mattia cannot control everything, including his decisions and actions. While he may be able to command everything (which he does), fate and nature would still control Mattia’s environment. A.M.I. Fiskin reminds Mattia that Mattia needs to either respect the past’s boundaries or “assume the role a spectator of this life” (48). It is impossible to stop Papiano robberizing Mattia. This sets the stage for his second’suicide’. Adriana’s love of life will not be won by any amount of pretentiousness. Fiskin observes that Pirandello doesn’t have a metaphysical reality. Fiskin also points out that Pirandello’s realization of this reality is an outgrowth of the characters’ tragic pain. Mattia is not looking for solitude, but he seeks a better and more rewarding version his life. He has to conform to socially established roles in order achieve his true dreams. Mattia now appears to be a puppet, but he’s still manipulated by circumstances. Druker describes it as “not simply living, but watching yourself live with an objectifying attachment, as though one’s not quite oneself.” (64). Mattia knows the limitations of his Adriano reincarnation. He wants to be like a puppet. Mattia is not a puppet. He does have emotions and a past. And he must deal both with them. Mattia admits that there are many aspects of his inner ‘Self’ which he cannot escape, despite constant references to rebellion in the novel (212, 180-1). Mattia learned his lesson. This was the result: The threads were knotted again by themselves. Life, despite my caution and my opposition, had taken me away with its irresistible power (181). Mattia’s distressing journey of self discovery leads to him declaring defeat to fate. However, ironically, he becomes more active because he now knows the game. Caputi suggests that Pirandello’s characters find “no closure but recognition and acceptance” which means that Mattia is more self-aware because he understands the game. The final Mattia can see more options and is willing accept risks that the first Mattia might have avoided, knowing that fate will decide what will happen. Fiskin says that he plays the role of the chance given to him once before, but out of fairness to Mattia Pascal, he pretends to commit suicide. He can do anything he wants. Mattia decides to let go of the vile puppet and transform himself into a happier and more confident Mattia. Then he confronts his demons, threatening Pomino, Romilda and urging them to take legal action. However, he exults in his decision to not do it (213). Mattia is now more confident and willing to re-inhabit his town home, as the story ends. Mattia understands why certain events occur and can make choices about how to avoid them. Druker stresses that Mattia’s self-knowledge is not a way to close the loop. Adriano was not an inept experiment. It was a phase of awkward growth for Mattia. Druker continued, “Clearly Mattia’s return journey is psychological and real.” The novel is a bildungsroman that defies logic, as it makes impossible Mattia’s coherent personality formation” (63). Mattia is only a fragment of Mattia, who is described as Mattia Paul. I don’t know myself” (244). Mattia returned to Miragno in paradoxical circumstances and found a sense of anonymity. WORKS CiTED Caputi. Anthony F. Pirandello. The Crisis of Modern Consciousness. Urbana, Illinois Press, 1988. 31-65. Druker, Jonathan. “Self-Estrangement & the Poetics Of Self-Representation In Pirandello’s L’umorismo”. The South Atlantic Review journal published an article in 1998 discussing a variety of topics. 56-71. JSTOR. U of California Berkeley Lib., Berkeley, CA. 12 Nov. 2006
Fiskin, A.M.I. “Luigi Pirandello: A Tragic Tale of a Man Who Thinks” Italica 25.1, Mar. 1948. 44-51. JSTOR. U of California Berkeley Lib., Berkeley, CA. 12 Nov. 2006
Radcliff-Umstead, Douglas. “Pirandello and the Puppet World”. Italica 44.1, Mar. 1967. 13-27. JSTOR. U of California Berkeley Lib., Berkeley, CA. 12 Nov. 2006
