Umberto Mariani. Living Masks: The Achievement of Pirandello.

Nelson, Scott

Umberto Mariani. Living Masks: The Achievement of Pirandello. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2008. Pp. 150.

In the preface of Living Masks, Umberto Mariani presents his book as "an introductory essay to the major plays of Pirandello" (vii). In a book born from a collection of previously published essays, Mariani attempts, in his preface, to cover several major points, from defining the Pirandellian character to reaffirming Pirandello's influence on the twentieth century. While some chapters are more successful than others, Mariani adeptly confirms, and disputes, some of the themes that have defined Pirandello's work during the past century. Despite the fact that this book may not appeal to everyone, it is none the less an excellent source of information.

The focus of the first chapter is on defining the Pirandellian character, and, although at times it can seem a little repetitive, the content is clear and easily understood. Mariani accurately captures the essence of what it means to be a Pirandellian character, that is, one who suffers from loss yet protests dramatically against it. As Mariani aptly puts it, "they know [...] that their loss is final; yet they resent it--they cannot resign themselves to the chaos of formlessness and of insignificance. This is their conflict, their drama" (5).

It is interesting to note that after thoroughly explaining who the Pirandellian character is, the book's next chapter deals with a play whose protagonist Mariani explains is quite different from the traditional Pirandellian character. Unlike the others, Liola does not become a victim but rather succeeds in manipulating and mastering his society. In this chapter, as indicated by its title, "Liola: Beyond Naturalism," Mariani seeks to move the debate forward by showing that there is more to both the work and its main character. In opposition to the idea originally proposed by Gramsci in his 1917 review of Liola in Avanti!, Mariani argues that its protagonist is not a naturalistic character at all and not even the language of the play should be referred to as such.

The next chapter is the first of four textual analyses that provide stimulating insight into some of Pirandello's most famous works. Here Mariani focuses on the opposition between reality and appearance, relative truth, and subjective reality in Right You Are, If You Think You Are. Driven by what Mariani calls the "Pirandellian chorus character" (61), Laudisi guides the audience through this confusing situation in which he attempts to convey the idea that truth can never be absolute.

Chapter four deals with the difficulty of human communication in Six Characters in Search of an Author. In this chapter Mariani captures brilliantly the situation in which the six characters find themselves. After providing an introductive history to the play and its protagonists, Mariani discusses their need to communicate and how these six characters are desperately searching for an author to tell their story because, as Mariani explains: "without definitive artistic form it is nearly impossible for them to communicate, that is to live, even for just a moment" (38).

Chapter 5, "The Powerful Logic of Henry IV," begins with Mariani discussing an opposing view point proposed by Walter Kerr, who refers to Henry IV as an "awkward and erratic play," an opinion that Mariani does not share. Rather, citing what he calls "the thematic complexity of the play," Mariani proposes his thesis that Henry IV is a drama about hypocrisy and loss. He states: "Henry's drama lies not so much in the loss of the best years of his manhood, but in the understanding of the meaning of that loss" (54). In this astute analysis, Mariani explains that, although Henry IV appears to be insane, he is actually the most self-aware and logical character of the play while continually confronted with difficult choices that he alone must make.

The idea of art and life is present in many of Pirandello's works. Mariani himself published an article entitled "The Delusion of Mutual Understanding," in which he writes about the relationship between art and everyday reality in Six Characters in Search of an Author. In chapter six of Living Masks, Mariani applies this concept to Each in His Own Way, a play whose drama Pirandello took from a real-life event reported in the daily press. Mariani's explanation of this relationship is very effective in presenting the uncertainty about reality and the search for some sort of mutual understanding that drives the play and motivates its protagonists.

After discussing the role of art as communication in The Mountain Giants, Mariani concludes Living Masks by confirming Pirandello's enormous influence on the literature of the twentieth century. The words "clarification" and "rebuttal" are common place in this book and the final chapter is no exception, as several pages are dedicated to dispelling the idea that Futurism may have had an influence on Pirandello's theater. According to Mariani, "Pirandello had preceded them [the Futurists] by more than a decade. He was, if anything, the influence" (101-02).

Pirandello was unquestionably one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, and as a Pirandellian scholar for the past three decades, Umberto Mariani is clearly one of the leaders in the field of Pirandello Studies. As Mariani states in the preface, Living Masks focuses on the fundamental themes that are essential in order to understand Pirandello's most important plays. What is omitted, however, is the fact that Living Masks is actually a translation, or at best an updated version, of La creazione del vero: il maggior teatro di Pirandello, published in 2001. Living Masks should be considered a worthy addition to the immense body of work that is Pirandello studies and thus it represents an attempt on the part of its author to make Pirandello more accessible to American scholars. This book, while at times a bit general, makes an excellent companion reader for an introductory course on Pirandello and his major plays.

Scott Nelson, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill