Six Characters in Search of an Author

by Luigi Pirandello

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Characters Discussed

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The Father

The Father, who, during preparations for the rehearsal of a play, appears on stage with five members of his family, in search of an author who will put them, already living characters, into a drama. The manager finally agrees to hear their story and allows them all to rehearse their parts as their illusions cause them to believe them to be.

The Mother

The Mother, who years ago was provided with a lover by her husband. After the lover tires of her, she returns, destitute, with her three illegitimate children and is again received into her husband’s home. She watches, sorrowing, as she sees her husband act out his visit to Madame Pace, from whom he attempts to purchase a replacement for his wife. Unknown to him, the girl he desires is the illegitimate daughter of his own wife.

The Stepdaughter

The Stepdaughter, who, while playing her part in Madame Pace’s establishment, is approached by her stepfather, who does not recognize her. She is abruptly pulled from him by her horrified mother, who rushes in from offstage.

The Son

The Son, who, when urged by the manager to play his part, insists that he simply walked in the garden. He violently accuses the father of displaying the family shame to the world and of dragging him onstage. He finally admits finding the body of the little girl in the fountain.

The Little Girl

The Little Girl, who, placed by the stage manager beside a fountain, is found dead in its waters.

The Boy

The Boy, who is placed by the stage manager behind some bushes, from which comes the sound of a pistol shot. In the resulting confusion, the rehearsal ends in a frantic discussion about whether or not the boy’s death is real or pretended.

Madame Pace

Madame Pace, a procuress. Scandalized at having to play her part before the mother, she leaves the stage.

The Stage Manager

The Stage Manager,

the Leading Lady

the Leading Lady, and

the Leading Man

the Leading Man, the professional company interrupted in rehearsal by the six characters in search of an author.

Characters

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Amalia
Refer to The Mother

The Director
Refer to The Producer

The Father
The Father is the main spokesperson for the six "characters." He is the biological father of the 22-year-old son he had with the Mother and the stepfather to the three children the Mother had with the Father's secretary. In his "Preface" to Six Characters in Search of an Author, Pirandello describes the Father as "a man of about fifty, in a black coat, light trousers, his eyebrows drawn into a painful frown, and in his eyes an expression mortified yet obstinate." The Father is mortified by his stepdaughter's accusation that he has had incestuous feelings for her since she was a child, stalking her when she was a schoolgirl, and attempting to buy her in Madame Pace's brothel. The Father insists that his concern for his family has always been genuine and that he was shocked to find his stepdaughter at Madame Pace's establishment. He is determined to have their story told. According to Pirandello, the Father and Stepdaughter are the "most eager to live," the "most fully conscious of being characters," and the "most intensely alive," as they "naturally come forward and direct and drag along the almost dead weight of the others."

The Little Boy
The Little Boy is 14 years old and the eldest son of the Mother from her relationship with the Father's secretary. He is dressed in mourning black, like his mother and two sisters, in...

(This entire section contains 1101 words.)

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memory of his natural father's death. He is timid, frightened, and despondent because, during his short stay at the Father's house after the incident at Madame Pace's brothel, he was intimidated by the Father's biological son. His elder sister, the Stepdaughter, also disdains him because of his actions at the end of their story. The Little Boy does not speak because he is a relatively undeveloped character from the author's mind. In the "Preface," Pirandello groups the Little Boy with his younger sister as "no more than onlookers taking part by their presence merely." At the end of the story, the Little Boy will shoot himself with a revolver after seeing his little sister drowned in the fountain behind his stepfather's house.

The Little Girl
About four years old, the youngest daughter of the Mother from her relationship with the Father's secretary. The Little Girl is dressed in white, with a black sash around her waist. Like her brother, she does not speak, and she will drown at the end of the story presented by the "characters."

The Mother
The Mother is both the Father's wife and the mother of all four children. The eldest son is by the Father, while the other three are by her recently deceased lover. She is clothed in black with a widow's crepe veil, revealing a waxlike face and sorrowful eyes that she often keeps lowered. Her primary objective is to reconcile with her 22-year-old "legitimate" son and persuade him that she did not abandon him by choice. The Mother feels profound shame over the Father's encounter with her eldest daughter at Madame Pace's brothel. According to Pirandello in the "Preface," the Mother stands out because she is "entirely passive" and "is not aware of being a character... not even for a single moment, detached from her 'part.'" She "lives in a stream of feeling that never ceases, so that she cannot become conscious of her own life, that is to say, of her being a character."

Other actors, actresses, and company members
The other members of the Producer's company take pride in their craft. Initially, they look down upon the six "characters" but soon become captivated by their story and are eager to bring it to life.

Madame Pace
Madame Pace, the proprietor of the dress shop that secretly operates as a brothel, is elderly and overweight. She wears garish silk clothing, an absurd wig, and excessive makeup. Speaking with a pronounced Spanish accent, she is mysteriously summoned by the Father when she is absent from the brothel scene involving him and the Stepdaughter. Essentially, she is the "seventh" of the "characters." In the "Preface," Pirandello notes that as a creation of the moment, Madame Pace exemplifies his "imagination in the act of creating."

The Producer
The Producer, also referred to as the Director or Stage Manager depending on the text and translation, is the central figure of the theatrical company. They are in the middle of an afternoon rehearsal when the six "characters" arrive, requesting their own play to be produced instead. Initially, the Producer tries to dismiss these "people" as mad, wanting to focus on his own work. However, he gradually becomes fascinated by their story and accepts their "reality," recognizing the potential for a commercial hit. Though an efficient and sometimes violently gruff man, the Producer is also patient, adaptable, and brave, willing to move forward with little conventional understanding of the direction. However, he is comically rigid in insisting on altering what the "characters" present to fit his familiar stage conventions.

Rosetta
Refer to The Little Girl

The Son
The sole biological child of both the Mother and Father, this tall 22-year-old man was separated from his mother at the age of two and subsequently raised and educated in the countryside. When he eventually reunited with his father, he was distant and now harbors contempt for his father and hostility towards his adopted family. Pirandello describes him as someone "who stood apart from the others, seemingly locked within himself, as though holding the rest in utter scorn."

The Stage Manager
Refer to The Producer

The Stepdaughter
At 18 years old, the Stepdaughter is the oldest child from the Mother's relationship with the Father's secretary. Following her biological father's death, she was compelled to work at Madame Pace's brothel to support her family, where she eventually encountered her stepfather. Pirandello portrays her as "pert" and "bold," constantly moving with a "flutter of disdainful biting merriment at the expense of the older man [the Father]." Seeking revenge on the Father, the Stepdaughter is elegant, vibrant, and beautiful, yet also filled with anger. She, too, wears mourning black for her biological father, but soon after her introduction to the Producer and his company, she sings and dances a lively and suggestive song. The Stepdaughter resents the 22-year-old Son for his condescending attitude towards her and her "illegitimate" siblings and holds contempt for her 14-year-old brother, blaming him for allowing the Little Girl to drown and then "stupidly" shooting himself. However, she shows tenderness towards her four-year-old sister. The Stepdaughter and the Father are Pirandello's most developed characters, dominating the play.

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