The mask represents social laws because the face represents the complex suffering of the individual. For Pirandello, social institutions and systems of thought—from religion and law to philosophy and morality—are ways in which society creates a mask, fixing the face of man by classifying him.

As well as the mask being put on the face by the external world, Pirandello believed that it could often be the construct of internal demands. The theme of masks (A theme also seen in Sei Personaggi in Cerca D’Autore) takes the form of costumes, make-up and props (A more literal mask, it is interesting how even in his deepest philosophical themes he employs humour in his work).

Behind most of Pirandello’s plays “life is fluid and indefinable and that man uses reason to give life definition.” But, because life is indefinable, such concepts are illusions. Man is sometimes aware of this illusionary nature of his concepts, but “anything without structure fills him with dread and uncertainty.” The drama that Pirandello created from this idea is usually described with reference to the face and the mask.

	Created by Jamal Hassan almost 8 years ago

University Italian (Visions Of Modernity) Note on Enrico IV, created by Jamal Hassan on 13/02/2017.

Enrico IV