War by Luigi Pirandello - Research Paper Example

The short story “War” (1919) by Luigi Pirandello. The story “War” by Luigi Pirandello is a masterpiece of deep thought packaged up in a short episode of narrative and dialogue that takes place as if by chance, when several strangers happen to be in the same carriage in a train. The story lacks action, and the narrative voice is restrained, however it demonstrates the deft control of dialogue that would become characteristic talent of Pirandello, who later became one of the greatest dramatists of Europe in the twentieth century. Because the story has so little action, the reader’s attention is focused on the characterization of each person who is mentioned one by one as the story progresses. Pirandello uses his understanding of psychoanalysis to highlight the difference between each character’s superficial acceptance of the reality of war, and his or her own deep level inability to come to terms with the suffering that war brings. Seen through the lens of psychoanalysis, this story is not about a train journey to Rome, but rather it is about human life and the journey to true understanding of the unbearable horror of war. The story was written in 1919, immediately after the end of the First World War. Pirandello himself had a son who was sent to war, and who was taken prisoner. One can assume that there are some autobiographical elements in the depiction of parental reactions to the enforced separation from their sons at a time of great danger. The First World War had been a terrifying for the whole of mainland Europe, and the high numbers of casualties shocked the people to the core. Never before had such an efficient mechanised war taken so many lives. The focus of the opens with the description of an unnamed middle aged couple settling into a train carriage full of other people. The woman is silent, and her role as mother shocked by the imminent departure of her son to the front is sketched in by her apologetic husband. The role of the suffering mother is very deeply embedded in Western culture. From the heroines of classical Greek and Roman tragedies - to the suffering of the Mother of God at the crucifixion, there is a long tradition of women with their faces covered in grief. Pirandello’s mother figure does this, silently anticipating, the death of a son, or sorrowing this event when it has occurred. It is the epitome of love without return, for the beloved creature is taken away and the mother must grieve for ever because of that. It seems that with this introduction Pirandello wants to present the classical interpretation of how loss of a son to the war should be enacted. Critics have pointed out that Pirandello often uses this theme in his works of fiction: “Motherhood is a theme taken up obsessively by Pirandello again and again; it becomes a global theme, a dramaturgical form.” (Puppa, 1999, p. 75) One of the reasons why he does this is no doubt the emergence of ideas from Austria (where, incidentally Pirandello’s son was kept prisoner) called psychoanalysis. This is a branch of medicine concerned with mental health, but using a technique of talking to the patient and accessing the hidden messages of dreams and subconscious thoughts. Thanks to the ideas of Freud and others who followed him and branched into further areas of psychology, there was a great interest in understanding the deep emotions at work between children, parents and partners. Ideas like the Oedipus complex and the subconscious were still relatively new at this time, and writers like Pirandello were beginning to experiment with them in their work. The work of Freud, and especially of Jung also, delved into the old classical myths and found fundamental truths about human nature there, and this is exactly what Pirandello is doing with his cameo of the suffering mother hiding behind her coat in the train. She is self-involved because she does not have the ability to overcome her deepest feelings of fear. Pirandello is illustrating here a basic truth that human beings are not equipped to be involved in mass warfare. They are forced into it, but the physical bearing of this mother cries out that she cannot bear what is happening, even if she manages to keep up a semi-competent external front. Attention shifts from motherhood to fatherhood with the next section of dialogue. In this case the ideal of fatherhood is portrayed by a passenger. Once again there is an expression of the unbearable nature of loss caused by war. He would rather die than live on without his son, but comes to terms with his fate by arguing that he must be there for his surviving son. The man’s instinctive hopelessness and nihilism is tempered by his desire to be a good father, There is also a reference to the Christian notion of indivisible love, in the idea that “love is not like bread that can be broken into pieces and split amongst the children in equal shares. A father gives all his love to each one of his children….” The small man represents the kind of fatherhood demonstrated in Roman Catholic Christianity. He is the provider, protector and guardian of his children, no matter how much it may cost him in terms of his own suffering. A change in the tone of the story occurs with the introduction of the passenger who displays many unpleasant physical characteristics. He is fat and he pants, presenting a threatening father image which instils fear and loathing into the onlooker. His eyes bulge, and he seems to be holding in pent up anger, and he has missing front teeth. The outer appearance of the man causes discomfort to the other passengers, but the narrator cleverly makes sure that it is the inner turmoil of the man that is causing this reaction. The “inner violence” of this man is the archetype of the stern and powerful father figure, but he appears ridiculous because of his physical ugliness. According to the theories of psychoanalysis, many inner emotional traumas can have an outer effect on the body, and this is what Pirandello is depicting here. He is showing the reader how to decode the physical signs and read the inner message that the man is conveying. The approach may not very astonishing to modern readers, but it must be remembered that in this period psychoanalysis was very new, and people were not familiar with its methods. In a way it could be said that Pirandello was breaking down these exciting new ideas into pictures and examples that would make them real to ordinary people. By stressing the physical distress of these ordinary passengers in the train, Pirandello is asking the reader to reflect on why these people look like this. The inner suffering is just below the surface of the person, and the conversations that the passengers have with each are like a domino effect. Each one strikes a chord with the next, bringing to the surface all the feelings that each is trying vainly to suppress. By considering the plight of other parents, each one present gains some insight into his or her own situation. A painful, deeply emotional realisation hits each one, and this is what Pirandello’s seemingly innocuous chance meeting in the train is designed to do. The long monologue from the fat man on the noble sacrifice of “decent boys” takes over the conversation. The fat man is like a politician, praising the merits of patriotism, and echoing the recruitment sergeants who called up young men to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their home country. This is part of an old Roman tradition, which fits well with a train journey in the city of Rome, but at the same time it rings false in the modern world. Pirandello is perhaps making an ironic nod to the past, pointing out that parents and sons have suffered in this way for many centuries, and yet they still have not learned to say no to war. The people in the small carriage silently approve, on the surface at least, but again the physical description of the fat man betrays the disconnect between what he feels and what he says. The narrator spells out the ambiguity: “his livid lip over his missing teeth was trembling, his eyes were watery and motionless, and soon after he ended with a shrill laugh which might well have been a sob.” The words are strong, definitive and proud, but the delivery is wavering, weak and pathetic. The psychoanalytic perspective asks the reader to believe the signs that the physical being gives, and not the fine rhetoric that is spoken. The fat man is typical of Pirandello’s dramatic characters, as can be seen later in his more extended dramatic works: “His characters attempt to fulfil their self-seeking roles and are defeated by life itself which, always changing, enables them to see their perversity. This is Pirandello’s humour, an irony which arises from the contradictions inherent in life.” (Frenz, 1969) In this short story there is a kind of dark humour about the fat man. He is faintly ridiculous - in his pomposity - just as the woman hiding behind her coat can be ridiculed for her inability to face up to what is happening to her. The point of the story is to unlock all of these external personas which people adopt, and reveal with shocking brutality the terrible power of human emotions. The woman’s naïve question cuts through the carefully erected protective shell of the fat man, and makes everyone in the carriage numb with shock at the honest admission of the terrible reality of war. Tradition, religion, patriotism, are, in Pirandello’s tale, empty words. It is only when people leave them behind that they can even begin to deal with its psychological effects. It is a tough and uncompromising message, told eloquently through the dialogue, with the help of some descriptive hints. The reader is not told what to think, but gradually is led to question the futility of war by watching the reactions of the people in the railway carriage. Empty clichés and traditional justifications fall away in the face of the fat man and the mother’s final appreciation of the finality of death. Their physical and mental distress are together ample evidence that human beings were never made to suffer in this pointless way. References Biasan, Gian-Paolo. “Narratives of self and society.” In Baranski, Zygmunt G. (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to modern Italian culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 151-172. Frenz, Horst (Ed.) Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1969. Available at: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1934/pirandello-bio.html Pirandello, Luigi. “War”. (1919). Various Editions. Puppa, Paolo. “Families of Characters and Families of Actors on the Pirandellian Stage. In Biasin, Gian-Paolo and Gieri, Manuela (Eds.), Luigi Pirandello: Contemporary Perspectives. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999, pp. 64-76. Read More