Response to Henry IV

Pirandello's play Henry IV continues, as did Six Characters in Search of an Author, the theme of masks on a face.  In particular, Pirandello explores the coalescence of actor and character, two things that were made to be kept separate in Six Characters in Search of and Author.  In the play, Henry IV takes off his mask only to reveal that he is still in character, an action that the other actors attribute to madness.  Pirandello establishes an important distinction between the mad and the rest of society.  The characters pay little attention to what Henry has to say because they do not wish to hear the truth that he speaks.  But just as the actors hide from the truth, so too does Henry hide from reality: he chooses to play the role of Henry IV in order to avoid reality--the passage of time.  This concept is highlighted in a number of different ways in the play; namely, by the use of portraiture and by acting to the point of madness.  Pirandello believes that a consciousness of reality requires a person to not be subjected to the passage of time.  Therefore, Henry IV is presented as the favorable character, pulling the other characters into his madness by prolonging his role as Henry IV.