Six Characters in Search of an Author is a an unusual play that contains within it, another play. Reading the stage directions, and then reading the stage directions dictated within the play itself made me re-read certain pages several times. Although this play is difficult to analyze, I believe Pirandello wanted to make the point that while actors simply play a role temporarily and will eventually be forgotten, the characters themselves will live on forever.
There was a debate within the play whether or not the characters were "real", and I have come to the conclusion that the characters are the only real aspects of the play, since they are unchanging and will always remain true to their roles, while the actors will move on and change. They are not the "real" characters. I read in the introduction that he wrote this in response to critics and his audience who did not understand his artistic intentions behind another play of his. It does not matter what people may think about his work, because they, as humans, will not exist forever. His characters, however, whether or not they are popular or understood, will always exist.
I agree with you that the characters are unchanging and that they will always exist. However, I do not think that these qualities make the characters the only real aspects of the play. On the contrary, I think that change and the ability to think, act, make mistakes, and learn are the qualities that make the actors most real and most human. The characters exist, but they do not have a human existence, they have an artistic existence. I agree that being humans, the actors will not exist forever, but their actions and their impacts on society through their free will is what they leave behind for us to remember.
ReplyDeleteWell the characters in the play are as real as the actors. My point being that they are both fictional. The matter of the debate does make one question what we can actually define as "real". Real is defined as being non-imagined, where as the actors are even technically imagined by Pirandello. This provides a lot of irony throughout the book as the actors argue that the characters aren't real. Who is to say that we aren't characters in a story? The better definition of real in my mind is to exist and exert influence in some shape or form. The characters might not be real, but the idea of them is.
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