Tales of Madness

^{Tales Of Madness}

Short Stories for a Year

Tales of madness.

I. Title.
PQ4835.I7T3 1984
853'912 84-3147

ISBN 0-937832-26x (hard back)
ISBN 9780937832264 (2009, paperback)

E-Book Edition ISBN 9780937832844

With permission from the
Amministrazione Pirandello.

www. danteunversity. Org

Dante University Press

PO Box 812158
Wellesley MA 02482

Come uno specchio che per se
non
vede,

(Like
a mirror
which itself is blind,

Fear of Being Happy

In the Whirlpool

Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza,

Her Son-in-Law

The Wheelbarrow

Escape

Puberty

Victory of the Ants

Chronology

About the Author

Dedicated
to

There are no simple formulas by which to grasp the significance of madness in the author's short stories or, for that matter, in his other works, because madness in Pirandello is an ambiguous, multi-faceted theme which defies clear-cut categorization. It is particularly elusive because in many of his works the traditional dichotomy madness/sanity is greatly blurred and occasionally the meanings of its constituents are paradoxically reversed. Moreover, it is sometimes almost inextricably bound to one or more of Pirandello's other major themes, e.g., unrequited love, jealousy, encroaching age, and death. Nevertheless, the following observations, for the most part derived from a comprehensive reading of the author's collected works, should at least prove helpful in understanding the general parameters of the subject.

Throughout his vast opus Pirandello projected various mental conditions as madness, ranging from the most lucid psychological anomaly to the most serious form of dementia. Although his artistic vision at times transcends the more rigorous views of psychiatry — Pirandello was primarily interested in madness as a metaphor of man's existential state — he treated the problem of irrationality with uncanny knowledge and astonishing insights, thereby revealing his profound understanding of the human psyche and its intricate mechanisms.

The long and stormy relationship he had with his mad wife, Antonietta, no doubt played a significant role in shaping many of his ideas concerning madness. The sad story, amply reported by the author's biographers, and often mentioned by his critics, bears repeating here, if only in brief. After suffering nervous breakdowns in 1889 and in 1903, Antonietta began to show symptoms of an acute form of jealousy which eventually was diagnosed as "paranoid schizophrenia." As the years passed, Pirandello tried desperately to understand his wife's illness, and even to justify her strange way of reasoning. He also attempted to have her cured by the best psychiatrists available in Italy at that time. All his efforts, however, proved fruitless. Finally, in 1919, because of her increasingly violent behavior, he was forced to have her committed to an asylum for disturbed women. Although paranoia as such is a "conscious" insanity, the poor woman's mind deteriorated progressively during the years of her confinement, dashing all hopes for her eventual recovery. She remained a patient in the institution until her death in 1959.

Like most writers, Pirandello depicted true madness — that is, insanity — as an abhorrent condition, obviously because it causes anguish and sometimes even brings death to its victims.
But he also viewed it as an enviable state of mind inasmuch as it
can provide an escape from an oppressive reality supported by common logic. Indeed, he even considered the mad in a sense to be superior to the sane because, according to a principle he adopted from the philosopher Henri Bergson, life is intrinsically fluid and formless and hence the mad, who are illogical or who employ a whimsical sort of logic, are closer to life.

Pirandello knew that this sort of madness is not in itself a clinical illness, but he realized, as is evident in several of his works, that it can have pathological implications and may even degenerate into true insanity. The plight of Fabio Feroni in the short story
Paura d'essere
felice (Fear
of Being Happy
) is a case in point. After countless endeavors to improve his position in life, the all-too-logical Feroni eventually becomes obsessed with the notion that "chance" is always lying in wait to catch him in its snare. The obsession ultimately gets the better of him, and consequently he becomes a raving lunatic.

Pirandello also dealt with madness as a social fiction. As such, it is usually seen as a cruel label which others impose on whoever thinks or acts in an unconventional manner. In fact, the most common insult that Pirandello's characters fling at one another is the word "
pazzo
" (
madman
), which not infrequently is intended as something more than a mere figure of speech.

An interesting variation of this motif is found in the short story
Quando
ero matto (When
I
Was Crazy).
Here the protagonist-narrator Fausto Bandini reveals to us that he was considered mad by society because of his uncommon altruism. Ironically, however, he concurs with this judgment, making it his own, now that he has learned to become selfish, and hence "sane"!