Study Questions and Essay Topics
What is the significance of the inclusion of the "play within the play" at the beginning of Six Characters?
What is the significance of Madame Pace's mysterious birth in Act II? Can one describe it, as the Leading Lady does, as a "vulgar trick?"
In a "specious argument" from Act III, the Father declares that while a Character is always somebody, man may be nobody. Explain this argument.
Suggested Essay Topics
Consider the trope of the mirror in the play, in particular as it relates to the Actor and Character. What is the relation between the mirroring that happens between these figures and estrangement?
Consider the ways in which Pirandello inserts himself into the play. What is the significance of these moments? For purposes of comparison, you may want to consider his narrative of the play's genesis in the preface.
Though in the background, the crew remains ever-present in the play. How does it function? Consider the role, for example, of the Prompter and the Machinist.
What is the significance of the Child and Son's muteness? What is the effect of their silence?
Consider the function of reminiscence in the play. Who remembers and when? What do they remember? What is the significance of these reminiscences to the Characters' drama? What is their significance to the rehearsal? Isolate two or three reminscenes for comparison.
What is the significance of the Son's self-presentation as an "unrealized character?"
Consider why the Characters appear as a family in mourning. How does mourning function in the play?
