6 Characters Essay

In Six Characters in Search of an Author Pirandello illustrates the point that in art there is no one reality, only perceptions. Art is one perception held by the one artist, in the case of the play, the author, who brings this perception to an audience. To illustrate this principle, Pirandello uses many staging approaches and techniques to merge art and theater into real life, while highlighting the shortcomings of drama and art in imitating life. Four elements are used within the play: the Characters themselves, the lines spoken by the Characters, the play structure pertaining to acts and scenes, and the stage directions within the play.

The first main area of art and reality colliding in the play is the existence of characters who are referred to as Characters. Pirandello stretches the bounds of meta-theater by having actors portray Characters who swear they are not actors, when faced with other actors playing actual actors and a Director. The layers of unraveling of reality are astounding. The Characters must try and convince not only the Actors and the Producer of their true nature, but also the audience. Pirandello must convey his beliefs about the essence of art through the mouths of Characters seemingly unattached to the actuality of the theater around them. In the play, the Producer acts on stage in place of the author, questioning the sincerity and the true nature of the Characters, who become his representation of his art.

An illustration of the second point is in the lines of the Characters in the first pages of the play. In this section these characters are pleading with the manager to take an interest in their story. However, during their plea, these Characters fight amongst themselves, arguing their own perspective on the "drama" they "carry within" themselves. The father, who begins to tell the story of their "drama," is interrupted countless times by the mother, the stepdaughter, and the son. These characters argue about the lifting of the mother's mourning veil, about who instigated the split between the father and mother, and other such details. The father finally asks the manager to exercise his authority and allow him to speak uninterrupted.

Real life is not always free from interruptions and conflicts, Pirandello writes dialogue that would be more commonly used in everyday conversations. As the father describes "the whole trouble lies here...in words...I put in the words I utter the sense and the value of things as I see them...each man of us his own special world." Each character interprets their "drama within" differently, and as imperfect as that is, that is life, which art struggles to duplicate.

Rejecting the conventional framework of a typical play, Pirandello brings realism to his play by running his play without acts, scenes, or a recognized