All Stories Have an Ending

Luigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author”, was a play within a play, but was unlike any I had ever read. The concept of writing a play within a play can already be confusing, but the fact that the author of all “characters” was one in the same, made it all the more difficult to comprehend. Pirandello blurred the lines between reality and fantasy, and encouraged his readers to determine which is which. Pirandello also left us all with a question in mind: is it really possible to leave our characters unwritten, to leave a story without an ending?

The actual concept he used in this piece was rather brilliant. He is a writer, as many of us are, and we tend to want to keep our created characters, storylines, and settings alive, even when they’ve already been completed or have been let go. We often see some authors having difficulty writing new pieces with new characters because what they have once created in their past tends to remain alive in every other piece they create. It was interesting to see this in his play. He had decided to let them go, leaving them unfinished, yet they made their way into another piece anyways—intentionally or not.

Even though the characters made their way into a new piece, having been deserted or left unfinished by the author, their intended destiny remained the same—in terms of both reality and fantasy. In reality, the destiny their author had originally intended for them when creating them, remained. Their description, physically and socially, remained the same. They could not escape their fate. In the fantasy of the whole play, the characters continued to “relive” their roles as characters. We see this in the performance of the play and after the play has finished. Their performances, however true and aligned with their actual “lives” left the manager confused, wondering if their performances were performances or reality. During the play, the characters are only able to be and do what the author intended them to be and do. During their reenactment of their true story they wish to written, they have limits to what they are able to perform. The son, for example, though attempting to leave the stage, is unable to do so and the children are unable to speak because they are dead, as their characters initially written by the author, are dead. It was mind boggling, as I pondered on into this—for it made sense, yet still managed to leave me slightly confused. Did they live on in a world of reality, or one of fantasy? And are the characters believed to be real or are the actors?

I am uncertain of Pirandello’s intent of writing this play, but I do believe he intended it remind us that we, too, are characters. As they were unfinished, as are we, for we have somewhat been written into this life. Many authors have influenced us as characters, but we are not yet finished; we must continue on, to complete the story that has begun, to build the characters that we have already developed. As those characters continued on in search of an author, hoping to finish the story left incomplete, as do we. There is no one who can take our place. We must remember that we are characters, and not merely actors mimicking the lives of others (for Pirandello made it clear that actors can never fully portray the truth that is written into the character itself).