Pirandello Act 1

As I began to read this play about a play, the first few pages were not ones to make me want to continue reading.  They were a bit dull and made me wonder where the author Luigi Pirandello was going to go with this story.  The idea of a play about a play was an interesting idea in itself.  This led me to wonder what the author is trying to say by choosing to tell his story in this way.  The way this story is told it leads me to believe that Luigi is somehow telling a story about his life or something he witnessed in his lifetime.  As the six main characters state as they walk into the auditorium, they were created for a purpose but had been glanced over thus far since their creation.  Is this some story that Pirandello has wanted to tell but has not yet been able to?  As I read through Act I and heard the father tell the story about his family I only marked one page down that I felt may have a deeper meaning.  It was the quote

“We all have a world of things inside ourselves and each one of us has his own private world.  How can we understand each other if the words I use have the sense and value that I expect them to have, but whoever is listening to me inevitably thinks that those same words have a different sense and value, because of the private world he has inside himself too.  We think we understand each other: but we never do.” 

This is a portion of Act I that seems to reach a level that makes the reader think about what is being said.  Every individual has a world within themselves, each with different values and senses.  Therefore each individual may have different interpretations to the same words.  This is a lot of what we have been discussing in class, whether it be art, fashion, architecture, literature, or any other form a lot is left up to the individual’s interpretation.  A lot of abstract art, especially, is left up to the individual, and depending on the world within themselves they may or may not interpret it the same way.  I think that what Pirandello may be saying is that this play does have a deeper meaning that just the words on the page, but depending on the world inside yourself you may or may not take from it what he is intending.

This was how I interpreted this quotation, as I said before it was the only part of Act I that jumped out at me as being important and possibly foreshadowing something to come.  I could be completely wrong about all of this because honestly, interpretation of literature, poems, and art is definitely not my strong point.  I am curious to see how others have felt about this first act, and I do want to continue to read in order to see where Pirandello is going to take the rest of this story.