1. Examining the story from an analytical perspective. Class Notes for “War” by Luigi Pirandello

2. Pirandello’s Perspective In “War,” Pirandello examines war’s toll on individuals. Soldiers must confront their mortality and the ideal of a heroic death. Their parents must confront the inconsolable loss of the child. The story overflows with the emotions of anger and sorrow, opening with the sorrow of a mother who can only growl wordlessly, like a wild animal that has lost its young, and closing with the sobs of a father, for whom the best intellectual reasons are powerless to stifle the cry from his heart.

3. Pirandello’s Perspective cont. Pirandello uses the stylistic device of a debate to elaborate and intensify the nature and extent of a parent’s grief. The mother of the son about to leave for the front, the fathers who have sons at the front, and the father whose son was satisfied to die a hero all mourn war’s devastating effect upon their children's and their own lives. The sorrowing mother is amazed to find a parent capable of stoically accepting the loss of his child, only to find that his stoicism has been a self-protective sham and that, paradoxically, his emotions are as intolerably painful as her own.

4. Pirandello’s Perspective cont. “War” illustrates Pirandello’s view that reality differs from person to person. The story’s paradoxical theme is that reality may be opposite of what one perceives it to be. People who feel unbearable emotions may conceal them from themselves and from others. In this story, Pirandello’s attention to psychological mechanisms for controlling grief is more important than the obvious things that war causes grief.

5. Analyzing the Story Nameless Characters – The characters have no names in order to make them universal. Parents love for a child – All children received their parents’ total love, no matter how many siblings there are. “We belong to them but they never belong to us.” – Parents devote their lives to the development of their children, with the goal of rearing independent, well-functioning adults. Children grow up to become independent of their parents and to lead their own lives.

6. Analyzing the Story cont. Why the woman asks if the man’s son has really died: She cannot believe that a mourning parent can be so stoic about his loss. Patriotism and “decent boys” – Pirandello suggests that patriotism is simply a rationalization, a way of making the devastation of war acceptable. The fat man is serious when he says that “decent boys” are patriotic. However, warlike behaviour is anything but “decent,” so that phrase “decent boys” has a satiric and ironic tone. The fat man’s eventual rejection of his own intellectual arguments demolishes the charade of rationalization.

7. Analyzing the Story cont. Characterization – Characters are distinguished by the particular attitudes and ideas they express and by their physical appearance. The last description of the fat man as “the old man” adds a new dimension to his characterization (making him a round or complex character); facing reality has sapped his vitality and has aged him. The change of description registers the toll that the realization of his loss has taken on him. The “fat man” becomes the “old man.”

8. Analyzing the Story cont. Conflict Resolution – The conflict is both external and internal. 1) The external conflict is the debate over the proper attitude of parents when their children go to war. It includes the conflict between the intellectual and emotional responses to the death of a child killed in war. 2) The internal conflict is the fat man’s struggle to realize his loss and express his true emotions.

9. Analyzing the Story cont. Climax – The climax is the woman’s question (“is your son really dead?”), when she challenges the intellectual approach to a son’s death. The question touches off the plot’s reversal and confirms the validity of the woman’s emotional response. Reversal – The fat man’s sudden switch from intellectual to emotional response gives the story its surprise ending and its tremendous power. Irony – It is ironic that reality may be the opposite of what one perceives it to be. It is a psychological paradox that people who feel unbearable emotions may conceal them or even express the opposite emotions.

10. Analyzing the Story cont. Themes War causes irreconcilable grief Reality may be different from, and even the opposite of, what one perceives it to be (social masks we wear) People who feel unbearable emotions may attempt to conceal them from themselves (social masks we wear) In removing our social masks we reveal our true selves. There is vulnerability in showing our true face, but it is also true honesty with ourselves and with others.