A man mistaken for dead reinvents himself
Mattia Pascal, wrongly reported dead, seizes the chance to abandon his miserable life and start over under a new name. The premise tests whether a person can truly escape into a fresh identity.
The late Mattia Pascal
4 ideas
Freedom without identity is a trap
As 'Adriano Meis,' Pascal discovers that a man with no legal identity cannot marry, own property, or even report a theft. Absolute freedom from the self turns out to be a prison of non-existence.
The self as a social fiction
Pirandello dramatizes his conviction that the self is a construct held together by others' recognition and social role. Strip away name and record, and the coherent 'I' dissolves.
Modern rootlessness and the impossible return
Unable to live as either self, Pascal ends as a ghost of both, visiting his own grave. The novel captures modern alienation, the individual who belongs nowhere and cannot go home.