Chapter 1 - Sicily

Summary

The chapter is divided into three parts – places, attachments, and fables – that highlight Pirandello’s multiple connections with the southern Italian island of Sicily. Emphasis is given to the myth of the author’s Greek birth in Caos in Porto Empedocle and to the importance of Palermo in his coming of age. The essay then explores how Pirandello’s mythologized treatment of motherhood – present in works such as Her Husband, The New Colony, and The Mountain Giants – reaches back to his deep affection for his own mother. However, the importance of Sicily for the writer can be seen in multiple elements of his work, especially in the early novels and dialect comedies notable for their transformation from the naturalism with which he began his writing career. Recovering the idea of Sicily’s Greek heritage, the final section reveals the innovative nature of Pirandello’s mythic view of the island, even while acknowledging that Pirandello thought in historical terms, too, having dedicated The Old and the Young to the story of the revolt of the Fasci Siciliani in 1893–1894.