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