Luigi Pirandello’s short story ‘‘A Day Goes By’’ is considered to be an allegory of a man’s life. How do we know, however, that the story is not real? Until the very end, when the main character ages overnight, nothing completely implausible occurs. And one could argue that the character has been old all along—when…
Tag: Luigi Pirandello
A Day Goes By by Luigi Pirandello – Allegory – Setting
Fascism The Fascist Party in Italy first organized in 1919, when Benito Mussolini founded the Fasci di Combattimento . The word fascio comes from the Latin fasces , the name for the ceremonial bundle of rods and axe that carried in procession in ancient Rome and symbolized the unity and the power of the Roman…
A Day Goes By by Luigi Pirandello – Literary Devices
Point of View The use of first-person point of view in this story is critical to creating the nightmarish, surreal feeling of a man completely adrift, without identity. The reader must have access to the main character’s thoughts and feelings to experience his bewilderment and horror at the strange events that occur. In addition, if…
A Day Goes By by Luigi Pirandello – Themes
Alienation According to the Pirandello translator Frederick May, Pirandello once wrote in his private notebook, ‘‘There is somebody who’s living my life. And I know nothing about him.’’ This sense of detachment from one’s life, even from oneself, is an important theme of ‘‘A Day Goes By.’’ From the moment the story begins, the main…
A Day Goes By by Luigi Pirandello – Characters
Children and Grandchildren Near the close of the story, the main character is visited by his grown children and their children, though he does not remember ever having had children (‘‘I must have had them yesterday,’’ he muses). When they arrive for their visit, the grandchildren are small; just minutes later, the grown children have…
A Day Goes By by Luigi Pirandello – Plot Summary
As the story opens, the main character is on the ground in a dark, deserted train station, having been thrown off the train, though he has no memory of how or why. In fact, he cannot remember why he was on the train in the first place, or where he was going. He leaves the…