Pirandello

Pirandello was born in Girgenti, Sicily in 1867, to a wealthy father. He got his start, at age seventeen, when he published his first short story in the newspaper (Jewinski). He was a teacher, critic, and fiction writer. He began his writing career as a poet, in 1889, when he published the poem "Joyful Pain" (Jewinski). Not until later in his life did he become a playwright. His work showed that he seemed to have a very dark and negative perception of life and of human nature. This dark perception of his view of life was thought to have come from the hardships he had faced in his own life. Some of the problems Pirandello had experienced in his life were issues with his wife's health, World War I, and his father's financial dilemma. In an effort to rehabilitate his wife, she was placed in an institution for decades because of her severe mental health issues with paranoia. He struggled during the time of World War I because of the fact that his two sons were enlisted in the army during this time. In 1903, when Pirandello was thirty-six, his wealthy father went bankrupt from his support of Pirandello's "elegant literary style of life" (Hornby). These personal difficulties not only sculpted his view of life, but also aided him in making himself a well-known author. His wife's mental health problems inspired his play "Right You Are (If You Think So)", which was the story of two women, one of which was mentally ill (Hornby).