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Paradox
Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Act 1
Explanation and Analysis—Reason & Instinct:
In Act 1, the Manager personifies reason as a man (who is "empty") and instinct as a wife (who has "fullness" but is also "blind") in order to explain the relationship between two characters:
(THE ACTORS grin. The Manager goes to Leading Man and shouts:) Yes sir, you put on the cook’s cap and beat eggs. Do you suppose that with all this egg-beating business you are on an ordinary stage? Get that out of your head. You represent the shell of the eggs you are beating! (Laughter and comments among the actors.) Silence! and listen to my explanations, please! (To Leading Man:) “The empty form of reason without the fullness of instinct, which is blind."—You stand for reason, your wife is instinct. It’s a mixing up of the parts, according to which you who act your own part become the puppet of yourself.
The strongest example of personification in this passage is the quote the Manager reads to the Leading Man: he describes "the empty form of reason" and "the fullness of instinct, which is blind." He also suggests that instinct is the "wife" of reason. Of course, abstract concepts cannot actually be empty, full, blind, or married to one another. But in this case, the assignment of qualities and genders to these concepts reveals the Manager's opinion of the men and women involved in the family's dramatic story. More specifically, the association between "empty" reason and maleness reinforces the Father's ignorant intellectualism. In this scene it is also important to note that the Manager requires the actors to embody these concepts, but by explaining them in this manner, he makes it even more difficult for them to understand what to do on stage.
One of the most fascinating things about this play is that the ideas within it seem more real than the characters. Personification reinforces this interpretation. Many playwrights, novelists, and philosophers personify abstract concepts in order to make them more tangible or easier to understand, but Pirandello manages to make the Manager's speech even more convoluted by personifying the concepts of reason and instinct. Thus the Manager, Actors, and viewers remain in a constant state of confusion, barely buoyed through the play by snappy philosophical analogies.
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