Death

Pirandello treats the subject of death in several of this stories. The theme is central to some of the stories and secondary in others, but a common thread seems to emerge of death being treated as an inevitable and perhaps even absurd part of life.

Death is a central part of the action of "The Fly," where a young farmhand slowly dies alone in a stable from anthrax, possibly contracted from the bite of fly. The young man accepts his fate, but his last thoughts are jealous ones for his cousin, who is to be married. As he lies dying, he silently watches as a fly bites his cousin on the chin, possibly infecting him as well, and giving him a small bit of comfort. Pirandello does not present death as a rapturous or even tragic event. The character of the young man is subject to his human...