Luigi Pirandello's the Tight Frock-Coat Summary

Pirandello is, after d'Annunzio, the most prominent Italian writer in the modern era. He wrote in many different formats, beginning with short stories and transitioning into novels and drama later in his life. He was the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1934. His writing is highly philosophical and questions of self and identity pervade it: Can a person change his identity? What makes a person who he is? The story presented here, however, is not quite as a philosophically intense as other works, but deals rather with the conflict between desire and social pressure.

The story opens with Professor Gori trying on frock-coats to rent, upset that he has to wear one at all. Finally, he settles on one, but immediately after the store-clerk leaves his house, the fabric tears under the arm. His housemaid...