Pirandello & World War I

World War I raged while Pirandello wrote his play, Right You Are, If You Think You Are. Pirandello later said that "It was war that revealed theatre to me. Mine is a theatre of war." War between Germany and France had been considered inevitable since at least 1905, and finally broke out in 1914. What began in a nationalist frenzy soon stalemated in a 350-mile line of trenches where thousands of lives were sacrificed to gain or lost a single mile. Euphoria was replaced by nihilism as it became evident that a whole generation was going to slaughter. To many writers and thinkers, the war was proof of the crisis in consciousness that was separate but intricately linked with the political problems that plagued Europe. Italy joined the war in 1915, and Pirandello's son Stefano enlisted, interrupting his university studies. Stefano was immediately was sent to...