Nienhuis is a Ph.D. specializing in modern and contemporary drama. In this essay he discusses the role that uncertainty plays in Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Pirandellian themes like the relativity of truth, the constantly changing nature of personal identity, or the difficulty of distinguishing between reality and illusion or between sanity and madness all have a common thread—they all point to uncertainty as a significant part of human experience. As John Gassner has observed, Pirandello was consistently "expressing a conviction that nothing in life is certain except its uncertainty."

In Six Characters in Search of an Author uncertainty begins with the introduction of the "characters." The claim they make about their reality is obviously counter to fact (they are, of course, actors), but Pirandello makes their case so convincing that it is ultimately difficult for the audience to feel certain...