Mattia Pascal vs. Adriano Meis

The protagonist in Il fu Mattia Pascal tries to escape from his life by creating a false identity. However, to what extent is it possible to abandon your identity? You could burn your passport, change your name, change your looks and tell people you are someone else. The reflection in the mirror will still haunt you and remind you of the fact that you are wearing a mask. Mattia’s efforts are in vain as he gets entangled in his own lies to such an extent that he can no longer return to his own identity; he has become the victim of his own plan.

The mirror appears three times in Pirandello’s novel, and . each time we find the protagonist in front of it. The first time Mattia Pascal contemplates in front of the mirror is in chapter V, “Maturazione”, when he realises for the first time that his life is based on a paradox: it is both tragic and comical at the same time. After a fight with his family, his face is scratched, bruised and dripping with fluids. As he does not know whether it is dripping with blood or with tears, he goes to the mirror to see. The tears on his face are produced by his laughter and by crying: comedy and tragedy. The function of the mirror in this chapter is to trigger a process of self-consciousness. When Mattia Pascal looks at himself, it signifies the introduction of his maturation process. In this scene he also notices that his cross-eyed eye is looking in a totally different direction, which for him suggests the willingness to escape from his own identity.

When we find the protagonist in front of the mirror for the second time in chapter VIII, “Adriano Meis”, he has abandoned being Mattia Pascal and has adopted his new identity as Adriano Meis. At the barbershop, he does not yet know what his new identity looks like until the barber has finished his work. When this moment arrives, Adriano Meis looks up into the mirror and experiences a feeling of shame. Instead of examining his entire new look, all of his attention is drawn to his cross-eyed eye. He hates this eye, and the fact that he cannot get rid of it frustrates him. The function of the mirror at this moment is to introduce his new identity and to underline that deep down, Mattia Pascal is not completely dead.