L’UMORISMO NE LA CARIOLA DI LUIGI PIRANDELLO
Humor in The Wheelbarrow" of Luigi Pirandello

Summary/Abstract: This short story presents a man, a lawyer and a professor of law, who wants to tell in a mysterious way a recent mania that torments him. He is a man dedicated to work, he is honest whether in public or in private, he is never distracted. One day, as he returns from Perugia by train, unable to concentrate on his work, he begins to look at the charm of the countryside without seeing anything. It’s because he cannot see what’s outside, but he sees life only through the mask that the world has imposed on him, he will never be able to live again, he sees the desires that disappeared even before their birth. From there, he begins to find the life he has always lived unbearable. The character does not resign himself to his “mask” but accepts his role with an ironic and humorous attitude. The man, conscious of relativism, will realize that the image he has always had of himself does not really correspond to that which others had of him and he will make every effort to steal this inaccessible side of his ego. He wants to remove the “mask” that has been imposed on him and reacts with despair. The main questions that we’d want to answer to through this article are: What does humour mean according to Pirandello? And how is humour used in the short story ‘La Carriola’?

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