An Italian Play

There is a writer I have always loved, since I first “met” him in my teen-age years. His name is Luigi Pirandello. He was an Italian dramatist from Sicily, a novelist,  playwright, philosopher. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934. His theatrical works, rather than “plays”, could be defined as tragic farces. I use the adjective “tragic” not so much because his stories end up in actual tragedies (fortunately they don't), but because well-known and usually accepted truths are shattered in front of our own eyes. And also our “logic” seems to be sent… for a walk! One of my favorite plays is “Cosi’ e’ (se vi pare)”, “So it is (if you like it)”. The plot revolves around the mystery surrounding the family situation of a certain Mr.Ponza, who recently moved to a new town after his village was destroyed by an earthquake. He keeps his wife in a secluded upper floor apartment and his mother-in-law (Mrs.Frola) in a distant dwelling, preventing the two women from getting together. When compelled to speak about this strange arrangement, he says that his first wife (Mrs.Frola’s daughter) had died but, in order to keep the old lady from collapsing from grief, he lets her believe that he is too jealous to share his (second) wife even with her mother. On the other hand, Mrs.Frola says that her daughter had been ill and, after recovering, her husband did not recognize her, so they had to pretend that she was his new wife. Complicated? Kind of! Typical Pirandello, always inviting us to cerebral, totally intellectual reasoning. At the end, in order to discover the truth, the nosy town people compel Mr.Ponza to bring his spouse to them, because she is the only one able to disclose the mystery by telling the truth, i.e. who she really is (i.e. Mr.Ponza's first or second wife). But when the lady is finally brought forward, in front of the madly curious people, her only, merciful explanation is, “I am the one I am believed to be”. What an answer! It has haunted me since I first saw this play at fifteen. Is there a unique TRUTH? Or is it true (for each one of us) only what each one of us believes to be true?