A student must compare Pirandello's Il fu Mattia Pascal with Svevo's La coscienza di Zeno. What is the key difference in their treatment of identity?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. Mattia cannot rebuild his lost identity, while Zeno doubts his own account
- Step 1: Mattia Pascal, thought dead, takes a new name and finds that society will not allow a man without a legal identity to live. Step 2. Zeno writes a memoir whose reliability is doubtful, and the novel's end suggests a collective catastrophe, so his identity is not fixed either. Answer: Mattia cannot rebuild his identity and Zeno's account is unstable. Why not the others: the other options misstate both plots: neither character fights a duel, finds stability or becomes a priest.
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