Mrs. Frola And Mr. Ponza Character Analysis

The novella “Mrs. Frola And Mr. Ponza, Her Son In Law” written by Luigi Pirandello is a story that leaves readers wondering which character; Mrs. Frola or Mr. Ponza, is the one that is lying. Making it more difficult to choose, the story has no answer to that question and both characters have a probability of being in a crazed state. It’s impossible to know just who is worse, so it’s left up to the town of Valdana to judge the situation of this family. Though it could be hypothesized that one or both of them is wrong, there still is a possibility that they are both right; that neither of them are crazy. Mr. Ponza is a brute, heavyset man with a temper as well as a strong controlling force over his wife, Tildina. Pirandello writes “Mr. Ponza …show more content…
Frola. Even if he allows her to go out, he must accompany her and watch her closely. He behaves in such a way that it wouldn’t be strange to call him mad; anyone who would keep a mother and daughter apart must be. However, he goes as far as telling everybody in the town that his wife is really a different woman, that his first wife is really dead. It’s a fair argument that a man such as Mr.Ponza could be crazy, but why then would he buy Mrs. Frola an apartment in the same town? Then what about Mrs. Frola? A melancholy, calm, elderly woman, a complete opposite to her son-in-law, making her not as much of a contender for being crazy herself. However, it’s odd for a woman so set on seeing her daughter, would move to the same city as her, but not demand to see her in person. She only hears her and receives little notes from her, but she hasn’t seen her daughters face in four years and she just bears with it in order to appease the man she married. There must be a reason that a mother …show more content…
Based on their behavior, and feelings toward another it could be true. For instance, the two statements that each character, Mr. Ponza’s being that Tildina’s dead and his new wife is pretending to be her, and Mrs. Frola’s being that her daughter is merely pretending to be his new wife. These both sound like arguments against each other, but there can be meaning beyond them that the story doesn’t quite fully emulate. In the end, the two are seen being very friendly and caring for one another around town. In fact, when you consider the feelings and actions of the two parties towards each other, they seem to have a good relationship. They must have made up over the issue by the end of the story. Unless there was no issue to begin with. There could be several feasible outcomes that could explain why they’re both right. For instance, if Mrs. Frola were to hypothetically have two daughters, one being Tildina and another who’s name is unknown, the two statements could make sense together. In this situation: if Mr. Ponza were to first marry either sister and then marry the second after the first sister’s death, his statement could be true could be possible. The only time that Tildina is actually mentioned by name is when Mrs. Frola goes to see her. This could illustrate that Tildina could be the second sister in this outcome. However, as for Mr. Ponza’s declaration, he believes he has deceived is