The Story Archive

Henry IV

Luigi Pirandello · 1922 CE · Play · Italian · Modernist

Twenty years ago a young man fell from his horse during a costume cavalcade in which he rode as the German emperor Henry IV, and woke convinced that he was. His sister kept a villa fitted out as an eleventh-century court with hired attendants in period dress; now her heirs arrive with a doctor and a plan to shock him out of it, among them the woman he loved and the rival who was riding beside him. Not Shakespeare's king but the emperor who stood barefoot at Canossa.

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Attributes

Genre
TragedyPsychological
Theme
MadnessAppearance vs RealityMemory & TimeJustice & Revenge
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Ruler / KingTragic HeroWise Fool
Plot structure
Tragic ReversalMistaken Identity
Symbol / motif
The MaskThe CrownThe Portrait
Conflict
vs Selfvs Person
Mode / tone
TragicIronicModernist
Culture / tradition
Italian

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