In You're right (if you think so), Luigi Pirandello questions the absolute truth by presenting various and contrasting perspectives of the same objects. The practice of highlighting multiple perspectives by simultaneously showing multiple angles of the same object is one of the key elements of the Cubist art movement, co-founded by Pablo Picasso. Likewise, Pirandello presents characters from various perspectives of others, providing sometimes incongruous ideas about the same character. Both Cubist works and the characters in Pirandello's work are fragmented forms to emphasize different points of view. The effects of Cubism and Pirandello's work reveal the malleability of universal truth by showing how while one perspective is absolutely true for one person, it can be completely false for another. The practice of showing multiple perspectives in both Cubism and So It Is (If You Think So) denounces the notion of a single unified truth and suggests that one must consider and respect all points of view, even if they differ from one's own. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Cubism is a revolutionary artistic movement by Braque and Picasso that emerged in the early 1900s and is described as "a movement that denied single-point perspective" (Glaves-Smith). It is an art form that fragments a single object or shape into smaller, more detailed parts that highlight “a multiplicity of points of view, so that many different aspects of an object can be represented simultaneously in the same image” (Chilvers). In this way, different people viewing the same work of art can see it from multiple perspectives, disproving the idea of ​​a single point of view. In her book Picasso, Gertrude Stein explains that “when [Picasso] ate a tomato the tomato was not everyone's tomato, not at all and his effort was not to express in his own way things seen as everyone sees them, but to express the thing as he saw it" (17). Picasso, known for co-founding Cubism, emphasizes the importance of subjective experience. Picasso's sole concern with his own experience of the tomato and contempt for how it appears to everyone else denounces a singular absolute truth and emphasizes his own subjective reality. In Right You Are (If You Think So), Pirandello uses a cubist approach to see the characters by showing multiple perspectives of them. Lamberto Laudisi explains that “[it] is precisely the way [one] sees [himself]. But that doesn't stop him... from being what [he] is also to [one's] husband, [one's] sister, [one's] niece, and [one's] lady here... because they too don't they are absolutely wrong” (148). Laudisi explains that different people see it differently, and they are all right in their own way because it is their subjective reality; what is true for one person is not necessarily true for another. This notion is also illustrated through the character of Mrs. Ponza. Mr. Ponza believes her to be his second wife and Mrs. Frola believes her to be his daughter. The entire plot of the work is built around the question of truth and which of them is correct. Some believe that Mr. Ponza is right, others believe that Mrs. Frola is telling the truth, to which Mrs. Ponza finally replies: “what? The truth? The truth is simply this. Yes, I am Mrs. Frola's daughter...and Mr. Ponza's second wife...and no one for me!” (205). In this sense, Mrs. Ponza can be considered a cubist work of art looked at from multiple perspectives. For Mr. Ponza she is his second wife, and for Mrs. Frola she is his daughter, showing how she changes based on theirsubjective experience of her. Indeed, she appears rather like an apparition or an object of the unreal since "she comes forward in a stiff manner, dressed in mourning, with her face covered by a thick, impenetrable black veil" (205). It appears as a statue, further contributing to Pirandello's effect of making it a symbol of the absence of a universal truth and comparing it as a sort of cubist work of art. Mrs. Ponza's final words, "I am what you think I am," echo the effects of Cubism and the intentions of artists such as Picasso (206). The importance is not given to her collective perspective, but rather to her subjective and individual experience. Even if most people agree on one perspective, people's identities by nature are fragmented. People constantly perform variations of their identity depending on the audience, the people in front of them. The concept of performativity suggests that even within the individual there is no singular identity. In act two, scene three, Laudisi speaks to his reflection in the mirror and asks "which of us is crazy?" and points his finger at his mirror (173). In this bizarre conversation with his own reflection, Laudisi suggests that what he is doing is no different from people chasing the truth about Mrs. Ponza's identity. He states that they are “chasing the ghostly image of others. And they believe it is something different” (173). The implication is that chasing someone's singular, unified identity is impossible because people are not a fixed form. Laudisi often expresses notions of performativity throughout the work, suggesting that chasing a unified identity of a person is futile, and trying to establish a “true,” singular, fixed identity of Mrs. Ponza is futile, because there is none And. Mrs. Ponza demonstrates this with her final statements that “for [her]self [she] is nobody” and “[she is] who [they] believe [she] is” (206). This seemingly frustrating conclusion to the play demonstrates that whatever version of the truth people choose to accept is the only version that matters. Her identity is fragmented in being Mr. Ponza's second wife, and also Mrs. Frola's daughter, and Laudisi's fragmentation of himself into two beings, himself and the ghostly image of himself, or the its represented identity, is similar to the fragmentation used in Cubism. Cubist artworks are fragmented to highlight the individual pieces that make up the entire physical form, and "such fragmentation and reorganization of form meant that a painting could now be regarded less as a kind of window through which one sees an image of the world". , and more like a physical object on which a subjective response to the world is created” (Chilvers). Just as Cubist artists use fragmentation to reveal the various perspectives and subjective responses one may have to the same work of art, Pirandello uses character fragmentation to emphasize how different people see others in different ways, and suggests that not there is only one unifying way. look at something. The multiple perspectives presented in both Right You Are (If You Think So) and Cubism highlight the importance of subjective experience. Laudisi exposes the problems of trying to establish an objective perspective when he explains that “[Mrs. Frola] created for him, or [Mr. Ponza] for her, a fantasy that has the same consistency as reality itself and in which both live in perfect agreement and peace with each other. And this reality of theirs can never be destroyed by any document, because they can breathe this world of theirs" (170). The Ponza-Frola family is not unhappy with their situation; it is the interference of citizens in their realities, 1938.