The 2 Lives of Mattia Pascal

Based on Il fu Mattia Pascal one of Pirandellos many stories concerning the transitory nature of the intangibles truth and identity Mattia Pascal is a downtrodden average man treated like trash by his fiancée scorned by his associates and cheated out of his inheritance by contemptuous relatives The dispirited Pascal heads to Monte Carlo accruing a fortune and also assuming the identity of a less fortunate gambler who killed himself The new Pascal is treated with a dignity and respect that overwhelms himand nearly kills him