Abstract
This chapter analyses Luigi Pirandello's two plays L'altro figlio (1923) and La vita che ti diedi (1923) through the prism of the relationship between memory, identity and illusion. The choice of these texts was motivated by the fact that both focus on the central role of maternity and the mother-son relationship.
The introductory part focuses on the author's concept of illusion, expressed particularly in his essay L'umorismo. The analysis uses Ricoeur's concept of narrative identity and the dialectics of the relationship between idem-identity and ipse-identity.
In both plays, the loss of the bond between the mother and the son leads to an identity crisis that affects the dialectics between sameness and ipseity. In creating both the identity of the son and that of the mother, the illusion plays a decisive role.
The truth of mothers is therefore based on an illusion that is truer for them than reality.