Tweezer the Tutor
A very minor character is named Francesco, but his physical appearance has earned him the nickname Tweezer. Metaphorical language (a simile, to be precise) is used to describe that physical appearance:
“He was repulsively thin and terribly tall. He would have been even taller, but his body bent, just below his nape, dropping like a stalk that has grown beyond its strength.”
Philosophizing
The novel is a very philosophical book. The story itself is a metaphysical analysis of the nature of identity. But even within a singularly specific piece of descriptive prose, metaphor is engaged to lift the thought processes upward to the level of philosophizing:
“From the nebulous heights of his abstractions, Mr. Anselmo often allowed his thoughts to come hurtling down in this way, like avalanches. The reason, the logic, the appropriateness of them remained up there, among the clouds, so that it was difficult for the listener to understand him.”
The Clouds
The clouds mentioned above become a metaphor for the life of the mind. The clouds the locale for living above the hurdy-gurdy of everyday existence among the rat race below.
“I read in no order, a bit of everything, but especially books of philosophy. They weigh a great deal, and yet the man who is fed on them and digests them lives among the clouds.”
Copernicus the Ruiner
One of the philosophies forwarded by one of the characters in the novel is that Copernicus ruined humanity by taking away the belief that man the creation of God—mankind—lived at the center of the universe. This philosophical rendering of the re-evaluation of the universe is framed in one of the most complex webs of metaphorical language in the book:
“Are we or are we not on a kind of invisible top, spun by a ray of sunshine, on a little maddened grain of sand, which spins and spins and spins, without knowing why, never reaching an end, as if it enjoyed spinning like this, making us feel first a bit of heat, then a bit of cold, making us die”
Darkness
Darkness is one of the go-to metaphors for the modern age. And its popularity to describe the 20th century can be traced back, in large part, to the existential absurdists like Pirandello. Indeed, darkness pops up metaphorically throughout the novel but perhaps most forthrightly in this example:
“Darkness? It may seem dark to you! But try lighting a little lamp of faith, with the pure oil of the soul. If the lamp fails, then we wander about here, in this life, like so many blind men, in spite of all the electric light we’ve invented. For life, the electric light does very well; but, my dear sir, we also need that other light to illuminate our death for us.”
