# The Son — Six Characters in Search of an Author character guide

> The Son in Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Indicates The Son, The Son Exasperated

**First appearance:** 0000-dramatis-personae

## Snapshot

A tall, severe young man who follows his family onto the stage only under protest and refuses to play any part in their drama.

## Who they are

He stands apart from the others, supercilious toward the Mother and contemptuous of the Father, looking as though he has come against his will. His shame at the family's public exposure makes him the characters' internal dissenter, resisting the Manager's attempts to assign him a role and rejecting the Step-Daughter's demands that he acknowledge her. His refusal to participate becomes its own kind of statement, exposing how much of the family's tragedy lies not in what happened but in who will not speak of it.

## Relationships

### [The Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters/the_mother)

_family_

A strained mother-son relationship marked by the son's resentment and the mother's guilt over past abandonment.

### [The Manager](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters/the_manager)

_professional_

The manager is frustrated by the son's sullen refusal to participate in the rehearsal.

### [The Father](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters/the_father)

_family_

An estranged father-son relationship, with the son openly hostile and rejecting his father's attempts at connection.

### [The Step-Daughter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters/the_step_daughter)

_family_

A hostile sibling-like relationship, with the son disgusted by the step-daughter's behavior and her past.

### [The Boy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters/the_boy)

_family_

The boy is the son's half-brother, but the son ignores him completely, deepening the boy's isolation.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters/the_son
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters