# The Step-Daughter — Six Characters in Search of an Author character guide

> The Step-Daughter in Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** The Step - Daughter, The Step - Daughter Leaving Madame Pace, Indicates Madame Pace

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

## Snapshot

A dashing, impudent young woman in elegant mourning who mocks the theatre even as she demands her tragedy be performed.

## Who they are

She bursts into the rehearsal with the Father and the rest, laughing at the Leading Lady cast to play her and refusing to be mixed up in the mess she herself has brought. Yet she is tender with the small Child, rocking her and warning that the stage is all make-believe, a place where painted cardboard stands in for fountains. Her contempt for the timid Boy and her fury at the Father's hypocrisy make her the family's sharpest accuser, and her insistence that the truth be shown exactly as it happened drives the play toward its most dangerous scenes.

## Relationships

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

_psychological_

A deeply disturbing relationship of mutual obsession and shame, stemming from their near-incestuous encounter at Madame Pace's brothel.

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

_professional_

The manager is alternately fascinated and exasperated by the step-daughter's manipulative and theatrical demands.

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

_family_

A painful stepmother-stepdaughter bond poisoned by the step-daughter's contempt and the mother's helpless guilt.

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

_family_

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

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

_professional_

The actors are alternately amused and irritated by the step-daughter's dramatic and mocking attitude.

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

_family_

The little girl is the step-daughter's half-sibling, but they have minimal interaction; the child is mostly silent and tragic.

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

_family_

A tense half-sibling relationship; the boy resents the step-daughter's boldness and she dismisses him.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/six_characters_in_search_of_an_author_se/characters/the_step_daughter
- 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