Naked Masks Literary Elements

Tragic play

The play was originally written in Italian but was translated in various languages, including English.

The action of the play takes place inside Ludovico Nota's apartment over the course of two days.

Because this is a play, there is no narrator and no point of view. The action is presented from the perspective of every character through their dialogues.

The tone used in the poem is a violent one.

The protagonist is Ersilia and the antagonist is Grotti.

The major conflict is between the truth and the lies told by the main character.

The play reaches its climax when Ersilia reveals that she and Grotti had an affair.

In the first act, Ersilia talks about how Franco had a great sense of duty and that he left her because he wanted to return back to war and thus fulfill hill duty. This obsession with duty foreshadows his later return to try and take care of Ersilia and his feelings of responsibility he feels towards the woman he abandoned.

In the third act Ersilia claims that she did not kill herself because she was abandoned by Franco. This makes the claims Ersilia made in the first act and in the second one, namely that she tried to kill herself because she was left by Franco, an understatement.

We have an allusion in the second act when Franco and Ersilia talk about their relationship. Through this conversation, Ersilia alludes to the idea that when two people are in love, they are unable to see the reality when it comes to the loved person and that those people usually ignore the faults of the loved person.

An important imagery is that of Ersilia when she first comes to the house of Ludovico Nota. At this moment, the young woman is portrayed as being extremely fragile and someone who should be take care of. This image is what prompts those around her to try and protect her and what makes her companions sympathetic to the plight.

One of the main paradoxes in the play is the way in which Grotti sent Ersilia away and then rushed to return back to her and to plead with her to become his lover again.

No parallelism can be found in the play.

We have a personification in the first act in the line "the street is noisily ruining the calming atmosphere in the house".

The main dramatic device used in this play is the stage directions which are present in the beginning of every act. These stage directions are extremely extensive, spamming over a page at lest every time. Through these directions, the author presents the place where the events take place, the way in which the characters are dressed and also their manners.