"La figlia di Iorio": patriarchal society, the artist and the independent woman, between bourgeois drama and melodrama

Abstract

The article analyzes the text with various critical instruments. It points out how Aligi, the protagonist, metaphorically represents the figure of the artist that becomes stranged from social context, into which he refuses to fit with his incomparable diversity. His equivalent figure is the woman who is sexually free, unfairly ostracized as a prostitute by archaic patriarchal society.  On one hand, d’Annunzio is fascinated by the two characters who come into conflict with the social order; on the other hand, he ends up by celebrating the traditional family the hero comes into, after the self-exclusion of the woman. This solution certainly helped the play to be successful with the bourgeois public, together with a touch of exoticism represented by a primordial Abruzzo. Yet, behind this exotic charm, the public recognized the reassuring notes of bourgeois play and melodrama: the vicissitudes of Aligi and Mila are quite similar to those of La Traviata.