Luigi Pirandello
L'Esclusa

This is the first novel by the Sicilian writer Luigi Pirandello, written in 1893 with the title "Marta Ajala".

The story is set in a Sicilian village, Monte Cavo. The protagonist, Marta Ajala, indeed feels "excluded" from the society in which she lives for having spectacularly lost the place that was assigned to her. A place of a submissive and bored wife, in which she lived uncomfortably, but which made her respectable in front of people. A place she does not regret, but whose sudden and violent loss has thrown her into a dramatic situation: she was kicked out of the house by her husband, Rocco Pentàgora, who caught her reading a letter from a suitor, Gregorio Alvignani, whose amorous advances she had always rejected.
The husband's hasty decision, overwhelmed by anger; the father's attitude, who, although knowing her innocence, fully justifies the husband's decision, due to a misunderstood spirit of male solidarity, and lets himself die of shame; the subdued sorrow of the mother and sister, always ready to advise her to surrender and submit; the collective malevolence of the villagers, even ready to take advantage of a procession passing under her windows to publicly inveigh against her, are the elements of a meticulously described picture, in the manner of the realists, that highlights the parochial mindset of the village.

But Marta's reaction is only partly similar to that of naturalist characters; it reveals an inner condition that transcends them, a much more complex psychology that starts with the petty-bourgeois satisfaction for Alvignani's letters, "... a renowned lawyer, praised, admired, and respected by the whole city..." and gradually develops into a stubborn fight against everyone for an economic and moral redemption, which in the end she will manage to obtain, but without joy. Winning the battles undertaken within society is not enough to no longer be among the defeated.
The mocking twist of fate prevails over the objectivity of the narrative, following an unexpected logic, expressed in a series of coincidences that reveal their obscure meaning, as when the father dies simultaneously with the birth of Marta's child, carried in her womb with repulsion, almost signifying a clear break from the past. The singularity of the circumstances will culminate in the final twist: the husband will take back Marta when she is now guilty, after having cast her out innocent.
In yielding to Alvignani, now a deputy, who helped her face the injustices of the school authorities (hindering her appointment as a teacher, despite having deservedly won the competition), she seems to adapt to the role of his lover that the same society imposed on her. But her state of mind is never that of someone who passively surrenders, even if her restless struggle against circumstances dominated by an inscrutable force will prove futile. In the end, it will not be the society from which she is rehabilitated that defeats her, but life itself, which brings with it a pain that no success can erase.

It is significant that the author uses the keyword "excluded" precisely in the second part of the novel, where Marta's resurrection seems to be hidden. Her tenacious fight against everyone had earned her that coveted teaching position, which allowed her to lift her mother and sister out of poverty. But precisely the happiness of these two women makes her feel spiritual isolation, her inability to feel included in society.
But, in reality, has she ever had a place? Marta never fully adhered to the condition of a wife and mother. The same love experience with Alvignani does not crown a long dream. She is embittered by scruples, remorse, prejudices never erased by her only apparent emancipation. On the other hand, Alvignani will seem insincere to her, incapable of fulfilling her desire for authenticity. He will eventually show himself tired of this relationship, even while pretending otherwise, and will push her to accept her husband's forgiveness. When she returns to him pregnant with another man's child, she will inadvertently perform a kind of bitter revenge, but by then she no longer even has the will to take satisfaction in it.

Marta Ajala is a complex character, apparently determined and combative, able to achieve important results, yet never solving her inner problems and always dominated by circumstances; in the end, she resigns herself to being subjugated by her husband once again, as, all in all, she was by Alvignani, due to that hidden and inexorable law that decides the destinies of human beings without considering their will.