Mariangela in Verga’s La caccia al lupo: From Page to Stage

Abstract

This article considers the transposition from short story into play of Giovanni Verga’s La caccia al lupo. This pair of texts has been studied less than Cavalleria rusticana and La Lupa,and therefore the present discussion aims to contribute to existing critical literature by concentrating on Verga’s methods of presenting the female character (Lollo’s wife, Mariangela) in the two genres, assessing what occurs when the voice of the narrator is replaced by the exchanges of the characters on stage. The textual analysis shows how, although Mariangela takes a subsidiary position in the triangular relationship in which she is involved, she nonetheless remains the key catalyst of the plot. It will be suggested here that it is not until Verga reworks La caccia al lupo for the stage (the last work he transposes ‘from page to stage’) that he experiments with the theatre in order to take the action one step further. Each of the modifications introduced into the dramatic version (such as the extra scenes, the ‘coda’, and the use of stage directions) not only enhances the original plot, but develops Mariangela’s characterization. Consequently, unlike the reader of the novella, the audience of the play gains an insight into the different roles that she ‘performs’, and how she exploits her reasoning to save herself from the ‘wolf hunt’.