"Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue
things, is the proper aim of Art" (Wilde,
1889/1905, p. 17). To this, Pirandello adds the
Aristotelian argument that through distortion and
poetic licence, the artist reaches for a deeper
truth, one quite distinct from the ephemeral,
superficial 'realities' we experience in our busy,
partial, fragmented lives. The two arguments
come together in the formula "the truth of the
story lies not in its accuracy, but in its meaning"