The Adventures of Pinocchio

Content Warning: The source material uses outdated and offensive language about individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities. This guide includes this language in quoted material when necessary.

Pinocchio is the titular protagonist of The Adventures of Pinocchio. He is an animated and conscious puppet carved from an enchanted piece of wood. Through Pinocchio’s repetitious ill-advised adventures, he is characterized as inherently rebellious and impulsive, despite the efforts of the caregivers in his life to steer him toward obedience and temperance. Pinocchio conforms to the trope of the willful and disobedient child who believes that he knows better than his elders and therefore comes to grief.

Dramatic irony often occurs through Pinocchio’s decision-making, as the reader understands what Pinocchio should do (either innately or because this option is clearly spelled out for him and insisted upon), but the puppet always chooses tempting but ultimately unwise courses. For example, he trusts the cat and the fox to lead him to the Field of Wonders to bury his gold coins (they claim that this will cause his money to multiply); Pinocchio is robbed and loses his money. This pattern of poor choices, which inevitably leads to Pinocchio’s suffering and distress, is repeated many times throughout the fable and serves to illustrate Collodi’s central theme: