1900's illustrated editions have him dressed as a clown with dunce cap, extra small. Thinking it will bring him much luck, woodcarver and yellow wig wearer Geppetto decides to create a boy-marionette from a talking piece of wood. Thus begins Pinocchio's journey of sadistic torture at the hands of various humans and anthropomorphic creatures; he gets his feet burned off; in a rage, he tries to kill a talking cricket with a hammer; he almost gets burned alive; is continuously made fun of and laughed at; bites off the paw of a cat; barely survives lynching after being hung by the neck from an Oak tree by two assassins; almost drowns multiple times; is sentenced to prison for four months; gets both legs caught in an iron trap; is chained with dog collar and kept prisoner in a dog kennel; has a giant guilt trip laid on him from the death of the blue-haired Child; is hunted down by dogs; barely escapes being fried like a piece of battered fish; and maybe his ultimate humiliation, gets turned into a donkey:
"Pinocchio, weighted down by the stone, went at once to the bottom, and his owner, keeping tight hold of the cord, sat down quietly on a piece of rock to wait until the little donkey was drowned, intending then to skin him."
"And in his despair he tried to tear his hair, but his hair was made of wood so he could not even have the satisfaction of sticking his fingers into it."
Surely the stuff of dreams.
Image: Pinocchio by Enrico Mazzanti (1852-1910)
