Gurdaloo could possibly have a dissociative identity disorder. When the reader is first introduced to Gurdaloo he is shown as him pretending to be a duck, but he’s not pretending, Gurdaloo is convinced he is actually a duck, “Does he think he’s a duck too?” “He thinks the ducks are him. Gurdaloo’s like that, a bit careless…” (Calvino 25). 

Raimbaut’s grief for his late father and then Bradamante immensely influences the decisions that he makes and the way that he thinks. He joined the army to avenge his father in hopes of some clarity. Almost immediately after he avenged his father, he met a female warrior named Bradamante. Bradamante saved Raimbaut’s life and he immediately fell in love with her but unfortunately she didn’t reciprocate the feelings. The reader gets a look into Raimbaut’s head when he says "What is this frenzy that drives me, this mania for battle and for love, seen from the place where your staring eyes gaze, and your flung back head that knocks over stones?” (Calvino 57). The desolation caused by his fathers death and Bradamentes dismissal of his feelings cause Raimbaut to realize that the days that matter in one's life are the ones “before the tomb,” (Calvino 57).