Hard to understand the meaning of “si fece”

Question

I'm trying to understand the meaning of the clause si fece which might be an idiom. Seems like reflexive form of farsi, but hard to understand the meaning within the sentences such as :

Ordinò una limonata, andò alla toilette, si sciacquò mani e viso, si fece portare un sigaro ....

or

Lindsay era nervosa e si fece una doccia per rilassarsi

or

Smisero di usare il cimitero e la terra si fece arida.

or

E si fece saltare le cervella a sessant'anni.

Does that mean dirigersi o diventarsi a una cosa ..?

Answer 1

"Si fece" is the third singular form of "passato remoto" of "farsi", which implies that all your sentences express an action that happened in the past. It has different meanings depending on the sentence:

• "Farsi arida", as you say, is the same as "diventare arida", with the meaning of "to become".
• "Farsi una doccia" means "to have a shower".
• The other ones have the structure "farsi" + infinitive which more or less mean "to have someone do something for oneself".