Have you ever worn a mask before? Maybe the mask wasn't a costume mask, but it was a mask to make you seem happy, or seem cool, or anything that made you feel like something than you are not normally. Chances are you have. Trying to fit in with the crowd, a mask is used to obtain the things we cannot reach on our own. Masks are especially common today because of the pressures to belong to the 'in'; group, or the pressures to succeed. Books, using masks, commonly show the many connotations of masks. They are used to find out what people are for real, on the inside of the mask. The imagery of masks is used throughout the book of Twelfth Night. Shakespeare uses the imagery of masks to reveal characters true emotions and to express the power of raw beauty. Shakespeare uses this imagery through all of his characters in the play, but especially the two characters of Viola and Feste.
The perfect example of the use of the masking imagery can be seen through Feste. Acting as a wiseman and not the fool, Feste shows the development of masks. Feste tries to 'conceal [him] for what [he] is';(1.2) because he knows that if the people knew that he was a wiseman, than he would not be called upon to sing his songs, symbols of what is right. Also, the people would not come to him for the advice he gives them in his songs and speeches. This is a strong example of masking imagery because it shows of what the character might be like without his mask, and what he might be treated as if he wasn't the fool. In the play, full of masking imagery, Feste shows his many personalities. He shows the 'devil man';(4.2) in himself when talking to Malvolio. This is shown as a mask to the audience because it shows that not only is Feste a wiseman and a fool, but he is also a mean and tricky person. This shows that the masks of Feste are shown in many different cases, causing them to be very well developed. Feste's masks tend to show what everyone wants at that time. Feste acts as 'an ass';(5.1) for his friends. Pleasing the people, the masks show that Feste can be more liked and more used for all purposes. But the identity of Feste can always be revealed through eyes.
The Chivo mask is from Mexico, typically found in the state of Guerrero. The mask was first created and used in the village, Zitlala, after the Mexican Revolution. It is used for the ritual dance called “La Danza de los Chivos” or Dance of the Goats. However, the dance is now used in many other celebrations and festivities throughout other areas of Mexico, as well.
A theme in “Our Secret,” by Susan Griffin that is developed through the character of Himmler, and the symbolism with the development of a cell is that if individuals hide constantly behind masks, they will struggle internally.
In the essay “In Defense of Masks,” by Kenneth Gergen, he states how people do not “normally develop a coherent sense of identity” (Gergen 2). Gergen talks about how we as people may “experience severe emotional distress,” (Gergen 2) instead of having a set identity. The difference between the idea of multiple identities that are represented by masks and having a coherent sense of identity of one’s true self, is that having a coherent sense of identity means that a person stays the same in every situation and never changes. On the other hand, having multiple identities that are represented by masks means that one’s identity is ever changing and shifting depending on the situation that they are in and the people who surround them. However, even
In William Golding’s “Lord Of The Flies”, a group of boys is stranded on an island that completely changes them. The boys turn totally different from how they act from society as if they were putting on masks. It’s not just the boys that wear masks, but a lot of people try to hide from other people. What a mask does is that it hides a person’s trait and shows something completely different. I have made a mask like one of the boys, Ralph, that tries to show that he’s a leader, but hides a different personality. Here are some of the qualities of my mask.
In the time of the Great Depression, many people were in moments of suffering and hardships. However, African American were facing moments of prejudice and segregation, that was sonly based on the color of their skin. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper lee and the poem “We wear the mask” by Paul Lawrence Dumber, gave incite to those moments and how African Americans changed themselves to fit in to the white people society.
The mask is a form of deception or illusion. Sometimes, it can be worn as both. It hides the true emotions of slaves, keeping the slave master from knowing what is going on in their minds. The mask also allows the slave to have an identity without the master’s detection. The mask gives the illusion that the slave is exactly how the masters believe, ignorant, incapable of true emotion, and unable to think for themselves.
The mask he wears could also be the link between actor and character. This is a similar idea in Six Characters as well with the fact that it is a blurred line often between who the actor is and who the character in the play is.
Inventing Elliot is the story of a boy named Elliot who chooses to be a different person. Him moving to a different school, seems to be the chance for him to stop the bullying. He tries to act like a “cooler” person by putting on different masks. The plan of “standing out in the right way” works too well. Elliot gets noticed by the “Guardians”, a group of people who terrorize students at school. They like the “new Elliot” so much, that they want Elliot to become one of
A person’s identity develops from birth and is shaped by many components, including values and attitudes given at home. We all have a different perspective about who we want to be and what fits better with our personality. However, is our identity only shaped by personal choices or does culture play an important role here? It is a fact that the human being is always looking for an inclusion in society. For instance, there is a clear emphasis in both, “Masks”, by Lucy Grealy, and “Stranger in the Village”, by James Baldwin that identity can be shaped by culture. Grealy does a great job writing about the main issue that has made her life so difficult: her appearance. Cancer has placed her in a position where people,
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyric poem in which the point of attraction, the mask, represents the oppression and sadness held by African Americans in the late 19th century, around the time of slavery. As the poem progresses, Dunbar reveals the façade of the mask, portrayed in the third stanza where the speaker states, “But let the dream otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role over the life of African Americans, whom pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This ocassion, according to Dunbar, is the “debt we pay to human guile," meaning that their sadness is related to them deceiving others. Unlike his other poems, with its prevalent use of black dialect, Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” acts as “an apologia (or justification) for the minstrel quality of some of his dialect poems” (Desmet, Hart and Miller 466). Through the utilization of iambic tetrameter, end rhyme, sound devices and figurative language, the speaker expresses the hidden pain and suffering African Americans possessed, as they were “tortured souls” behind their masks (10).
The importance of costume in the theatre cannot be rated too highly, for it is not only an outward and immediately visible medium of expression for the actor himself but it is significant of the dramatic values which he is suppose to portray (Brooke, 1). The colors, texture and shape of a costume can create a feeling of the character that the actor may not be able to portray. There is not any definite information on what exactly the Greeks used for costumes because so much time has elapsed since the original records were taken. Most information is based on the different artifacts that were found, such as paintings and pottery. Sometimes hints of what was worn could be found in the plays themselves.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an African-American poet, describes the suffering that blacks were subjected to in his 1913 poem, “We Wear the Mask”. In his poem, Dunbar asserts that blacks are partially responsible for the suffering of African Americans due to their belief that a deceptive “mask” was necessary for their survival.
A mask is a covering worn on the face or something that disguises or conceals oneself. All the characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet hide behind masks to cover up who they really are, which contridictes a main idea, expressed by the fool, Old Polonius, "To thine ownself be true" (Polonius - 1.3.84). All the characters share strengths and triumphs, flaws and downfalls. Instead of revealing their vulnerabilities, each of them wears a mask that conceals who they are and there true convictions. The masks brought about feelings such as fear, hatred, insanity, indecisiveness, ambitiousness, and vengeance all of which contribute to the tragic ending of the play. Shakespeare reveals the idea of the masks in the first lines of the play, "Who's there" (Barnardo - 1.1.1). "Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself" (Fransisco - 1.1.2).
Summers, Joseph H. "The Masks of Twelfth Night." University of Kansas City Review 22 (1955): 86-97.
The action of Twelfth Night begins shortly after a damaging tempest shipwrecks the heroine, casting her upon foreign shores. Upon arrival in this strange seaport, Viola--like the Princess Leonide--dons male disguise which facilitates both employment and time enough to orient herself in this unfamiliar territory.