Why Do People Wear Masks In Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel
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Some people in high school are pretending to be at a big masquerade party. They wear masks pretending to be someone different from who they really are, and convince the people around them to see there mask as their true self. Many of the teenagers in the book Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes wore masks to hide who they really were. The students revealed their true identities and how they felt by writing and performing poetry on Open Mike Fridays in their English class. The main character, Tyrone Bittings, is a judgmental, confident, observant teen that reveals who he truly is through learning and listening to poetry.
Many people in the world today try to cover up their darker sides with a "mask" which hides their true self. Often times, however, people's masks are removed and we see them for who they really are. Many politicians today do this when they try to get people to vote for them. They wear a "mask" to veil their darker sides so the public can't see their flaws. The narrator in "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe and the character Tom Walker in "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving wear "masks" to cover up their darker character traits.
Shakespeare once said “All the world’s stage and all women and men merely players” and throughout the tough times, we’ve learned to mask ourselves according to different characters in order to gain society’s approval that we solely forget to seek acceptance from ourselves. In the short story, “Everyone Talked Loudly in Chinatown” by Anne Jew, Lin puts on different masks as she interacts with her family and in school to live up to their expectations. While in the short story “The Kid Nobody Could Handle” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jim had accepted society’s view that he had forgotten about how he views himself, unlike Gene from “I Go Along” by Richard Peck, who had forcibly put on a mask despite knowing his true potential. All of these characters had
Oscar Wilde once wrote: “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth,”. I think this quote is trying to say that when you give someone a mask, they will tell you anything more openly. This will happen because no one knows who is truly hiding behind the mask. Also, what you say will not be judged as harshly by the people you know since they don’t have any thoughts about you before hand since it is anonymous.
“We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-.” This quote is from the poem, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar which is a poem about the struggle that Paul Laurence Dunbar’s family went through during their lives being enslaved. This quote represents the role that a mask can play in covering up true self. By wearing a mask, a person is covering up their unique features. Also, they are not letting anyone get to know them as well as hiding their persona from the public.
But as you look deeper into her character you see a strong woman who has faced many struggles in life, but still stays positive. In the book How to Read Like a Professor for Kids, chapter fourteen, “Marked for Greatness” It says, "Does a character who looks horrible always act horribly? Not
People act differently when they are with certain people than when they are alone. Some will call this act a “mask.” This metaphor is used because people cover up who they truly are or what they really feel with their actions; similar to the way a mask covers up a person’s face. This idea of a mask is explored in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask” and readers can see examples of “masks” in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. People often wear masks to hide something about themselves that they are not proud of or hide their emotions and fears they do not want others to know.
Concept: The Scarlet Pimpernel has several meaningful themes woven amongst it’s comical presentation. As we examined the script we were specifically drawn to the theme of pretense that is found throughout the show. Almost all of the characters are hiding their true selves, either for a moment or in some cases, for the entirety of the show. These deceptions although may at first seem harmless or even helpful, are in fact what creates much of chaos and struggle that these characters must go through. From this theme, we developed the concept, “Immured in the facade.”
In this world, an individual has two masks: the mask is the way the individual chooses to express and appear to family and close friends and the second mask is the way the individual expresses his or her self to the outside world. In some cases, people have many different masks for the different groups of people he or she interacts with. The masks people wear can hide and reveal aspects of them, in other words, one-mask reveals who the individual truly is and the other is who the individual wishes they were. In Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Connie, the main character, wears two masks, which coincides with the contradictory themes of the story, fantasy versus reality.
Hiding behind a mask Have you ever had a day when you are too embarrassed of yourself that you wanted to hide by wearing a mask? Masks are used in various ways, they can be used for a Halloween costume or a stage play. The astonishing thing is that those masks are visible to others. In the Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters such as Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan use masks that cannot be seen with the naked eye, they used them as a way to hide their flaws to others. Jay Gatsby is one of the major characters of the novel, Gatsby is a tremendously rich young guy living in a mansion located known as West Egg.
A quote that strongly portrays this theme is “ I don’t think it’s so much that, argued Lucille skeptically, it’s more that he was a German spy during the war” (44). People think the main character is someone who he is not, so he has to live a lie pretending who he is not. Another quote I think is important is “ He’s afraid, he’s waited so long. He thought you might be offended. You see he’s a regular tough underneath it all”(78).
Take a look at yourself in that worn out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for fifty cents from some rag picker! And with the crazy crown on! What queen do you think you are?” (Williams, 127). Appearance vs reality not only means that the reader/ public can be deceived, but also a person can deceive themselves.
You and I are incredibly lucky… We Australians live in a gun free country. The importation of guns is regulated by the Federal Government. Whereas other nations are not so fortunate. 1.2 billion people, divided amongst 50 states and every single one of them has to live in fear everyday, in the workplace, classrooms and in their homes.
In life we all are a secretive about certain parts of ourselves. For example, if someone is around new people they might not share many things about them with other people. This applies to many stories in literature as well, because new characters keep many secrets that are generally not revealed to other characters. This secretiveness can also symbolize many things in the life around the characters. In the book Behind a Mask; or, a Woman’s Power, author Louisa May Alcott demonstrates this aspect of literature through Jean Muir while symbolizing parts of the Victorian society around them.
She feared for her life as well as the lavish lifestyle she had become accustomed to. This time she was not trying to save the queen’s image but instead present herself to us in a similar way. She presents herself both as a sympathetic figure and someone to look up to. Lebrun highlights her own delicate and graceful features, as well as her daughter’s beauty. “A youthful and lovely Vigée Le Brun, wearing a loose-fitting white garment that enticingly reveals her right shoulder and arm, and adorned with a reddish shawl, enfolds in her arms little Julie.
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