The Theme of Masks, Tweflth Night
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
The imagery of masks has been proven to be very well developed. Feste and Viola, developing the imagery, help to make the masking connotations more powerful. The masks are shown to be well developed and have definite meaning to the reader. The people use the masks to conform to the needs of the crowd, and that is what Feste and Viola do in the book. In life, it is the same way. We have to conform ourselves to the wants of our peers and everyone else alike. By doing this, we are masking our true selves and our identities from the public. Although masks are created to prevent the real you from coming out, in the book, everyone eventually came out. And look what happened, a wonderful peace was found and everyone realized what had been the problem the whole time. We must take our masks off, and maybe the people will like you and me better, for who we truly are. You never know, someone might just see you and think, hey, I really like that guy. Viola also has a mask that she dares not to reveal to anyone else, that is very well developed throughout the entire play. This helps the imagery of masks because if she were to reveal herself at any time before the end of the book, than the whole play would have been destroyed. Pulling the book together, the imagery of masks has to be very well developed in Viola. "Conceal me for what I am"(1.2) tends to be the development of imagery in Viola's case. The mask turns from a use of getting a job, to helping Orinso fall in love, to helping Orsino realize what love is. She uses "a division of [hers
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1049
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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