Chapter 10
Who is behind the mask? Identity in
literature
The mask
The actors in classical Greek tragedy all wore masks on stage, separating
themselves from the spectators more than the stage itself could. The mask is a
sign not to kill the messenger and at the same time elevates the theatre stage to a
platform of ritual performance ‘out of this world’. Artistes of the Commedia
dell’arte in Renaissance Italy revived the classical tradition using masks to enact
stereotyped roles.
The Chinese opera and Japanese Noh are also highly ceremonialized theatres
that make use of masks bearing symbolic meaning. They signify the characters’
age, gender, social status, and personality, which may not concur with the actors’
own properties. These masks stylize and codify emotions and character traits, a
dramatic technique that also inspired modern playwrights such as W. B. Yeats,
Eugene O’Neill, and Bertolt Brecht.
Italian dramatist Luigi Pirandello saw in masks a theatrical convention most
appropriate for modern times where the sense of individual singleness is under
constant threat, a point he put on stage in his play Six Characters in Search of an
Author. In it, six actors who are about to rehearse for a play by Pirandello are
unexpectedly interrupted by six characters who inform them that they are in
search of an author. Pirandello thus shows how reality and illusion are
interconnected. Reflecting on the function of the mask in a similar spirit, French
dramatist and critic André Gide asked, ‘Where is the mask?—In the audience, or