I know this may sound strange but in a way I can relate to the narrator of the story. He talks about wearing a mask of what he is supposed to be and how he is supposed to act which hides his true self. I think that, in a way, this is something everyone does. We may not do it to the extent that this author does but at some point we all wear masks. We wear masks to hide our true feelings and pretend that things are okay when they are really not. We know how people expect us to act in certain situations and we conform to those roles. Family can be the biggest area where masks are portrayed. Our families expect certain things of us and require us to act in certain ways in certain situations. Whether we feel like it or not, we confom to those roles at the specified times and locations, neglecting our true feelings. The masks we wear can be multiple or one giant one to mask depression or stress but at some point, we all wear one.
Another area I felt a relation to the narrator was when he talked about life being one giant stage. I remember when I was little and I hated my family. I would imagine that the world was as giant stage and when the curtain fell I would go on to a different life. I actually pictured a stage and all the actors (who were my family), and would fantasize about what my real life was like. I don't know if anyone else ever thought these things or if I am just really strange but I really did have fantasies about my life and family just being a stage act. Although my reasons were different from the narrator's I could still relate. He just wants to be able to be himself and not act how his family and society thinks he should act. I just wanted to escape my family.
It's interesting you bring up the idea of life as a stage, as it relates to Shakespeare's famous line "All the world's a stage,/and all the men and women merely players" (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII). The character who delivers the soliloquy, Jacques, is known for his melancholy attitude. The speech describes the "seven stages of man," but finds itself famous for the opening line. It ties itself into the theme of sadness forcing a facade, furthering the thematic ideas in Confessions of a Mask. Mishima uses this to question the identities that people use in the world vs. their true selves. As we explore how this dichotomy of identities affects a person, we find the play analogy more and more apt. The personae adopted by actors mirrors those used by people struggling to fit into the world makes for a depressing idea, as a person's true self is rejected by society at large. A similar instance, though not as harsh, can be seen in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, as Gatsby knows that he can never accepted as James Gatz. The issue of societal shame pervades literature, as authors continually explore outsiders and their role in their respective cultures.
ReplyDeleteI’m actually really glad you posted this because once I thought about it, I realized I know what you mean. Especially when I was going through some pretty hard things in my personal life I did many times feel like I was putting on a mask and acting like everything was okay when in actuality it was pretty much as far from okay as you can get. I wasn’t finding anything relatable at all about the narrator because of the issues he had and the fact that they are so different from anything that I have ever dealt with. But honestly I remember feeling that no one has ever gone through what I was so they couldn’t understand. While the narrators issues are a little further outside the realm of what any of us are used to, essentially every person’s struggles are a little different than someone else’s. The one thing that I would like the narrator to do is get some help in dealing with what he is struggling with as we all have times in our life that we really need to accept that we can’t do it on our own and need to seek out and take advantage of the help we need. Whether that is professional help or just letting our friends and family be the help we need, we all will have at least one point in our lives that we need help from someone outside ourselves. So thank you for making this character a little more relatable for me.
ReplyDeleteI am bothered by the fact that so many people cover their thoughts and emotions with a smile and a “good, thanks! How are you?” I do understand that on a daily basis we are asked, “how's it going?” by a multitude of people, and this greeting has become less of a inquiry and more of a “hello!”. I am not condemning them , I do the same thing every day, multiple times. But why? When reading Confessions of a Mask we all cringe the narrator dresses carefully as Tenkatsu and his mother's reaction was to “[turn] slightly pale and was simply [sit] there as though absent-minded. Our glances met she lowered her eyes” (18). The reader wants to explain to the mother that the narrator was so excited about his costume, wanted so badly for someone to acknowledge the effort he put into mimicking her outfit and the delight he was unable to suppress (18). This is an example of a reason that we desire to disguise our true emotions. We learn at an early age that our feelings towards an event or action may not be the same as another's reaction. This causes us to be wary of our own reactions and gauge how we should react by other people's assessment of the situation. However this is a dangerous game. These responses create a mask, which creates another mask on an individual basing their behavior/response off of the original mask, creating a cycle of mask upon mask. This cycle will eventually result in the loss of the individual.
ReplyDeleteWhile I've definitely experienced the alienation you are all talking about in relation to wearing a mask in order to navigate through everyday social situations, I wonder if it's ever truly possible to not wear a mask?
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