The complexion is ghostly, the cheeks boasting a pink glow. The expression is forever frozen, a devilish twirl of a moustache, goatee beard and haunting smirk. It is the face of opposition in the 21st century, an icon of defiance. It acts as a symbol of resistance, anonymity and vigilante justice. But the mask seen at every protest around the world stole its profile from another.
It’s no secret that the Guy Fawkes mask finds its roots in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. But what protestors all over the world don’t know is that they owe their disguises to two men; artist David Lloyd and writer Alan Moore - the masterminds of 1980s graphic novel V for Vendetta.
When creating the story, the men behind the mask initially set out to avenge the death of Guy Fawkes 382 years after he was hanged, drawn and quartered. Moore wrote in an essay called Behind the Painted Smile that it was his collaborator Lloyd who decided to use the Guy Fawkes mask as the image for the modern day freedom fighter. He wrote: "He'd look really bizarre and it would give Guy Fawkes the image he's deserved all these years. We shouldn't burn the chap every 5 November but celebrate his attempt to blow up parliament!"
Ever since he was caught in possession of fuses and matches in the cellar of the Parliament vault, Guy Fawkes was demonised as a traitor to his country, a figure who should be roasted on a bonfire once a year for the rest of time. But from V for Vendetta came the saying “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” and what many people don’t recognise is that Guy Fawkes joined the Gunpowder plot because he felt persecuted by the government, much like the people who wear his face today.
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After the death of Elizabeth I, King James I of England came to the throne in 1603. Like his predecessor, he was a Protestant. However, the Catholics of the country hoped that he would be
more sympathetic to their plight, given that his mother Mary Queen of Scots was a devout Catholic.
They couldn’t have been more wrong. He ordered Catholic priests to leave the country and decided to continue the practice of fining Catholics who wouldn’t attend Church of England services. Before long, he was introducing legislation refusing Catholics the right to receive rent or make wills.
It was this discrimination that united 13 gunpowder plotters and convinced them that the only way to regain their democratic rights was to assassinate James and replace him with his daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Instead of resigning themselves to the world they lived in, they decided to rise from the flames of a bigoted society.
A foolish, illegal and murderous approach definitely, but one that many people back then could relate to. In the struggle for equality, democracy and a fairer society, it's something that many people can also relate to today.
By revamping Guy Fawkes and putting his face on V, a cloaked anarchist battling against a fascist authoritarian state, the V for Vendetta creators ignited something in modern day opposers of the government who took the mask for themselves and began to wear it at protests as a symbol of mutiny.
After the film was released, the haunting disguise was developed as an internet meme and was the go-to on video-sharing websites like YouTube. But it was when it was adopted by hacktivist group Anonymous that it really took off.
The Guy Fawkes mask was first used by them at a protest in 2008 - a response to the Church of Scientology pulling a YouTube video of Tom Cruise discussing Scientology that was meant for internal use within the church.
Rather than just being a trademark of rebellion, Anonymous first used it as a disguise; objectors were encouraged to hide their faces while demonstrating due to the fact that church members had began photographing them.
It signified a change in the way groups were viewing political dissent and they had employed a symbol of anonymity as their mark of protest.
Soon enough, the smirking visor was appearing at every public outcry; the Americans used it during the 2011 Wisconsin protests, the Indians employed it to protest against the Indian Government censorship, the Polish stole it to oppose the signing of ACTA and it became such a powerful symbol of dissent that it was banned in Bahrain in 2013.
The people behind the masks are often poles apart. They come from different countries and have little in common, all except but one key thing; they have become disenfranchised by the political process as it stands and want change.
Although the fact that a symbol largely started by a mainstream Hollywood corporation had been embraced by anti-establishment activists was undoubtedly ironic, the mask had taken on a life of its own - and it had finally given York-born explosives expert, Guy Fawkes justice.
Through modern fiction he had been transformed from a villain to a hero and despite the fact that his straw body was still annually burnt to smithereens, his face had become an emblem for something much more important.
To this day, Guy Fawkes is never absent from political demonstration; in 2017 he has already been seen countless times, including in the protests against President Trump's inauguration and at Romanian protests against controversial decrees to pardon corrupt politicians.
In addition, he remains an intriguing anti-hero in popular fiction with the story of the gunpowder plot regularly glamourised in TV and film, not forgetting in Gunpowder, the new BBC drama starring Kit Harrington.
Ultimately, no one would have put their money on a British explosives expert who was caught red-handed trying to blow up the House of Parliament becoming a champion. But, one way or another, it happened.
Perhaps it’s best explained by the final scene of V For Vendetta. The end of the film sees masked crowds line up in the streets to watch as the Houses of Parliament explode. As hundreds of dissenters remove their masks, Evey whispers that he was “You and me. He was all of us”. And she was right. In a way, Guy Fawkes
was
all of us.
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