The Guy Fawkes Mask
A stylized depiction of Guy Fawkes, the best-known member of the
Gunpowder Plot. The plot was an attempt to blow up the House of Lords in
London on 5 November 1605, in order to restore a Catholic head of state.
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was commemorated from early on by burning effigies of unpopular figures. Towards the end of the 18th century, reports appeared of children begging for money with grotesquely masked effigies of Guy Fawkes,[1] and 5 November gradually became known as Guy Fawkes Night, although many now prefer the term "Bonfire Night".[2] The 1864 Chambers Book of Days stated that:[3]
The universal mode of observance through all part of England is the dressing up of a scarecrow figure in such cast-habiliments as can be procured (the head-piece, generally a paper-cap, painted and knotted with paper strips in imitation of ribbons), parading it in a chair through the streets, and at nightfall burning it with great solemnity in a huge bonfire...
In 1847 The Lancet published "Notes of A Case of Death From Fright," in which the death of a two-year-old was attributed to the fright caused by seeing a boy wearing a red Guy Fawkes mask.[4]
In the 20th century in Britain, large numbers of cheap cardboard or paper Guy Fawkes masks were sold to children each autumn or given out free with comics.[5][6] But by the 1980s, their popularity was fading as Guy Fawkes Night became increasingly supplanted by Halloween.[7]
In 1958 the wearing of Guy Fawkes masks on Bonfire Night was mentioned during a debate on the Criminal Law (Onus of Proof) Amendment Bill in the Parliament of Western Australia as an example of harmless and excusable (though technically unlawful) possession of a face mask at night.[8] The then Minister for Police, J.J. Brady, stated that "at one time it was traditional to wear masks on Guy Fawkes night. So, if tonight anyone is found wearing a Guy Fawkes mask I, as Minister for Police, will see that he is duly excused."[8]
The comic book series V for Vendetta, which started in 1982, "centers on a vigilante's efforts to destroy an authoritarian government in a dystopian future United Kingdom." Its main character wears a Guy Fawkes mask, and in the climax of the 2006 film adaptation, thousands of protesters adopt the same costume as they march on Parliament.[9]
When developing the story, illustrator David Lloyd made a handwritten note: "Why don't we portray him as a resurrected Guy Fawkes, complete with one of those papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat? 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 Nov. 5th but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament!" Writer Alan Moore commented that, due to Lloyd's idea, "All of the various fragments in my head suddenly fell into place, united behind the single image of a Guy Fawkes mask."[10] He also noted "how interesting it was that we should have taken up the image right at the point where it was apparently being purged from the annals of English iconography."[11]
A stylized depiction of Guy Fawkes, the best-known member of the
Gunpowder Plot. The plot was an attempt to blow up the House of Lords in
London on 5 November 1605, in order to restore a Catholic head of state.
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was commemorated from early on by burning effigies of unpopular figures. Towards the end of the 18th century, reports appeared of children begging for money with grotesquely masked effigies of Guy Fawkes,[1] and 5 November gradually became known as Guy Fawkes Night, although many now prefer the term "Bonfire Night".[2] The 1864 Chambers Book of Days stated that:[3]
The universal mode of observance through all part of England is the dressing up of a scarecrow figure in such cast-habiliments as can be procured (the head-piece, generally a paper-cap, painted and knotted with paper strips in imitation of ribbons), parading it in a chair through the streets, and at nightfall burning it with great solemnity in a huge bonfire...
In 1847 The Lancet published "Notes of A Case of Death From Fright," in which the death of a two-year-old was attributed to the fright caused by seeing a boy wearing a red Guy Fawkes mask.[4]
In the 20th century in Britain, large numbers of cheap cardboard or paper Guy Fawkes masks were sold to children each autumn or given out free with comics.[5][6] But by the 1980s, their popularity was fading as Guy Fawkes Night became increasingly supplanted by Halloween.[7]
In 1958 the wearing of Guy Fawkes masks on Bonfire Night was mentioned during a debate on the Criminal Law (Onus of Proof) Amendment Bill in the Parliament of Western Australia as an example of harmless and excusable (though technically unlawful) possession of a face mask at night.[8] The then Minister for Police, J.J. Brady, stated that "at one time it was traditional to wear masks on Guy Fawkes night. So, if tonight anyone is found wearing a Guy Fawkes mask I, as Minister for Police, will see that he is duly excused."[8]
The comic book series V for Vendetta, which started in 1982, "centers on a vigilante's efforts to destroy an authoritarian government in a dystopian future United Kingdom." Its main character wears a Guy Fawkes mask, and in the climax of the 2006 film adaptation, thousands of protesters adopt the same costume as they march on Parliament.[9]
When developing the story, illustrator David Lloyd made a handwritten note: "Why don't we portray him as a resurrected Guy Fawkes, complete with one of those papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat? 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 Nov. 5th but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament!" Writer Alan Moore commented that, due to Lloyd's idea, "All of the various fragments in my head suddenly fell into place, united behind the single image of a Guy Fawkes mask."[10] He also noted "how interesting it was that we should have taken up the image right at the point where it was apparently being purged from the annals of English iconography."[11]
