Masks: Their significance and meaning throughout the saga

An interesting article went up at the Saga Journal this month. I recommend you all bookmark this site. Here is the article in question:

http://www.sagajournal.com/mhelpmetakethismaskoff.html

NOTE: PLEASE READ IT BEFORE POSTING.

I wish to use it as the basis for further discussion. I don't seek debate on the merits and strengths of the article itself, per se, but rather, on the issues and ideas explored, and on those issues and ideas left unexplored. Let's look at this entire topic in full.

To start with, I'd just like to touch on two omissions: neither Palpatine, nor Lando from the opening act of ROTJ, are addressed. But both of these characters -- especially Palpatine -- don one kind of mask or another. Palpatine is a very interesting case. Perhaps this is why he was excluded. While he doesn't appear to wear a mask, one could say that his human face is a mask of sorts, concealing the true monster underneath. The author argues that the lifting of a mask reveals that individual's true personality, so when Palpatine is deformed by his own lightning, it could be said that his true self is revealed at last. The timing couldn't be better. This is a peculiar inversion of the normal paradigm: whereas other characters lift their marks and reveal their true virtuous selves, Palpatine sheds his and reveals a being of pure evil; almost in mockery of the natural order.

Another interesting observation in that article concerns Padme. The author suggests that Padme is incomplete without her "Amidala" and "Naberrie" halves; indeed, it is argued, these halves make a whole. Could this be another example of dualism in the saga and the need to integrate both extremes for ultimate fulfillment and happiness? Does anyone find it interesting that the concept of masking to disguise one's identity, as it applies to Padme, originates from the same planet as Palpatine himself? What do masks suggest about the nature of liberty and society? Just some questions. They don't necessarily need to be answered.

Throw your thoughts into the arena. Come one, come all.

 

I don't know about Padme. Not that I'm saying the interpretation is wrong. I just don't know.

To me she was just following the tradition of wearing the make up of a Naboo Queen. This tradition is still being carried on by Queen Jamillia and Queen Apailana in AOTC and ROTS.

I have little doubt that Vader's armor is symbolic now that the saga is complete. Vader's encasement in an ugly suit of armor represents how the people were given a once cherubesque boy and beautiful young man but turned him into a monster. A monster that is in charge of controlling the people. Just as he was once a slave, the people who turned a blind eye to his plight are now his slaves.

When Palpatine is disfigured and his ugly physical appearance matches that of his twisted soul, the people love him even more because they are twisted and evil too.

 

Masks are symbolic. In the medieval Venice they served as a symbol of people privacy. Mostly, those people who wore them were important in some way and they had two sides: the roles they had to play for the society they lived in and their personal lives. I think that Lucas might have used that fro some of his characters - that would certainly go for Padme, because we saw her in the saga being a cold politician, and a simple girl in love with a Jedi.

 

I kind of feel that the "Masks" worn by those such as Vader, Palpatine, Greivious?, perhaps Leia as a bounty hunter, Lando, and others are all together different from Padme wearing a "mask". Vader and Greivous wore masks out of Necessity. Leia, Lando, and Palpatine wore theirs to hide identity. Padme wore hers out of tradition. I'm guessing that Naboo's past is not one that is based on warfare and need for concealment of identity. It seemed like a place of high art and culture, and as such would want a leader to openly express that. Her painted face and flowing garments are art.

Look at some leaders in the real world. G.W. Bush always appears in public in a suit and tie - the traditional garb of businessmen in our capilist system. Look at pictures of Stalin. He is always shown in a military uniform...pretty appropriate for the Soviet Union under his regime.

Carnage