Literary notes about Masquerade (AI summary)
In literature, the term masquerade is used both literally—to describe festive, costume-filled balls—and metaphorically as a symbol of disguise and social pretense. Authors use it to illustrate how characters adopt various roles, masking their true identities and intentions, as seen when society is portrayed as a stage for elaborate deceptions ([1], [2]). At masquerade balls, such as those recounted by Fielding ([3], [4]), the event becomes a microcosm of a broader cultural performance where appearances are transient and truth may be hidden behind layers of artifice. Other writers extend this imagery to comment on the human condition, suggesting that our everyday interactions often represent an ongoing masquerade, where authenticity is sacrificed for the safety and convenience of disguise ([5], [6]). Whether highlighting the playful revelry of a costume ball or critiquing the superficiality of social relations, the word masquerade underscores the tension between reality and illusion throughout literary history ([7], [8], [9]).
- “In a word, this metropolis is a vast masquerade, in which a man of stratagem may wear a thousand different disguises, without danger of detection.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. Smollett - We must dress in our own clothes, if we do not wish to substitute a masquerade for practical existence.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Though I was too drunk to see her last night, I saw her at the masquerade.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding - “And did you really then know the lady at the masquerade?” said Jones.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding - I knew she had recognized me, and the thought that I could not carry the masquerade beyond a certain point was a veritable torment to me.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Because of the existing relationship, it was very easy for this infatuation to masquerade under the guise of harmless tenderness.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - It was a wild masquerade of all imaginable costumes—every struggling throng in every street was a dissolving view of stunning contrasts.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - Containing the whole humours of a masquerade.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
