Whether it is used to issue ultimatums to Mexican drug cartels or for demanding economic equality in financial districts the world over, the image of Guy Fawkes has become synonymous with 21st century popular protest.
Take the cover of last week’s New Statesman for instance – under the headline “Young, angry and… right?” a Guy Fawkes-masked protester stares directly at the camera; the symbol of Western disillusionment is the face of a 17th century English Catholic, executed for high-treason and popularised by the Hollywood version of an 80s English comic book. How has this come to be?
The answer lies more in events of 2006 than 1605, when Warner Brothers released V for Vendetta, a film adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel of the same name. Set in Britain in a dystopian future, the film’s hero adopts the Fawkes mask in his attempt to bring down a corrupt totalitarian regime. It culminates with the destruction of the Houses of Parliament, set to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
This Saturday much of the country will celebrate Fawkes’s foiling, by setting of fireworks and burning effigies of him, while protestors across the world adorn his mask.
Although some wearers of the mask are sure to be drawn to the powerful imagery of this archetypal anti-establishment figure, there are probably equally as many who just think it looks cool. After all it’s not like everyone who wears a Che Guevara T Shirt is a bona fide guerrilla. Perhaps it would be churlish to suggest that the Occupy movement’s association with the image is ill-advised given that Fawkes was in essence the scapegoat of a failed revolution.
And much like Che, Fawkes has seen his visage commoditised to such an extent that if he wasn’t dead, he wouldn’t be able to show his face among any self-respecting revolutionaries.
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