Barry Lyndon Masks

Masks and disguises play an essential role in Barry Lyndon, the signs of the social rise of the hero, Redmond Barry. Consumed with ambition, he turns his back on his modest background and, by dint of intrigues, works his way up to the peak of English aristocracy in the 18th century. In the opening scenes of the film, Barry lives through a series of dramatic events: forced to leave home, robbed by bandits, enlisted in the English army by force... It is precisely by putting on his first disguise (the stolen uniform of a Prussian officer) that he rids himself of his victim status and takes his destiny into his own hands. The disguise thus immediately becomes a tool of success for a character who is henceforth going to act "masked".

As his adventures go on, and up to his marriage with Lady Lyndon, marking the climax of his rise, Barry climbs every social rung by passing himself off as someone else. Every new costume (inspired by paintings of the period) is both the sign of a success and that of a ruse. In a movement of inverted symmetry, Barry's social fall becomes irreversible when his gentleman's mask drops and he publicly reveals all his violence by fighting like cat and dog with his stepson, Lord Bullingdon during a private concert. The aristocrat's costume worn by Barry in the duelling scene with his stepson gleams with a last sheen before the final fall.

The film depicts the English aristocracy of the 18th century as an ossified universe in which characters wear a mask of respectability that, in fact, hides latent violence and desires. The faces of the aristocrats in Barry Lyndon, heavily made up and looking as if drained of all life, are in themselves masks. They have the "wan looks of spectres in a realm of shades" (1).