Guy Fawkes Mask

The Guy Fawkes mask is a stylised depiction of Guy Fawkes, the best-known member of the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the House of Lords in London in 1605.

The use of a mask on an effigy has long roots as part of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. A stylised portrayal of a white face with a subtle smile and red cheeks, a wide moustache upturned at both ends, and a thin vertical pointed beard, designed by illustrator David Lloyd, came to represent broader protest after it was used as a major plot element in V for Vendetta, published in 1982, and its 2006 film adaptation. After appearing in internet forums, the mask became the trademark symbol for the online hacktivist group Anonymous. Time Warner owns the rights to the image and is paid a licensing fee for the sale of each mask.

Read more about Guy Fawkes Mask:  Origins, V For Vendetta, Anonymous, Use in Popular Protest, Views of Moore and Lloyd, Sales and Corporate Ownership of Rights

Famous quotes containing the words guy, fawkes and/or mask:

    Right now he’s suffering the cruelest tortures the Germans can devise. But he won’t talk—not as long as he can stand that punishment. And no human body can stand it too long—not even this wonderful, tough guy from Minnesota.
    John Monks, Jr., U.S. screenwriter, Sy Bartlett, and Henry Hathaway. Gibson (Frank Lattimore? Walter Abel? Melville Cooper?)

    to these
    Hale dead and deathless do the women of the hill
    Love for ever meridian through the courters’ trees
    And the daughters of darkness flame like Fawkes fires still.
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    Mutual repect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make one’s own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude.
    Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)