Yeats’ Doctrine of The Mask
Yeats’
doctrine of the Mask expounds the theory that the wearing of an ideal Mask by a
poet, and his merger in the ideal self, produces in him a dramatic tension
which gives rise to poetic creation, poetic power, and poetic truth. Yeats
implies that art and poetry spring from the struggle in the poet’s soul between
the two opposite forces of life—the real self and the ideal self. Evidently the
conflict between the two is spiritual. When the two meet, there are feelings of
self-exploration and self-realization. The dramatic tension results in an
enlargement of the soul and a strong emotional experience, in the poet. Thence
proceeds “poetry of opposites.” Explaining Yeats’ view on the doctrine of the
Mask, Graham Hough remarks:
“All
creative activity depends on the energy to assume a mask, to be deliberately reborn
as something not oneself. Something of the theatrical element of affectation
ever is necessary to all active virtue. When the artist ‘found hanging upon
some oak of Dodoha an ancient mask, painted and regild to his liking, and at
last put it on, he found that another’s breath came and went within his breath
upon the carven lips, and that his eyes were, on the instant, fixed upon a
visionary world.”
Merger
But No ‘Negative Capability’
Yeats’
doctrine of the Mask implies a merger of the self in the anti-self to such an extent
that there is no effacement of the self, no negative capability. The self has
to put on the mask of the anti-self, make self-exploration, and assess the
degree of self-realization in the anti-self. And here the conflict between the
self and the anti-self, the struggle between the opposites, will begin. The
self has its own mind. The anti-self has no mind of its own. It has only its
mask, its history, its pre-determined behaviour. So the conflict will be
between the two visions of the same self. The conflict will be a struggle for
power and supremacy between two opposites - the real self and the ideal self.
It will cause an enlargement of the poet’s soul and give rise to an intense
emotional experience in the mind. It is poetry, filled with an urge for poetic
creation. Yeats says the same thing indirectly as follows: Out of the quarrel
with the -self, we make poetry.
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