When the Mask Becomes the Face: Literary, Theatrical, and Surgical Metamorphoses

The mask has long served as a metaphor for transformation, concealment, and revelation across literature, performance, and medicine. This essay explores the symbolic and literal dimensions of masks through a comparative analysis of Lee Cheong-jun’s novella “The Dream of the Mask,” theatrical performance, and contemporary plastic surgery. In the novella, the protagonist Myung-sik, once a promising judge, develops a nocturnal compulsion to wear a mask and roam anonymously, finding temporary solace but ultimately descending into alienation and suicide. His “psychological mask” represents a metamorphosis of downward entrapment, echoing Bachelard’s concept of primal transformation while resonating with existentialist themes of mauvaise foi (bad faith) described by Sartre. By contrast, the actor’s mask or stage transformation exemplifies reversible metamorphosis. Performance, as Schechner notes, is a “restored behavior,” a bounded experience in which roles can be safely assumed and relinquished. Theatrical masking underscores fluidity, play, and agency, distinguishing it from Myung-sik’s irreversible fixation. Plastic surgery, situated between metaphor and materiality, produces enduring transformations. Reconstructive procedures may liberate patients from disfiguring “imposed masks,” while elective cosmetic surgery can align outer appearance with self-image or, alternatively, enforce conformity to societal standards. Unlike theater, surgical change is permanent, raising ethical questions about authenticity, empowerment, and alienation. By juxtaposing literary, theatrical, and surgical metamorphoses, this study highlights the mask as both a site of human aspiration and vulnerability. Ultimately, the most authentic transformation reconciles inner and outer selves, enabling the face to reflect the self in its truest form.