Emotion is probably the most difficult thing to understand, and yet, ironically it is mostly taken for granted. According to mythology, there are two main emotions - sorrow and joy. Greeks often used the two emotions heavily in their plays and that is how the two masks came to be used as the symbol of theatre, representing tragedy and comedy. Why this symbol comprises masks, leaves a very deep realisation for us to retrospect - are we often acting and hiding our true emotions?
First thing I would like to consider is whether these emotions are mutually exclusive or codependent. I believe it’s the latter. Human emotion is complex, overlapping and ever-present. We are all familiar with the chinese concept of Yin & Yang. The symbol basically represents balance between light and darkness. It emphasises how the light consists of some darkness and darkness consists of some light. Why can’t the same be true for joy and sorrow?
In my illustration shown at the top of this article, I have blended the two emotions instead of each mask denoting one of each (that is why red blends into yellow, green blends into blue, smile blends into a frown, and a frown blends into a smile) creating patches of orange and teal in the middle; instead of there being a clear distinction between the four colours and the two emotions). As I would like to see it, there is a whole transition process involved in going from joy to sorrow and also from sorrow to joy. It’s not a direct jump, in fact there are a lot of middle steps. A person can feel joy even when the general emotion he feels is sorrow (denoted by the mask on the left in my painting). A person can feel sorrow even when the general emotion he feels is joy (denoted by the mask on the right) In the path of transformation from one to another a person goes through a plethora of mixed-emotions that are often very hard to explain. That is why when a person is on the path of healing, the trajectory is full of ups and downs instead of being a straight line.
Society often expects us to put on the mask of joy and comedy to suppress sorrow and tragedy. To meet these expectations, mostly people follow this as a rule. For those who have watched the very famous comedy series F.R.I.E.N.D.S will remember how Chandler Bing uses jokes and sarcasm to hide his childhood trauma.
Another good example from Bollywood is the movie Anand, starring superstar Rajesh Khanna and the legend Amitabh Bacchan where a dying Anand hides his sadness of being critically ill under a jolly and happy-go-lucky character. There is a famous dialogue from this movie - Hum sab rangmanch ki katputliyan hain, jinki dor uparwale ki ungaliyon se bandhi hui hai.
(I am not entirely sure why I put this dialogue here, but the theatre analogy seemed appropriate).
I have not yet come across a person or a fictional character who wears a mask of sorrow and tragedy to hide joy and comedy. But, I guess when people ask you to downplay your happiness so that jealous people do not curse it, is a close situation!
Anyway, the conclusion being that we all have learnt to wear masks and hide our emotions as a social norm. The one who fails to do so is..a pariah?? I think so because generally people who show their true emotions are regarded as “too sensitive”, “too involved” or “too weak” to be able to keep up with the society. When you really see it, aren’t they the real heroes of emotions? It’s okay to wear masks, act and hide, it’s not easy too. But, it takes a LOT of strength and courage to take off the mask and show who you actually are.
Sometimes our emotions reach a level of complexity that even we fail to make sense of ourselves. The result - poor mental health. As I said earlier, healing looks like a series of ups and downs instead of a smooth transition path. It’s moments like these when we need people who are able to see beyond our masks and help us make sense of what we are feeling. Friends, family, therapists - all these people can help us and be there to hold us when the path seems too rough to handle. Hopefully, one day we will succeed. Till then, let’s not forget that all emotions are codependent, creating a beautiful blend of colours.
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