Behind the Mask of Guy Fawkes

Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason & plot.We see no reason, why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

What was the gunpowder plot? Who was Guy Fawkes? Was he good or bad? What happened on November the 5^th, 1605? Questions like this might have come to your mind. Firsts things first. Lemme tell you what many of you already know that Guy Fawkes was one of those conspirators who tried to kill the King James I of England. Their plan was to blow up the entire parliament house, killing James I along with the others by firing the barrels of gunpowder. The barrels were secretly stored in the extensive catacombs just below the parliament house. It was all to be done on November the 5^th, 1605 which was the day of the grand opening of the parliament house. The plot conspired by Guy Fawkes along with his fellow conspirators was called “The Gunpowder Plot”.

Now the question worth asking is, was Guy Fawkes a hero or a villain? Was he good or bad? The opinion about him varied from person to person. Some call him a terrorist, a treacherous regicide who tried to bring anarchy to the country. While some call him a hero, a rebellion who had the strength and courage to speak and act against injustice in his own way. For Catholics, he was a lion-heart, a hero who sacrificed his life for their freedom.  

Even today, every year on November the 5^th, some people burn the effigies of Guy Fawkes while some celebrate it as a day of revolution. So, who this man really was? Was he good? Was he bad? Was he a hero or a traitor? I would definitely tell you my opinion, but let’s go back and relive the whole story.

It’s about the last decade of 16^th century. Catholics were being treated horrendously like slaves. Their freedom had been seized. They were forced to change their religions and to convert into Protestants. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died and Sir James I became the King of England. It gave a new hope to the Catholics. They were hoping for the change in situations and that the change will go in their favour.

However, despite their hopes, the situation only got worse. The King James I proved to be extremely cruel and ruthless against the Catholics. He passed a number of barbaric laws one after the other. The Catholics were forced to be isolated. They weren’t allowed to step into the Churches, they weren’t allowed to move places and they weren’t allowed to sit and walk with the Protestants. Those who violated these laws were imprisoned, tortured and were hanged to death.

 At last a group of Catholic rebellions decided to get rid of the King once and for all. They thought the only way to end this despotism is to teach them a lesson. The lesson would be the freedom of the Catholics and the death of the King. Guy Fawkes was one of those rebellions who plotted this conspiracy to assassinate the King. In fact, it was Guy’s idea to blow up the whole parliament house into pieces along with the King and other politicians and he himself took the initiative for that. He was sure that 20-30 barrels of Gunpowder would be sufficient to blow up the entire building. So for the next few months, they secretly plotted the conspiracy which remains the biggest unsuccessful assassination plot to this date. 

Guy and his fellow conspirators secretly imported 34 barrels of Gunpowder to the catacombs beneath the parliament house, one after the other. The plot was complete. They were just waiting for the right time to pull the trigger. And what other occasion could be better than the grand opening of the parliament house itself i.e November the 5th.

 On 4^th of November, they rented a house near the house of parliament. There was an underground tunnel from where the barrels of gunpowder were to be taken to a place just below the parliament. And then Guy Fawkes was going to lit fire to the barrels with the help of match sticks.

On 5^th of November before the opening of the parliament, King James I received a letter from some anonymous source which said not to attend the opening at the house of parliament as there is a threat to his life if he does so. Reading this letter, the king got panicked. He ordered all his soldiers to thoroughly search the whole parliament and the nearby places for any source of threat.

It was about time now and Fawkes was already at his position. Now all it would take to blow up the whole parliament was a tiny flame of fire. 

But right before he could do anything, he was caught by the King's soldiers who found him in action and captured him before he could do anything. With this, the gunpowder plot to kill the King James I was failed unexpectedly.

After being caught, Fawkes had to go through extreme torture. He was forced to give names of his fellow conspirators. For 3 days, Fawkes didn’t tell anything about the other conspirators. But on the 4th day, he had no other option left but to give them the names. With this, the hunt to capture the remaining conspirators begun. Some of them were chased and shot dead and 3 of them were caught. And needless to say, all four of them were sentenced to death.

But before that, they were tortured to such an extreme level that they were eventually craving for death. What they had to bear was excruciating. And finally on 5^th of February 1606, they were brought to the tower of London and were hanged to death in front of all the citizens.

 After the death, their body parts were tore into pieces and were sent to all four corners of England to ensure that no one would dare to repeat such incident in future.

A few years earlier, a movie titled, “V for Vendetta” was released. The movie reminded us of the world’s biggest conspiracy once again. The movie depicted Guy Fawkes as a hero and a great rebellion who sparked a unique revolution. The story  was about a man who starts a revolution against the cruel government, wearing the mask of Guy Fawkes. After this movie, the mask became extensively popular and a lot of people wore it during the protests against the govt. Even today, the mask is used as a symbol of courage. We can easily see this mask on the T-shirts of many youngsters and we can see many people wearing this mask in discs and comic cons all over the world.

But what really is behind this mask? Is it a hero or a terrorist? Good, bad or what? Let’s go back where we started. In my opinion, we can neither consider him as a hero nor a terrorist. He can’t be considered as a hero as what he tried to do was killing people. Killing hundreds of thousands of people along with the king. There were innocent people too. Killing so many innocents just for one bloody purpose can never be an act of bravery.

He can’t be considered as a terrorist either as he didn’t want to cause panic. He just wanted to start a revolution. It’s just that, he chose the wrong way for it. And as a matter of fact, it can’t be denied either that they had no other option but to kill the king for the freedom of Catholics. And even before him, many people tried to do the same but failed. What if he was successful with his plot? Would that make any difference? I think otherwise. Even if he was successful, it would have led to a series of conflicts between the Protestants and Catholics. Therefore, it could have worsen the situation instead of alleviating it. As a result, England could have been partitioned off or even worse. 

So of course his intentions were not cruel, he wanted freedom for the Catholics but he wanted it at the expense of the lives of hundreds of innocents. So I would call him just a rebellion, a master mind rebellion who gave birth to the most lethal and deadly idea in the history. So, if not for his deeds, at least he should still always be remembered for his idea.

So now I guess you know what’s behind that Guy Fawkes mask?

“There’s an idea behind that mask and ideas are immortal. Because people die but their ideas don’t. Their ideas live forever to inspire generations to come”.

---Anirudh