We Wear the Mask

“We wear the mask that grins and lies”: The mask functions as a metaphor for the performance of emotions and identities. The performance here is an insincere one which creates a façade of positivity (“grins and lies”).

“With torn and bleeding hearts we smile”: The hearts are not “torn” and “bleeding” in the literal sense; they are metaphors for the psychological injury “we” must suffer yet conceal.

“This debt we pay to human guile”: The debt is not an actual monetary transaction but one’s figurative indebtedness to the faculty of dissimulation (“human guile”).