The content of the play Naked Masks is tragic and focuses on the way in which lies can affect a person's life. In the case of the main character in the play, her life is ruined because of the lies she becomes entangled in.
The play is very much a social one, the narrator focusing on the way women are perceived by society and the way their lives are influenced in a negative way by their lack of power. Women are seen as beings to be controlled by the men in their lives and without the possibility to stand up for themselves. Even if their husbands end up cheating on them, the wives often had no other choice but to remain quiet and to experience the shame in isolation.
Another great accent is put on the idea of moral cleanliness and especially women are expected to remain pure and virgins until they get married. If a woman does not do this, then she risks having her whole future ruined as a result.
The author also analyzes the idea of suffering through Ersilia and the way through which she chooses to deal with it. Ersilia is a tragic character and her life is filled with uncertainty and pain. She becomes unable to keep herself afloat and decides to take her own life, something she is successful in doing at the end of the play.
The reason why she chooses to commit suicide has nothing to do with being abandoned by the men in her life but rather is linked with her lack of power. Ersilia admits she feels powerless and she ends the play by claiming she is a woman who is not even able to clothe herself. By the social standards of the time, Ersilia failed as a woman, not being able to secure a good husband and ruining her reputation. Because of this, she felt as if she had no other choice but to take her own life.
