The speakers represent an unspecified collective of marginalized people enduring severe systemic oppression. They carry "torn and bleeding hearts," but they strictly conceal their internal pain behind a cheerful physical facade. They survive by maintaining a double consciousness, carefully self-editing their words and expressions to project an illusion of contentment to an indifferent society.

The world symbolizes the broader, dominant society responsible for the suffering of the speakers. Characterized by "human guile" and a lack of true wisdom, this entity operates in a state of willful ignorance. It accepts the false smiles of the oppressed without questioning the reality beneath, remaining asleep to its own culpability and the true emotional state of the marginalized people it controls.

Christ functions as the divine, spiritual confidant for the oppressed speakers. While society only sees the lying, grinning mask, Christ is the silent receiver of the genuine cries arising from the speakers' "tortured souls." This figure represents a source of faith and the only entity trusted with the unprotected truth of the speakers' suffering.