Behind A Mask Or A Woman's Power Analysis

In life we all are a secretive about certain parts of ourselves. For example, if someone is around new people they might not share many things about them with other people. This applies to many stories in literature as well, because new characters keep many secrets that are generally not revealed to other characters.This secretiveness can also symbolize many things in the life around the characters. In the book Behind a Mask; or, a Woman’s Power, author Louisa May Alcott demonstrates this aspect of literature through Jean Muir while symbolizing parts of the Victorian society around them. The mask Jean Muir hides behind is the part of herself that she doesn’t show others and is sometimes is the method through which she achieves her goals, also, the mask symbolizes the various rules that people had to follow in Victorian society. Jean Muir’s mask that she hides behind is

For example, when Jean is talking to Dean after Dean threatens to reveal her plan, Jean says that she is “the daughter” of “Lady Howard” and if she “chooses” then she can be the “wife of Mr. Coventry”(48). This shows an example of Jean revealing herself to another person, but she is doing to intimidate Dean. This also shows that she is proud of manipulating Gerald and is bragging to Dean that she did, which is lifting her mask because not many others knew of it. In addition, when Jean’s letters are being read by the Coventry family her motivations of “[bewitching] Monsieur” who is Gerald, “by playing nurse” that were kept secret are revealed(65). Her motivations show that her secrecy and acting were used to manipulate Gerald for her plan. Her motivations also show that her mask is occasionally lifted to other people, such as her accomplice and her true self is shown to them. In conclusion, Jean uses her hiding behind and lifting of a mask with certain people to manipulate them and to achieve her