Theresa Strouth Gaul’s article on mesmerism aligns Jean with possessing mesmeric powers, which was not an uncommon idea in the 1860s and Alcott herself experienced this when recovering from Typhoid Fever (2003:836). Associated predominantly with dominating males on compliant females, Jean subverts this by using her ‘Woman’s Power’ on the men of the Coventry household. Alcott’s language helps this allusion, using ‘spell’ (41), ‘captivate’ (48) and ‘enchant’ (29), words associated also with a ‘witch’ (29), a description used also of Jane Eyre in Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel. This language is also linked with the ‘femme fatale’ character, or ‘Confidence Woman’ (Smith 1995:47). There have been many comparisons between Behind a Mask and Jane Eyre, most visibly the resemblance between the names of the central characters. They are both of similar age, with no parents and the incident where Edward spills the tea, is more than similar to when Mrs. Fairfax asks Jane to help Rochester with his tea in Jane Eyre. Jean could be seen as mirroring this behavior in an attempt to become the ideal governess that the Coventrys desire.
Christine Butterworth-McDermott views Behind a Mask as a rewriting of Madame Le Prince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast (1756), via Jane Eyre, though Jean Muir is at once the ‘Beauty’ and the ‘Beast’. Jean’s motive is survival and she ‘functions as the Beast/Other to violate the sense of the nineteenth-century’s appropriate categories for women’ (Butterworth-McDermott 2004:29). Alcott shows Jean manipulating the male characters by forcing them out of the preconceived separate spheres and into an area they are not familiar or comfortable with. In the tableaux scenes, where she must perform the role of an actress, Jean’s proximity to Gerald makes him ‘look as he had never looked before’ (55) and she finds ‘triumph’ (55) in his reactions.
The spheres theory is still nevertheless inherently flawed, in the fact that Jean as a governess holds an ambiguous position in the household. By bringing employment into the home, she merges the spheres, or at least overlaps them, almost ‘reversing the class distinction’ (Elliott 1994) which creates the perfect atmosphere for Jean’s deception. Jean’s masquerade is often thought of as a masculine mask and therefore, by acting in conventionally male manner she can successfully manipulate those around her. As Elliott argues, ‘Muir’s actions appear masculine because masculinity is synonymous with social power and because survival itself is an issue which has public implications outside the home and is usually called into question only outside the home, the putative female ‘sphere’” (1994). Jean is employed by herself, as well as the Coventrys, for her own work, which also takes place within the home. Jean however, serves herself firstly in seeking male approval. She has ‘one foot in the male sphere’ and ‘one foot in the female sphere’ (Butterworth-McDermott 2004:31). The ironic paradox is that women were supposed to be transparent and Jean Muir is clearly not, yet still manages to please the Coventry family with her actions (Klaiber 2004:219).
Jean’s unmasking at the end of the novella actually serves to her advantage, or rather, to Alcott’s advantage in successfully exposing the difficulties women suffer in a patriarchal society. Of course the shame is that appealing the Coventrys’ better nature from the beginning, explaining her plight and suffering would not have gained her any support or respect, such was the strength of the believe in virtuous women. The other women in the novella serve to show the different strategies that women use, or rather don’t use, against the patriarchal system of gender politics. Mrs. Coventry, for example, is known only by her married title and is of minimal importance in the storyline. As the widow, she has no rights to the property and the onus is on Gerald, the heir and more importantly male. Lucia Beaufort seems to represent everywoman of the middle classes who does not speak out for herself. Her frustration is obvious throughout the text and though she does make spiteful comments in relation to Jean, she does not act upon this aggravation to the extent that the governess does. Lucia’s frustration is clearly one against the patriarchal system which stops her from speaking out. It is interesting to note Alcott’s choice of names in Behind a Mask. ‘Muir’ for example, sounds similar to the French ‘mur’, meaning wall or barrier and Beaufort translates as ‘beautiful’ and ‘strong’. Both women’s names are associated with defense and protection, an allusion by the author perhaps to reiterate the need for women to protect themselves, rather than be protected.
Gender politics are also subverted in the men in the text. Gail K. Smith argues that because Jean acts in a traditionally male manner, she forces men into ‘“feminized” roles of subservience, ignorance, passivity and powerlessness’ and that in some way, her victims are ‘willing participants in the deception they undergo’ (1995:50). Both Gerald and Edward become powerless against Jean and this is often thought to be due to the sexual power that she holds over them. They slowly begin to treat her like an equal, subverting both gender and class politics. In a sense they are the ‘Beauty’ to Jean’s ‘Beast’; a softened version of the traditional male character, drawn in by her masquerade of femininity. In driving them out of the ‘effeminized’ house (Elliot 1994), Jean forces Gerald and Edward to become men. Gerald suddenly feels a desire to work and claims that ‘energy [is] better than beauty in a man’ (71) and Edward receives his commission, which pushes them into the world of commerce, making them rivals for Jean’s love (Elliott 1994). Although as Isabell Klaiber notes, this ‘love, as the traditional safeguard of the happy home, is turned into a dangerous threat’ (2004:218) and the brothers end up in a physical fight over the governess.
Although Jean has an ‘undeniably positive effect on the family’, she remains ‘morally ambivalent (Klaiber 2004:215) even at the close of the text. Despite gaining the husband, wealth and status she had been so keen to obtain, Jean can be seen to lose her ‘Woman’s Power’ in settling on a traditional wedding finish. In marrying Sir John and promising to ‘devote [her] life to his happiness’ (107), Jean conforms to the patriarchal and gender structure that she has been battling throughout. Ironically for Jean, despite finally conforming and obtaining a new title ‘she is never transformed or accepted in the society that surrounds her’ (Butterworth-McDermott 2004:45). Her burning letters are reminiscent of the burning of Thornfield and the death of Bertha Mason in Brontë’s Jane Eyre, yet though for Jane this is a moment of freedom, for Jean it marks her slip into compliance. Christine Butterworth-McDermott argues that Jean must now wear the mask of the innocent ‘Beauty’ forever (2004:44). As a quest for self-definition, Jean fails to define herself in any positive light. To the Coventrys she has been classified as the fallen woman, the revealed trickster and to Sir John, Jean wears the mask of ‘Beauty’ still. Jean Muir seems no more affluent, finance and title aside, than at the beginning of the text, being trapped as the actress in her marriage. ‘The masked “self” of the successful confidence woman escapes definition, because self and mask are ultimately indistinguishable’ reasons Smith. In the conclusion of Behind a Mask, Jean is not herself, neither is she the masquerade she held for so long, but an amalgamated version of the two, confused by her constant switching. The solution to the novella is ‘as much, if not more so, a prison as Beauty’s castle or Jane’s Fearndean could ever be’ (Butterworth-McDermott 2004:46). Jean loses her mesmeric or sexual power too, which she was free to express in her ambiguous role as governess, but as domestic wife she must now conform to the patriarchal gender politics of marriage. Although the last laugh is literally had by Jane, it is reduced to a ‘smile’ (108), perhaps a sign that she realises she has been absorbed by patriarchy (Gaul 2003:848).
In conclusion, therefore, ‘Behind a Mask´ [shows] that the reward of Jean Muir is as much a fiction as Jane Eyre’s happily-ever-after with Rochester’ (Butterworth-McDermott 2004:46). Although Jean has not succeeded in fully fulfilling her feminist quest, Alcott’s Behind a Mask challenges the reader’s perception of gender politics and encourages them to consider why the governess had to ‘overstep social boundaries’ and ask what other choice she could have? (Butterworth-McDermott 2004:35). As a reader our sympathy for Jean is never lost, despite her unmasking. We initially expect a rags-to-riches story from the initial scenes and when the ending finally comes and this is still somewhat achieved, albeit uncomfortably, it is this point in which the reader is made to think most seriously about the plight of Jean Muir. Louisa May Alcott succeeds, therefore, in subverting gender politics through a combination of Jean’s story and the conscience of the reader.
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Mary Elliott’s article, ‘Outperforming Femininity: Public Conduct and Private Enterprise’ from American Transcendental Quarterly was accessed through and due to the format of database, paginations were not included.