Behind a Mask

Sometimes life feels like a performance. Not necessarily a Shakespearean tragedy, but every day we test our own roles in relation to our peers. We might want to impress someone, create solidarity within a group, or even make someone fall in love. Everything we do is in some way a performance. People act out scenes in their real life to invoke an emotional response from others. Like in a theatrical performance, people will put on figurative costumes or masks to hide their true identity, make a point, or to distract their audience. When someone changes the way they act, talk, and carry themselves around others, like with all our actions, there is motivation. There are countless reasons we act in front of others; to glean information, to convince your friends, to create an advantage. The stage and theatrical performance is a reoccurring theme within Behind a Mask by Luisa May Alcott.

The novella consistently alludes to elements of theater, especially when Jean Muir is involved. Even when she is supposedly alone or unawares she seems to always be acting out a scene for someone who is watching her. The tableaux in chapter 5 captured the idea that acting can intermingle between real life and the stage. Coventry is taken with Jean Muir and his face employs legitimate passionate emotion. He does not have the practice or prowess to control his expressions as well as Jean. However, at this point in the book we only read the perspective of Coventry and do not know if Jean is truthful in her expressions or if she is only acting. This line becomes very difficult to distinguish on a day to day basis. Later on the reader finds out that Jean was manipulating her persona with the motivation to create an advantage. People in general when placed in a given situation will attempt to act their way to achieve their motives. Some are more proficient at this social acting than others. Jean happens to be an excellent social actor. She even managed to turn two brothers against each other to the point of physical harm. By the end of the novella, Jean achieves the satisfaction of accomplishing her motives using the skills of her performance.

Our motives and the motives of others shape the play we all live from day to day. Motives define our play, our script, our scenery. In the end, the reasons we do the things we do are what matter most.