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... Mario Klarer
SS 2003
The Tableaux Vivants Scenes in Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask, or the Power of a Woman (1866)
Aurelia Marlin
9916461
Contents:
1. ... Creating A Third Reality: The Tableaux Vivants Scenes p. ... Leaving Things Ambiguous: Alcott’s Narrative Style p. ... Introduction
“Behind a Mask, or the Power of a Woman” is considered to be Louisa May Alcott’s most famous and most “skilfully crafted” (Wells n. ... ) As the title of the novella suggests, it deals with women’s ability to hide behind social masks in order to gain power. The way the protagonist uses her roles illustrates women’s craft but also their dilemma of being caught between their reality and the role, or roles, that take an increasing part of this reality. ... “Alcott blurs those distinctions between little woman and successful actress so much that the distinctions almost seem to disappear. ...
The way Alcott blurs the borderlines between reality and play in „Behind a Mask“ is what shall be dealt with in this paper. The tableaux vivants scenes will be of special interest because Alcott’s use of point of view as well as the introduction of theatricals in chapter V make this chapter especially interesting for an analysis of Alcott’s narrative style. After some introductory information on the situation of the middle-class woman in Victorian America the main emphasis will be put on a textual analysis of selected key scenes in chapter V. ... Whereas women’s public life was virtually non-existent, their private position was rather important in that they served as moral guide for both, their children and their husbands (cf. ... Most people still regarded women’s role as far as political questions were concerned as “mediated through male relatives” (Kerber 167). ... Despite a rising feminist activism during the 19th century, with the first women’s rights convention in 1848 (cf. ... It undermined women’s role in public under the pretext of saving their purity. ... According to Kim Wells the women in Alcott’s novellas sense the hypocrisy of this Victorian society, which praises women’s virtuousness while believing them not to have enough intellect to vote. Wells points out that Alcott sees women’s power in their talent for acting. By playing the humble housewife society expects them to be, women can, in fact, achieve more power than by confronting patriarchal injustice directly (cf. ...
Alcott’s characters reveal, through their actions, that they are aware that there is a difference between what society expects of women and what society actually rewards. Alcott seems to sense that those differences actively ‘made all women actresses,’ because they cannot claim power outright and must do so in subversive ways (Wells n. ...
In “Behind a Mask” Alcott illustrates female power by approaching the topic from the opposite side: She chooses an actress as protagonist, but lets her play a role that is prototypical for many middle-class women of the 19th century, namely that of governess. On the one hand Jean Muir’s successful manipulation of the whole Coventry family proves what the title promises: “the power of a woman,” on the other hand Jean’s methodological proceeding allows us to look at the prejudices towards and expectations of governesses more closely and causes us to question whether “normal” women of the time could live up to these expectations without relying on some talent for acting.
However, according to my opinion, it is not only Jean Muir’s careful planning of her roles that raises awareness of their falseness in the reader, but also the fact that Alcott does not initiate the reader into Jeans plans. ... ” (Alcott 11).
Alcott increases the effect of changing roles by integrating different “levels” of reality in the story. Apart from Jean’s reality as actress who plans revenge and wants to gain financial security and the role she chooses in order to achieve these goals, Alcott introduces several tableaux vivants scenes in the middle of her novella. This puts the protagonist in the exceptional situation of being close to her real self while pretending to be someone else from the point of view of her role-self, and allows Alcott to play on the notion of the concept of “real”. ... Creating A “Third Reality”: The Tableaux Vivants Scenes
The use of theatricals is not only a common narrative device in Victorian sensationalist literature (cf. Showalter xxx) but also allowed Alcott to introduce a third level of reality into the story in order to blur existing borders between Jean’s reality and her supposed reality in the story.
In chapter five of “Behind a Mask” the Coventry family is having a theatrical evening, where Jean Muir appears in several tableaux vivants. Tableaux vivants were a popular party game in Victorian times, where a single person or a group of people re-enacted paintings or sculptures on a stage, remaining silent and motionless (cf. “Tableau Vivant” and “Tableaux Vivants”) The first tableau vivant Jean Muir participates in, is a representation of a painting by the French artist Horace Vernet , which depicts Judith beheading Holofernes. ...
Heine has written a very lively description of Vernet’s work, in which he underlines the abundant oriental beauty as well as the savage determination of the widow .
Approximate Word count = 4263
Approximate Pages = 17.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
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