｢가면 뒤에서｣에 나타난 역할극과 올컷의 전략적 공연

초록

Louisa May Alcott used A. M. Bernard as a pen name for publishing several works, including “Behind a Mask.” This paper examines “Behind a Mask” as Alcott’s strategic attempt to express her desire to support woman’s power and its values. Masking and performing a role on a stage is a cohesive motif in this dramatic story of Jean Muir who comes to the scene of the Coventry family to take the role of a governess. Her meticulously planned scenario of seeking a wealthy and honorable husband ends up as a story of triumph after several critical moments. The most crucial turn happens when Jean makes an outstanding performance of powerful women in the tableaux vivants. Tableaux vivants were popular in the domestic settings as pastimes, which supposedly served to consolidate dominant ideology imposed on women. Yet as in the case of Jean, they could function to be a medium for expressing the alternatives to women’s fixed roles given by domestic ideology. Jean’s story of performing the given roles is somehow shared by women in the nineteenth century, but Jean is different from other women because she performs the roles with a specific intention and goal. In the same vein, by producing works published with a pen name, Alcott tried to show her desire to challenge the fixed public image of a domestic woman writer. “Behind a Mask” provides a clear example of Alcott’s strategic efforts to challenge the conventional concept of women simply accepting and playing the given roles.

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