Thursday, September 6, 2012
Jean
I thought that our discussion of Jean's character in Behind a Mask was really interesting. I think that how you view the character is all about perspective. Some people liked her and some didn't, but most everyone could agree that she was manipulative and/or at least a little bit crazy. Relating to her from our time and place and thinking about if we were ever to come into contact with a person like this, I think that would definitely have a negative effect on our opinion of them. If we were to be duped like the characters in the story were, I'm sure there would be some very strong feelings. Personally, I thought that Jean was a great character. I really enjoyed the story. My impression of her is formed in relation to other female characters in literature of the period. A good example of this character type would be Bella or Lucia. Bella is young, impressionable, dependent, and prone to fits of emotion. Lucia is haughty, withdrawn, and has very little to offer in the way of intellectual insight. To have a character like Jean be placed in this stuffy, boring environment made for compelling reading. She may have been manipulative, sneaky, and yes, a little bit cruel, but it wasn't without just cause. She was not dealt the best hand in her life. She is not a woman of rank, and is destined to spend the rest of her days in governess purgatory - not a maid, but not on the same level as the family she serves. A family, it should be noted, who were none too welcoming upon her initial arrival. I like that she took her destiny into her own hands and created a life for herself. Comparisons were also drawn between Jean and a witch. While I agree that the scene in which she takes of all her makeup, her wig and fake teeth, I was a little bit taken aback (this might be random, but I immediately thought of the movie Hocus Pocus) - but overall I think it was a clever way for Alcott to satirize the notion that once a woman reached a certain age she was not longer marriage material and was doomed to live out the rest of her days as a spinster. Jean was 30 - gasp! - and therefore needed to make herself up to be more appealing to the rather creepily youth-obsessed men of the time. Jean beat the odds and I applaud her - and Alcott as well, for that matter.
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Cecilia
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I agree with you hands down. Jean needs to be applauded for her grate masterpiece. The fact that she had it all planned out had the costumes and look ready wow! amazing who can say they have written a play and though it failed at some point changed it a little bit each time to finally get the reaction that was wanted. Jean, I feel was a very misunderstood woman maybe she was a dealt a bad one as you mentioned. In that case any person does what they have to do to survive and in this case she had to play act and pretend to be someone she was not. What person doesn't wear a costume every time they go out their door? Everyone those not wear only one costume throughout their lives, they change it in a second. What I mean is you could walk out your door looking very professional with the purpose of buying someones attention. When you come home you take that costume off and become a whole new person. Though it may seem like what Jean did was creepy I see it as power to her because she knows how to play societies game. So BRAVO! Jean you are a great actress.
Alcott may indeed be satirizing those ideas of age, Talon, and she is certainly toying with the idea of how easy it is to fool characters who are as bored and indolent as the family Jean Muir infiltrates.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an interesting point with mentioning perspective. It's one that I didn't really consider. As an outside observer, I really enjoyed the way Jean knew what she wanted, did everything she could to get what she wanted, and in the end succeeded (at least as far as we got to see). I find these qualities to be very admirable... until I'm the one being hurt by them.
ReplyDeleteI've been burned before by people who used me to get to where they wanted to be. It's not a good feeling, to say the least. So if I had been one of the people in this story, my views toward Jean would be far different. I would see her as being a horrible person. She lied about who she was, assuming somebody else's back story in an attempt to gain social standing that did not belong to her. She played people and pitted them against each other (see Gerald being stabbed in the arm by an infatuated Ned). She destroyed all evidence (to her knowledge) of the truth behind her past. These are all things that would make me hate her.
If I were to assume the role of Lucia, I would especially hate her. Nobody comes in and takes away my man! (Even if they take away my man, but don’t even claim him for themselves.)
As for Hocus Pocus, I was reminded more of the 1990 film The Witches starring Anjelica Huston. In that Jim Henson production (based on the Roald Dahl book), Huston takes off her disguise at a witch convention once no non-witches are present. She is revealed to be a grotesque monstrosity. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it somehow. It’s a wonderful movie.