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영어

In Louisa May Alcott’s (1832-1888) sensational fiction Behind a Mask, or A Woman’s Power, Jean Muir, the heroine, wears a mask of feminity and acts like an ideal woman of the period to survive economically. She works as a governess for the Coventry family where three unmarried men reside. She understands that she needs to play the role of ‘a little woman’ perfectly to get married to one of these men in the upper class family, which is her only means of economic and social mobility. From the beginning, Jean deliberately uses her ‘womanhood’ to her advantage and achieves her goal by marrying Sir John and becoming Mrs. Coventry. It means that she secures her social status and wealth through marriage. When Edward reads Jean’s letters, disclosing her identity in the conclusion, he discovers that she has treated them, Gerald and Sir John, precisely as they have treated her as commodities to be used for her own ends. Jean is revealed as the culture’s ultimate monster as she has treated men like women. Thus, reading the text from a feminist perspective, the portrayal of Jean as a monster is a social construct. Also, this work illustrates Alcott’s progressive spirit.