The Mask in Literature

Book Review # 104878

English > Analysis
Literature > Comparative Literature

An analysis of the theme of mask in Charles Waddell Chesnutt's "The Sheriff's Children, Henry James' "The Beast in the Jungle" and "The Real Thing" and Theodore Dreiser's "The Lost Phoebe".

4,872 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2008

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the theme of the mask, how people are constrained to hide their true personalities and, often, their true will and identities from themselves and each other. First, the paper looks at how "The Sheriff's Children" uses the mask theme negatively: hiding one's true soul leads to tragedy. In comparison, the paper examines how "In The Beast in the Jungle", the two main characters John Marcher and May Bartram are portrayed to wear masks for their evasion of social and personal responsibility. The paper also examines how "The Real Thing" plays with the reality-illusion dichotomy and how for the painter who narrates the story, the genuine article proves all too useless for artistic purposes. Lastly, the paper discusses how in "The Lost Phoebe", the character of Henry is afraid of starting a new life with a new woman or taking the responsibility of her and consciously puts himself under the mask of internal conflict.

From the Paper:

"The two major figures of The Sheriff's Children, Sheriff Campbell and his mixed-blood son, are both plagued by crises of personal identity; their reactions to these crises both exploit the theme of the mask and exemplify Chesnutt's structural use of the mask concept. These achievements make a powerful story. If Chesnutt had not made the revelation of the relationship between the Sheriff and the son whom he had abandoned as a child its central point, his story would never have attained any particular significance. Chesnutt instead uses the Sheriff's parenthood as the starting point for an examination of its tragic results. "

Sample of Sources Used:

Bell, Millicent. "The Inaccessible Future: 'The Beast in the Jungle'," in Meaning in Henry James. Harvard University Press, 1991.
Dell'Amico, Carol. Overview of "The Beast in the Jungle," for Short Stories for Students. The Gale Group, 1999.
Delmar, P. Jay. ""The Mask as Theme and Structure: Charles W. Chesnutt's 'The Sheriff's Children' and 'The Passing of Grandison,"' in American Literature, Vol. LI, No. 3." November 1979: 364-75.
Dreiser, Theodore. "The Lost Phoebe" The American Short Story and Its Writer. New York: Bedford Pb., 2000.
Selke, Hartmut K. "Charles Waddell Chesnutt: The Sheriff's Children (1889)," in The Black American Short Story in the 20th Century: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Peter Bruck. B.R. Gruner Publishing Co., 1977.