[2] The republication of the work engendered new interest among literary critics; according to Christine Doyle Francis, it "stimulated the reconsideration of [Alcott's] career" in the period since.
[4] Critic Christine Doyle Francis describes the novel as "ow[ing] most to Alcott's reading of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and William Thackery's Vanity Fair.
In this light, Jean Muir becomes a subversion of the classic governess character in protest to the British class system and in praise of America as a "land of opportunity".
[1] Set in the Coventry Mansion during the Victorian era, the wealthy family hires a young woman named Jean Muir to be the governess of sixteen-year-old Bella.
They are skeptical with good reason, for when Jean retires to her own bedroom, she removes her costume (a wig and some fake teeth) to reveal that she is actually an actress of at least thirty years of age.
Eventually, all the male characters fall in love with her: first Ned, the youngest, followed by the skeptic Gerald, and gradually the unassuming uncle, John.
[1] The most apparent permeation of theatre in Behind a Mask is the scene with the tableaux,[1] in which Jean and Gerald hold lurid poses to entertain their audience.
Sara Hackenberg suggests that Jean Muir actually adopts the authorship of her own life by assuming many roles: the governess, the teacher, the mesmerizer, the master plotter, and, finally, the surrogate fiction author.
[8] Cheri Louise Ross provides another feminist reading in her scholarly article in which she points out that Alcott created dangerous, independent, and intelligent female characters to subvert the patriarchal society in which they live.
[9] In Feb. 1983 a dramatic adaptation of Behind a Mask by Karen L. Lewis, directed by Amie Brockway, premiered Off-Broadway at Theater of the Open Eye in NYC.