Behind a Mask--what you see is not what you get

Reading the story Behind the Mask I could see how we can relate the things to our present day life. In the story the characters have dual identity, as they literally have two faces. The central character Jean is new to the house and family members. It takes her one moment of fainting and showing of her feminine side to take over the entire family. She likes to get attention from the people and she is highly manipulative. She is hiding her real identity which is an old women with makeup and dentures hiding behind the look of a young woman. The external apperance is a mask that she puts on every day to manipulate the family and get whatever she wants. This should remind of people or even some agencies that have a front face and the evil dark intentions lurking behind. We also talked about this in class where there is a front side view like in the common living room area of a house where it is clean and tidy as opposed to the rooms where people spend their private life which may not be just as pretty. The dual nature is very well represented in this story. The part that makes it gothic is that the real intent of Jean is disguised by the show she puts on everyday. Every day is a show and the audience is mesmerized by it. All others are just like puppets and she is sort of controlling them. This is subtle but the gothic part of it. It was a decent read and was not very long. I didnot like the overly dramatic imagery but liked the concept very much.