In her Masquerade and Civilization, Terry Castle hypothesizes that the concept of “masquerade” is central to 18th century consciousness, and provides an intriguing insight into how the self was conceived of in “the age of disguise”(Castle, 5). Implicit in the idea of masquerade is a tension between appearance and reality, between self-presentation and self-concealment. According to Castle, “The masquerade— with its sensuous, exquisite duplicates, its shimmering liquid play on the themes of self-presentation and self-concealment—must take its place among the exemplary phenomena of the period”(Castle 5; Novak 1-3).Masquerade offers a freedom from social roles and constraints, especially for women. Masquerades, along with churchgoing, where the only public activities women could attend unaccompanied (Castle, 32). Masquerades offered a unique opportunity for self-creation. Only when a woman is masked is she free to express desire. By constructing her own disguise, the woman may construct her own identity: “thus romance and the masquerade provide a way to determine and define the female self” (Schofield, 20).
[...] Merteuil's intentions, her methods of seduction, unfold in series rather than all at once, so that every seductive act is experienced by the reader as it happens. Furthermore, the juiciest bits of the scene are we don't get the sordid details, they are instead gaps that the reader fills in with their imagination. A masquerade necessitates a mask, and Merteuil, the permanent masquerader, adopts the most mask-like face in perhaps all of literature. It is a mask of her own creation: have created myself”(181). [...]
[...] While Pamela's masquerade as a Lady and a Servant showed the separation of selfhood from social rank, Merteuil's manipulations show the separation of self from self-presentation in love. For both women, society is a performance that does not necessarily correlate with selfhood. Merteuil's observation, that she has mastered talents to which most of our politicians owe their reputation”(182), suggests shockingly that society is merely performance. However, every masquerade must end, and Merteuil's unmasking differs greatly from Pamela's. In the end, Merteuil represents failure of self- creation, a failed actress at the theater. [...]
[...] In her discussion of masquerade in 18th century fiction, Mary Anne Schofield shows how the action of masking is an act of both power and submission, in which women simultaneously enact an identity “defined by but also gain power through “subversion, indirectness, and disguise”(Schofield, 18). According to Castle, Pamela is the ultimate masquerader, transitioning from the role of servant to lady with mysterious ease. Pamela dangerously suggests how arbitrary these socially constructed roles are, because she is the “unsettling embodiment of categorical ambiguity”(137). [...]
[...] The seductive appeal of clothing is made even more blatant in the silk stockings B gives Pamela which Pamela receives with confusion that makes her vulnerable, so that might have beat me down with a feather”(51). However, Pamela quickly catches on that the costume B gives her is something more than clothing. Seeing the clothes as an integral part of B's seductive maneuvers, Pamela quickly becomes concerned about misrepresenting herself. B is forcing her into a masquerade she cares not to participate in, a masquerade Pamela sees as a denial of her authentic self. [...]
[...] As one literary masquerader points out, there is something delightfully taboo in “prudish dress”: will be a Prude, a religious prude; I will appear in all the gloomy inaccessible charms of a young Devoteé, there is something in this Character so sweet and forbidden” (Johnson II,ii; Castle, 40) Seeing that Pamela has donned another B takes the liberties of masquerade with Pamela. Pamela is certain that B recognizes her, yet he uses the excuse of costume to approach Pamela: came up to me, and took me by the hand, and said You are very pretty, child: I would not be so free with your sister, you may believe; but I must kiss you”(89). [...]
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