SOURCE: "The Second Sex: Behind a Mask or a Woman's Power," in Whispers in the Dark: The Fiction of Louisa May Alcott, University of Tennessee Press, 1993, pp. 46-57.

In the following chapter from a critical study of Alcott's fiction, Keyser offers an analysis of Behind a Mask, considering the work in the context of the "Victorian Cult of True Womanhood. "

Woman plays the part of those secret agents who are left to the firing squad if they get caught, and are loaded with rewards if they succeed; it is for her to shoulder all man's immorality: not the prostitute only, but all women who serve as sewer to the shining, wholesome edifice where respectable people have their abode. When, thereupon, to these women one speaks of dignity, honor, loyalty, of all the lofty masculine virtues, it is not astonishing if they decline to "go along." They laugh in...