a difference in format: Moran

I am not sure it would be fair to compare these two piece and ask who was more of a feminist. The main difference between the two pieces was that Fuller’s “The Great Lawsuit” was an essay, while Alcott's “Behind a Mask” was a short story. It is much easier to say that Fuller was more feminist of the two, but the style of writing that she chose is a very direct medium and able to convey these points better. In contrast, Alcott chose to put her views into a story format. She does not come out forthright and say where she stands on the issue of feminist, though through a closer reading it is easy to determine, yet it is still more ambiguous than had it been put in essay format.

That said, I do believe that Fuller holds a more feminist view that Alcott. Fuller gives the imagery that women are being held beneath men, which they were, and states that they could be equal to or even superior to men if the societal limitations places on them were lifted. In “Behind the Mask”, Jean proves herself to be more cunning and intelligent than any of the men in the story, but there are two points that seem to contradict the feminist theme. The first being though the men chase after her because they believe she has status in society, they also do so because of her beauty. She would not have been able to play the men of the story as she did without her looks and charm which reinforces the values of the time that a women's worth is her beauty. The next is that Jean is only able to marry into wealth and status. She is unable to reach those objects solely by herself and can only trick a man into giving it to her. Once again this might be the ambiguity that goes with choosing to write feminist views into a story format, or it would go back to what Harriet Jacobs said about women being only as good as you are allowed to be (though it was directed at slave women) and is thus a critic of the system in place that forces women to do this.

Who knows, not me.