Beth L
English 404/540
10/11/05
Discussion Starter

The Role of Disguise/Gender Reversal in Belinda

From the very beginning of Belinda, Edgeworth indicates that disguise and appearances are going to play an important role in the text.  Lady Delacour is constantly described as an actress and admits that she views life as a stage in which she must play a part.  Even Belinda, our heroine who is supposedly above artifice, is plagued by her Aunt Stanhope who encourages her to use superficial means (a form of disguise) to secure a valuable husband.

With this emphasis on disguise in the book, what do you think Edgeworth’s intentions are for having members of the opposite sex dress as each other?  Consider these episodes:  Harriet Freke dressed as a “young rake” to play a trick on Lady Delacour (45-47), the female duel in which Lady Delacour wounds her breast (55-60), and cross-dressing Clarence (74-76).  In what ways could these disguises be an outward manifestation of the relationship between the genders in the text?  What predictions and inferences do these lead us to make about the novel?