Many literary critics have taken interest in the novella because its material was controversial for its time. One such literary critic is Christine Butterworth-McDermott, who sees this story as a transfiguring of the classic "Beauty and the Beast" story. She argues that Behind a Mask actually combines the characters, making Jean Muir both the "Beauty" and the "Beast". According to Butterworth-McDermott, the story is a criticism on the common literary trope of a woman spending her life healing a “Beast.” According to her argument, Alcott defies this literary trope by creating a character that is both beauty and beastly: Jean plays the role of a "Beauty" in order to hide her true nature as a "Beast".[7]
The novel frequently receives feminist readings from literary critics. For example, Judith Fetterley, a well-known scholar on the works of Louisa May Alcott, argues that Alcott's motivation for writing the book was because she was stifled by the constraints society set on women during the nineteenth century. Fetterley sees a direct, perhaps even semi-autobiographical connection between Jean Muir and Alcott. According to her reading, Alcott wrote this story to subvert the fantasy of the perfect, "little woman".[8] Cheri Louise Ross provides another feminist reading in her scholarly article in which she points out that Alcott created dangerous, independent, and intelligent female characters to subvert the patriarchal society in which they live.[9]
