The Woman Behind the Mask

If I were to say the word mask, what would be the first thought that comes to your mind? If words like hide, conceal, and protect came to your mind, then I'd have to say you were fishing in the right pond. Looking at Bertolt Brecht's The Good Women of Setzuan, we look at characters, Shen Te and Shui Ta, who are synonymous, Shen Te being a woman and Shui Ta being a "man". As the reader, throughout the play, we are aware that the two are the same people, while the characters in the play are ingnorant of this fact. In the novel, Shen Te uses a mask as a means of stepping out of her admirable shell and stepping into a character that allows her to indulge in less saint like behaviors and take on the characteristics a selfish person. It's the accepted view that the purpose of a mask is to hide, protect, or conceal a person's identity.
In the play, I found it ironic that Shen Te wears a mask to hide her identity and ends up pregnant, which is impossible for the man, Shui Ta, which she pretends to be, so it becomes only a matter of time before she is found out. Looking back at the play, the text says:

SHUI TA: I'm dizzy.
MRS. SHIN: After all, you are in your seventh month. But old Mrs. Shin will be there in your hour of trial!
SHUI TA: Can I count on that?
MRS. SHIN: We all have our price, and mine won't be too high for the great Mr. Sui Ta!
SHUI TA: It's for the child's sake. All of this.
MRS. SHIN: "All for the child," of course.
SHUI TA: I'm so fat. People must notice.

When looking at Shen Te's situation, it made me think that she has a multiple personality disorder, which is a condition where a person exhibits multiple distinct or discrete personalities. In Shen Te's situation, the multiple peronalities are directly linked to the mask that she uses to change her persona and become Shui Ta. From the beginning of the play we see Shen Te in her attempt to be the most admirable person possible, but after seeing that it is impossible to be congenial all the time, Shen Te resolves to becoming her alter ego, Shui Ta.
But when does a mask cease to work? From a religious stand point, I don't think it's ok to pose as something you're not and sooner or later, what's done in the dark will come to the light.


Work Cited
"Dissociative Identity Disorder" Wikipedia. 17 April 2010. Wikipedia Foundation, Incorporated. 19 April 2010.

Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948.