Burn Her for Being a Liar BEWARE: Contains Spoilers from Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie by Kristin Boyd Both Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask and Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie feature female main characters who are of a lower class trying to better their lot in life. Both women get a bit underhanded in the deception department, lying to the men in their lives and shifting their personalities as needed. Behind a Mask’s Jean Muir uses her skills as an actress to find a husband of a higher social class. Her methods are deliberate, and arguably vicious, with a clear goal in mind from the beginning of the story. Sister Carrie’s Carrie Meeber, however, takes a more passive route to a higher class. Her social climb comes when men attach themselves to her, though Carrie still uses some deception and plays the men against each other. Interestingly enough, Muir is the woman who’s given the stern finger by Alcott; Dreiser prefers to pat Carrie on the head and say, “It’s not your fault.” This condemnation of one but not the other implies a level of acceptance on the part of the author of manipulative actions to reach endgame, but it also puts a cap on this acceptability. So, as a society, we can accept some form of shifting identity, but there’s a limit to what we’ll stand for, dammit, before we start calling it outright deception. If we follow that line of thinking, given Muir’s treatment in Mask,
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