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... Her famous ‘Roman’ Le Femme Cachée displayed many characteristics of not only the French Short Story but also of her personal views on society.
On reading La Femme Cachée one is immediately aware of the changing narrative styles within each ‘histoire’. ...
One of the reoccurring themes in La Femme Cachée that reveals some of the values Colette holds towards deceit and concealment is the use of masks, both metaphorically and literally. The story entitled La Femme Cachée is perhaps the obvious one to reflect upon to demonstrate Colette’s fascination with masks and how she uses them to illustrate certain attitudes. ... When the wife wears the mask it hides the woman she purports to her husband but reveals her true self:
‘…le monstrueux plaisir d’être seule, libre, véridique dans sa brutalité native, d’être l’inconnue, à jamais solitaire et sans vergogne, qu’un petit masque et un costume hermétique ont rendue à sa solitude irrémédiable et à sa déshonnête innocence. ... Thus Colette shows she believes that one must be true to oneself in terms of both appearance and age in order to assume identity and suggests that hiding behind masks does not change reality, and like Madame de La Hournerie finds out, achieves nothing. ... Colette, however is not purporting a political message with this story, but a social one by channelling her attitudes through other characters of a lower class to the woman:
‘Il la guettait depuis quinze jours, celle qu’il nommait aussi, comme tout le monde, la « vieille folle », cette grande septuagénaire qui gardait une silhouette de jeune femme démodée’
Another story in La Femme Cachée which is pertinent to the theme of deceit and concealment, but also shows some of Colette’s feminist values is Secrets.
Approximate Word count = 1439
Approximate Pages = 5.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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