Bertram Cope’s Year · Question
How does Bertram Cope’s Year develop the theme of Performance and Artifice?
Answer
Bertram Cope’s Year by Henry Blake Fuller develops Performance and Artifice across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
Theatricality pervades the novel, from Lemoyne's cross-dressing stage performance to the characters' social performances—posing as artists, poets, or lovers—highlighting the gap between authentic self and social facade.
Cope consciously adopts a smiling, affable demeanor as a 'calculated expressiveness' to navigate social expectations, masking his true irritation.
The conversation between Cope and Mrs. Phillips is a performative sparring match, with both adopting roles and testing each other.
The entire afternoon is a staged entertainment where the young women perform their arts (violin, painting, poetry) and Cope is expected to perform in return by singing.
Evidence in the book
- I: Cope at a College Tea
Cope consciously adopts a smiling, affable demeanor as a 'calculated expressiveness' to navigate social expectations, masking his true irritation.
- II: Cope Makes a Sunday Afternoon Call
The conversation between Cope and Mrs. Phillips is a performative sparring match, with both adopting roles and testing each other.
- III: Cope Is "Entertained"
The entire afternoon is a staged entertainment where the young women perform their arts (violin, painting, poetry) and Cope is expected to perform in return by singing.
- IV: Cope Is Considered
Cope's singing is described as 'cool and correct, but pleasant,' suggesting a performative aspect to his social interactions.
- V: Cope Is Considered Further
Cope's singing is described as a cool, correct performance, and Foster's commentary highlights the artifice in social interactions.
- VI: Cope Dines—and Tells About It
Cope hires a dress suit, recites poetry, and dances to perform his social role; the evening is a series of staged entertainments.
- Cope Undertakes an Excursion
Cope's deliberate avoidance of direct address and his 'generalized manner' are seen as a performance to maintain social distance.
- X: Cope at His House Party
Cope performs admiration for the landscape under Randolph's coaching, and Mrs. Phillips curates the natural experience, naming trees after literary figures to create a cultured facade.
