Performance and Artifice

Where it surfaces

• 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.

• XI: Cope Enlivens the Country

  Cope's singing is a deliberate performance that earns admiration, contrasting with the artificial gramophone record.

• XIII: Cope Dines Again—and Stays After

  Cope's careful demeanor at dinner and the planned musical performance highlight the artificiality of social expectations.

• Cope Makes an Evasion

  The women's dramatic reaction to Cope's fainting is compared to a religious festival, highlighting the performative nature of social interactions.

• XV: Cope Entertains Several Ladies

  Cope puts on a brave front for his callers, using photographs as a diversion from his true condition.

• XVI: Cope Goes A-Sailing

  Cope and Amy's accident becomes a public spectacle, with Cope trying to maintain composure ('Let's hold our heads high and walk straight') and Mrs. Phillips turning the event into a social opportunity.

• XVII: Cope Among Crosscurrents

  Cope's sailing mishap becomes a public spectacle, with his class, the president's wife, and the newspaper treating it as a performance to be judged.

• XVIII: Cope at the Call of Duty

  Cope is pressured to perform—first singing, then improvising a story—highlighting the social expectation of entertainment and the artifice involved.

• XXI: Cope, Safeguarded, Calls Again

  Lemoyne and Cope perform a song with elaborate expressiveness; Lemoyne consciously acts on the social stage.

• XXIII: Cope Regains His Freedom

  Lemoyne's theatrical mindset influences the breakup letter, and Amy's final note mirrors the draft, suggesting a scripted quality to their emotions.

• XXIV: Cope in Danger Anew

  Cope is presented as a spectacle at the opera, described as 'glittering' and 'scenically gratifying,' while Hortense's portrait project involves artistic manipulation of his image.

• XXV: Cope in Double Danger

  Cope and Lemoyne maintain a facade of domestic peace despite disputes; Cope's social attendance and the portrait sittings are performances of civility.

• XXVII: Cope Escapes a Snare

  Cope's 'factitious vivacity' and 'stilted copybook talk' during the sitting underscore his performative demeanor and emotional evasion.

• Cope Absent from a Wedding

  The wedding ceremony is described as a 'crude imitation of a time-hallowed form,' highlighting the artificiality of social rituals.

• Cope Again in the Country

  Lemoyne's intense involvement in a musical comedy, including playing a female role, highlights the theme of performance both onstage and in social life.

• Cope as a Hero

  Medora Phillips performs a dramatic, exaggerated gratitude toward Cope, turning a minor incident into a heroic narrative.

• XXXI: Cope Gets New Light on His Chum

  Lemoyne's theatrical role blurs gender lines and exposes the tension between authentic self-expression and social acceptability; his 'art-structure collapses' when he carries the act too far offstage.

• XXXII: Cope Takes His Degree

  Cope's composed demeanor at convocation is described as a 'farewell performance,' highlighting the theatricality of social interactions.