The functions of clothes in Jean Rhys' fiction

Clothes perform three interrelated functions in Jean Rhys' fiction : a) the ''magical'' transformation of the female self, which turns out to be a mirage in the desert of the heroine's disatisfaction with her real self; b) the masquerading of femininity, which is represented as often unsuccessful and psychically painful, disturbing or based on self-division; and c) a protective function: instead of objects for self-display, clothes are used for self-concealment: the masks of ''normal'' femininity function as camouflage hiding feelings of gender inferiority.