The Real Thing

Clothing is symbolic of the roles and subsequent identities associated with the period’s social classes. As members of the upper class, the Monarchs find sharing costumes distasteful and insist they wear their own clothing during the modeling sessions. Models of lower strata—like the working-class Miss Churm and immigrant-class Oronte—can adopt various personas with realistic precision. Whereas the Monarchs view their attire as genuine and representative of their social status, more pliable models understand that clothing is a tool, not an identity.

From the onset, the narrator deduces from the Monarchs’ appearance that they are upper class, but he also ascertains that they purchased their clothing on credit. The Monarchs’ attitude toward clothing shows their attempt to uphold the refined, sophisticated identities that align with their social class. However, because the Monarchs are without financial means, their aristocratic identity is as much an artifice as Miss Churm presenting as a Russian princess. To wear “general use” costumes and not their own clothing would challenge the Monarchs’ social positioning. Mrs. Monarch rejects the “shabby” Miss Churm as a princess just as Major Monarch rejects Oronte as an “English gentleman.” The Monarchs’ view that clothing does not change one’s social status—and therefore cannot substitute for “the real thing”—is contradictory.