# XXXI: Cope Gets New Light on His Chum explained — Bertram Cope’s Year > Chapter companion for Bertram Cope’s Year by Henry Blake Fuller. ## What happens Cope returns to Churchton and observes Lemoyne's intense preparation for a theatrical performance, where Lemoyne plays a female role with unsettling verisimilitude. The performance draws mixed reactions: Mrs. Phillips dislikes it, Carolyn Thorpe is indifferent, and the Pearsons condemn it. Randolph offers faint praise that thinly veils his criticism. After the show, Lemoyne's offstage antics—embracing a male performer in character—lead to a violent rebuff and his expulsion from the university. Cope, now seeing Lemoyne as a liability, reluctantly seeks Randolph's help again, but Randolph refuses. Lemoyne becomes a drag on Cope as he finishes his thesis, and the two plan a summer together, leaving Randolph to vie for Cope's attention. ## Themes in this chapter ### Performance and Artifice 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. ### Gender Roles and Sexuality Lemoyne's feminine portrayal and offstage advances challenge conventional masculinity, provoking violent rejection and institutional censure. ### Social Manipulation and Patronage Randolph's calculated aid and withdrawal, along with the university's decision to expel Lemoyne, illustrate how patronage networks control social and academic standing. ## Character check-ins ### Bertram Cope Returns to Churchton, plays tennis, grows uneasy with Lemoyne's theatrical preoccupations, and feels personal chagrin at Lemoyne's downfall. ### Arthur Lemoyne Immersed in dress rehearsal for a female role; his performance is too convincing, leading to offstage scandal, physical rebuff, and expulsion from the university. ### Basil Randolph Attends the performance, offers a veiled critique to Cope, and later refuses to help Lemoyne again, appearing almost pleased by the outcome. ### Medora Phillips Finds Lemoyne's performance distasteful, as anticipated. ### Carolyn Thorpe Watches Cope play tennis and thinks of writing a poem; at the performance, she enjoys the chorus girls but is not drawn to Lemoyne's character. ### George F. Pearson Attends with Amy, criticizes Lemoyne's makeup and gown, and expresses dislike for him. ## Key lines > Most amateur drama is based, perhaps, on the attempted 'escape': one likes to bolt from his own day, his own usual costume, his own range of ideas, and even from his own sex. Amateur theater often serves as a form of escape, allowing performers to temporarily abandon their everyday identity, clothing, thoughts, and even gender. _The narrator reflects on the psychological appeal of theatrical transformation, especially cross-dressing._ > It was Arthur Lemoyne's fortune—or misfortune—to do his work all too well. Lemoyne's success in playing a female role was both a blessing and a curse, as his convincing performance provoked discomfort and condemnation. _Irony: his artistic skill leads to social and academic ruin._ > He brusquely cleared himself of Lemoyne's arm with a good vigorous push. This effort not only propelled Lemoyne against some scenery and left him, despite the voluminous blond wig, with a bruise on his forehead; it immediately pushed him out of his part, and it ended by pushing him out of the organization and even out of the University. A male performer violently shoved Lemoyne away when he tried to embrace him in character, causing a bruise and triggering a chain reaction that expelled Lemoyne from the play, the club, and the university. _Physical rejection as a metaphor for social expulsion; the push is both literal and symbolic._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bertram_cope_s_year_se/chapters/xxxi-cope-gets-new-light-on-his-chum - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bertram_cope_s_year_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bertram_cope_s_year_se/chapters