got an interesting question for u guys

[sharath192]

why do you think authors use disguises in literature?

twelfth night where viola is a boy and count of monte cristo where he uses several disguises are examples.

[mickitaz]

I think it is an intersting venue...having characters disguise themselves. Specially in the manner where women are disguising themselves as men. Memory eludes me at the moment for an example.

I find it interesting in the way the writer often changes they way they construct the sentances for the passage. It is almost as if they completly metamorph the character into the disguise in question.

[bounty]

my first and maybe best thought is that disguises are in keeping with the "need" or direction of the story. for instance, sherlock holmes is a master of disguises, and he uses them in crime solving/information gathering ways, perhaps where no other way would work.

[valleyjune]

I think it's for giving the plot more interest. It's the play of disguising and revelation of the character's true identity after having adopted a different personna for some time. All of us like disguises, I think it's a human trait. Probably because most of the time we keep some deeper parts of ours hidden, sometimes even to ourselves. Parts which, however, we wish and need to express.

Moreover, it's the idea of creating some feeling of knowing and sharing a secret between the reader and the writer. The reader knows something that most of the characters don't. It's something like a conspiracy against them where we take part becoming something like invisible protagonists or puppet movers of/in the story.