Disguises are used throughout The Marriage of Figaro, forming a key motif that speaks to both Patriarchal Double Standards in Love and Marriage and The Instability of Class Hierarchies by subverting usual gender roles and class boundaries. A key example of this motif is when Suzanne and the Countess dress Cherubin as a woman, so that the Count will mistake him for Suzanne and humiliate himself in front of his subjects. The disguising of Cherubin as a woman is not only an example of the absurdity of the play’s many plots and schemes; it also illustrates how the play challenges traditional gender roles by suggesting a young man can easily pass as a young woman if given the right outward trappings of conventional femininity, thus drawing attention to gender as a social construct. Cherubin’s proposed disguise is heightened by Beaumarchais’s own suggestion that the role of Cherubin should be played by a young woman, further blurring traditional gender lines.

Suzanne and the Countess agree to a more consequential use of disguise, dressing as one another in an effort to trick the Count, with Suzanne and the Countess now blurring the lines between social classes. That each woman can dress herself in the other’s clothing and appear so comfortable and convincing suggests that—like gender—social class has a performative element that masks a common humanity. Suzanne and the Countess are from different social classes, but clothing is seemingly all that separates them. Figaro and the Count are both tricked by these disguises, further reinforcing the artificiality of social distinctions based on birth and title. In this sense, disguises dismantle social expectations. Social class and gender may seem fixed in this society, but the disguises show how the play challenges this understanding.