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No, don't try to change the background. That will implicate all the edges of the figure and it will be a nightmare, probably spoiling the piece.
My saying that you could apply pastel over fixative was intended in a more general sense, rather than as a suggestion that you should do it here. The fact is, those shadows are so dark that it will probably be impossible to eliminate them even with layers of the light background color, and even if you could, it would only be by loading gobs of pastel into those areas, which in turn would make them stand out anyway.
If you tinker with it at all, you might just lightly smudge a zigzag of pastel down the hard edges to soften them, and leave it at that.
I would, however, reduce the size and intensity of the catchlights in the eyes, and move the one on our left off dead-center (it should match the catchlight in the other eye).
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