Jane Martin's play, "Beauty" is an enthralling masterpiece that delves into the lives of two contrasting individuals, Carla and Bethany. Carla, a stunning yet unsuccessful model, grapples with her career. Bethany, a triumphant accountant and writer, battles with her insecurities about her looks. This essay will delve deeper into how the plot and conflict in Jane Martin's "Beauty" intertwine to form a provoking exploration of self-esteem, envy, and society's obsession with external beauty. Through the contrasting lives of Carla and Bethany, the play illuminates the often overlooked value of inner beauty and intellect. Martin masterfully intertwines the plot and conflict, producing a thought-provoking examination of self-value, envy, and society's …show more content…
Carla is a model who desires intellectual depth, while Bethany is a successful accountant and writer, who desires physical beauty. Their chance of meeting in a bar leads to a pact to assist each other. However, their efforts result in jealousy and sabotage. As the story progresses, the external conflict between their desires and societal expectations transforms into an internal conflict. Carla and Bethany's journey towards self-discovery reveals the emptiness of their pursuits. Despite her beauty, Carla lacks privacy and genuine connections, cautioning Bethany about the dangers of her wish. Bethany realizes that beauty does not guarantee happiness and can be a source of pain and manipulation. This highlights the message that true contentment comes from within. For instance, in hopes of a more satisfying life, Bethany's wish for beauty through a genie reveals the harsh truth that beauty does not guarantee happiness when she realizes that beauty can not bring happiness. She acknowledges, "Beauty can bring pain and suffering, as many women and (men) go to great lengths to maintain their looks"(Cranster, 2022, August 3). Similarly, Carla's insights on the downsides of attractiveness contrast with Bethany's romantic pursuit, as she urges Bethany to reconsider her
In the essay “What Meets the Eye”, Daniel Akst explains scientific facts about the beauty of men and women matters to people. He argues that attractive individuals receive attention, great social status, marries, and gets paid more on a job. One can disagree with Akst’s argument because anyone with the skills and knowledge, despite the appearance, can gain a decent relationship and can get paid well. Akst looks at beauty as if it can lead individuals to an amazing and successful life, but he is wrong. Nancy Mairs’ and Alice Walker’s views on beauty are explained internally and through self-confidence. Both women’s and Akst’s arguments on beauty share some similarities and differences in many ways, and an
The play “Beauty” by Jane Martin is about two drastically different friends realizing they are not so different after all. Carla, the beautiful friend, tells Bethany, the smart friend, about the trouble of being beautiful. Bethany wants to be like Carla and even thinks she would enjoy the “problems” of beauty. She only expresses her true feelings because she has the opportunity to have what Carla does. Bethany had found a lamp containing a genie and had one wish remaining.
The Progressive Era was a period in which the federal government increased its legislation and its grasp of the nation. There were three distinct pieces of federal legislation that seem to stick out, The Meat Inspection Act The Federal Reserve Act,, and The Hepburn Act. All of this legislation gave the government an extremely large amount of power to regulate business and industry as well as the people of the United States of America.
We tend to change our perceptions of ourselves to conform to the social norms. Even the “prettiest” girls experience self-esteem issues. In Mean Girls, Cady befriends a group of materialistic, judgmental girls who are called “The Plastics.” “The Plastics” are meant to drive for perfection. They are obsessed with their self-image, especially, the group’s leader, Regina George who always says, “I have to lose three pounds” (Mean Girls). Their body image gives the girls power, the skinnier and hotter they are, the more they can judge others who are not like them. Radical Feminist Theory criticizes the notion of beauty image. There is no one type of beauty, but this movie shows that one body size, one skin color, and one type of fashion, is beautiful. For example, all of “The Plastics” are skinny, lighter skin/white, and have long, straight hair. When Cady goes to Regina’s house with “The Plastics”, she finds out that even the prettiest girls find things wrong with their bodies. The girls are obviously beautiful, but while standing in front of a mirror, they criticize their bodies. Regina thinks her pores are huge, Gretchen thinks she has a weird hairline, and Karen thinks her nail beds suck. Sheltered Cady says, “I thought there was only fat and skinny, but apparently there are a lot of things that can be wrong with your body” (Mean Girls). Teenagers, usually, focus on the tiniest things to try to make themselves
First, Connie and her mother focused on outward beauty rather than inward beauty, which can never be tarnished. Connie’s mother was jealous of her daughter’s beauty, because she knew she could no longer attain the beauty that she once possessed. She often scolded her daughter for admiring her own beauty in order to make herself feel more secure inside. Connie did not try in the least bit to make her mother’s struggle any easier, but instead gawked at her own beauty directly in front of her mother, and often compared her own beauty to others.
Lorrie Moore’s “You’re Ugly, Too” introduces the reader to Zoë Hendricks, a character who at first glance seems carefree and convivial, as she is known to offer her college students hot chocolate and often sings to them in class. After reading further it becomes clear that Zoë’s raw sarcasm and joking manner are in fact a defense mechanism and her only way of dealing with the situations she is presented with, ones ranging from her love life (or lack thereof) to her home life and sense of self. Zoë is restless and finds happiness and contentment to be beyond reach. Her sarcasm paired with these piled on insecurities ultimately leave her alienated from her relationships, from
story points out that beauty has its cost as well, the power of being beautiful holds a great
Every woman grows up knowing that they one day want to be beautiful. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she gives an in depth look at what negative effects the concept of beauty can have on an individual. From infancy to a full grown adult woman, beauty has been a way of thinking and lifestyle. As a little girl you are given petite shaped, blonde, blue eyed dolls. While boys are given brawny soldiers and mechanical toys.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. New York: William Morrow, 1991.
Connie can be labeled as an average teenage girl: vulnerable, carefree, desirous, and curious. She has just discovered the power of her own beauty, but hasn't yet realized that power, in any form, must be controlled. Connie has long, dark blond hair. She is petite and seems confident in her looks, yet "everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home" (par. 5). Connie loves to h...
Sarwer, D. B., Grossbart, T. A., & Didie, E. R. (2003). Beauty and society. Seminars in
In "A Woman's Beauty: Put-down or Power Source," Susan Sontag portrays how a woman's beauty has been degraded while being called beautiful and how that conceives their true identity as it seems to portray innocence and honesty while hiding the ugliness of the truth. Over the years, women have being classified as the gentler sex and regarded as the fairer gender. Sontag uses narrative structure to express the conventional attitude, which defines beauty as a concept applied today only to women and their outward appearance. She accomplishes this by using the technique of contrast to distinguish the beauty between men and women and establishing a variation in her essay, by using effective language.
In a world where many are led to believe that they fall short of what society depicts as “perfect”, it is still true that everyone is beautiful in their own way. There are even more demands on girls now a days than there has ever been before. Some may think they need to fit in, so they become someone they are not or they begin to act like a totally different person. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, illustrates society’s high and unrealistic expectations on the physical appearance of women, while failing to see that a woman’s self-esteem is at risk of being diminished.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
16.)Utt, Jamie. "Navigating The Difference Between The Appreciation of Beauty and Sexual Objectification." Everyday Feminism 18 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. .