The Meaning Behind the Beauty

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Throughout history, women have been looked upon as sources of beauty. From medieval times, the women that are remembered and well-documented in poetry and story-telling are presumably all one thing: beautiful. A woman’s beauty does not simply represent their physical beauty, but the knowledge, power, personality, and even hardships that woman has endured. Strong, significant women from this time and prior periods have entire works of literature dedicated to their beauty and appearance. Goddesses, such as Aphrodite or Venus, the Virgin Mary, Nature; these women are central figures in the beginning of the Anno Domini era, through medieval literature, all the way to present day. In medieval times, ‘everyday’ women in the literature are even described by their beauty. Women who have the strong, driving roles in works of this time period impart wisdom, kindness, the feeling that although men were the superior gender, the women are still the ones who bring life to this world and make this life worth living. In the writing’s of Boethius, Alan de Lille, and Chaucer, there are three women whose beauty and physical characteristics are central in the understanding of their personalities and the works themselves. The women are that of Lady Philosophy, Nature, and the White Queen. Each woman’s beauty is described to that of which the author wanted the reader to focus on in the woman’s personality: intellect in Lady Philosophy, the high status once held and the role as mother by Nature, and the good heart and kindness in the White Queen.

In Boethius’, The Consolation of Philosophy, Lady Philosophy is given the briefest physical description out of the three allegorical women, but holds the most symbolism. Lady Philosophy’s beauty ...

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...ted others and no one was ever harmed by speaking with her. Trouth, a vow made with a sense of honor and honesty, has even embodied himself in the Queen (Chaucer, line 1003). The White Queen is a woman with a pure heart and only kindness and love can radiate from her.

The allegorical women of Lady Philosophy, Nature, and the White Queen encompass all the ways in which a woman can be beautiful, on the inside and the outside: intellectuality, motherhood, kindness, and purity of heart. The miraculous qualities of these three women are that they each embody those four traits, but bring to light and focus only on one. Lady Philosophy brings us the gift of understanding godly knowledge, Nature, the love only a mother can give to her children, and the White Queen, continual kindness for all beings. Their beauty is simply the outward sign of all the goodness within.

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