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Discontent in Jane Martin's 'Beauty'

Decent Essays

Every day, a person will see celebrities on television, talk to peers in school or at work, or have encounters with strangers on the street, and automatically make assumptions on what their life must be like. Many times, they envision the other person’s life to be something bigger and better than their own life and that vision causes them to become jealous. That jealousy, in effect, can consume them and cause them become unhappy with the assets and characteristics that they have. People can become so discontented with their lives that they would be willing to give up everything they have to start over or have a different life with different problems. The way that the main characters in Jane Martin’s “Beauty” describe their lives as …show more content…

She explains that she cannot have a conversation with a man without him coming onto her, that she has no privacy, no female friends, and never had a real, long-term relationship (39). Carla wishes she had Bethany’s intelligence; she would rather be in Bethany’s position with a personality rather than beauty, explaining that she leaves dinner parties because she’s out of conversation (40).
Despite Carla’s warnings, Bethany continues to believe that it would make her happiest to be beautiful, basically asserting that the incessant male attention, kindness based solely on physical beauty, and being part of the beautiful “league” (40) are far more desirable than the ability to make conversation, or for that matter, anything she has in her current life. When it comes time to make the final wish, Martin makes it clear that Bethany has her mind set on beauty. Unsuccessfully, Carla attempts one last time to dissuade her, then Bethany unleashes the genie. After an explosion, the two girls regain consciousness and realize they have switched bodies; Bethany’s wish for beauty has come true. Although Bethany did not mean to become Carla, she still ultimately got her wish.
In the last few lines of the play, Bethany explains that the swap gave both girls the one thing that everybody wants; different problems. “It’s better than beauty for me; it’s better than brains for you” (41).
Martin adds these last few lines to add sort of a bigger meaning to the

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