Beauty by Jane Martin Essay

We live in a country where television and advertising is designed to entice people into always wanting more than what they already have. This entice ment is executed by feeding into the human desire for happiness. Advertisers create convincing campaigns that inundate the public with images of societies peg down interpretation of success and beauty. These images atomic number 18 therefore presented as a precondition to the happiness that human beings ar inquiring for. When a persons reality does non match this narrow image, the message sent through television and advertisements is that in order to be content people need to find a way to produce it. As a result we live in a familiarity where people ar continuously longing for a happiness that quite a little save be achieved through things that are fleeting and external, which creates feelings of discontentmentment In the satirical atomic number 53-act play Beauty by Jane Martin the two sole characters are Bethany and Carla.Their behavior demonstrates the affects of discontentment caused by the media. Despite the fact that both of these women are reasonably successful, they each want the things that they do no have that are present in each other. Carla is beautiful and wants to be briskness and Bethany is smart and wants to be beautiful. Under normal circumstances the longing to have what person else has, is usual either withaltually abandoned or translates into negative emotions that are never acted on. However, due to the benefit of theatrics, these yearning become achievable because Bethany arrives at Carlas house armed with a goddamn genie and one more wish (1108) The play is a microcosm of the discontentment in our society. This discontent is exhibited more or less effectively through Bethanys character since she was the one more willing take exaggerated measures to obtain what she wanted.Although, Carla similarly voiced somewhat discontentment with her life, she was not willing to e xchange her reality for someone elses. When we segregate each character and situation for examination, we are able to arrive how Martin purposefully crafts a story to effectively leave the audience thinking most the impact of discontentment in society. Carla is a symbol of the allure and deception of beauty. She is a model the sociocultural standard of feminine beauty in society, however nothing about her is as it appears. Although she is a model, she is struggling. She is beautiful nevertheless her looks were altered by cosmetic surgery. Men were attracted to her but thequality of the men is nousable. The fact that she is not smart is to deliberately create the stereotype of the unsounded model. The medias use of such unrealistic models like Carla and it makes it difficult for females to achieve any level of contentment with their physical appearance. Carla is the false god the media forces women to oppose themselves against. Her beauty is unattainable as it is the result of drastic measures.Yet, even if other women decide to go through those drastic measures they soon learn, like Carla, that it does not ultimately bring them happiness. When you examine Carla and Bethanys relationship, you can further see the emptiness in Carlas life. She describes Bethany as being one of the and female friends that she has. Reading the dialogue, even beyond the obvious points, there is so much about the friendship that is flawed. Bethany is not even aware that it is Carlas birthday and when made aware she only half-heartedly acknowledges it before she continues on with her conversation/purpose for being there. Bethany in like manner shows no regard for the fact that Carla and is on the phone regardless of how many times Carla asks her to be quiet. When Carla does bump off her telephone the two carry on separate monologues and their conversation only finds connection when Carla realizes that she is the topic. Carla even acknowledges that Bethany does not like her mo st of the time.Which forces the reader to question the extent to which Carla understands relationships like friendship. Interestingly, Martin chose to have Carla be somewhat modest and even somewhat self-deprecating regarding her stance of toward herself and complimentary toward her less attractive friend. This picking is interesting in that we generally think of the beautiful girl in stories as being the morally corrupt one. In popular civilization the most beautiful girl is generally depicted as the villain. Yet, Martin breaks from this handed-down trajectory. On the other hand, Bethany is an almost villainous character. She is negative, admittedly jealous, self-absorbed, and single-minded in her motivations for things that are fleeting and superficial that she believes beauty gives. She is a successful accountant, a published author, and pretty. However, these things are not enough for her. It could be said that her attitude is an indictment on the fact that women forced to v iew themselves in impairment of their looks.Carla is allowed in many ways to be more human than Bethany is because she no longer has to strive for betterlooks. An additional evaluation can also be done of the genie, which is symbolic of the world of advertising. He is a large than life colorful character that represents the glamour and glitz of the advertising world. The offering of wishes represents the promises of advertisings. The fact that he is see-through (1106) is symbolic of the illusion and deception of advertisement. The tout ensemble concept of advertising is comparable to a mirage, which is a natural occurring visual illusion, yet even with the scientific explanation it is still an abstract experience that is a combination of desire and imagination.Advertising is just that, a mirage, a natural occurring illusion that comes into agreement with our desires and imagination. According to the Media Center for Literacy, advertising is the most powerful education tool in A merican which explains why women are conditioned to view themselves this prism. Bethany was the type of person the advertisement agencies target. She was unhappy with herself, as well as someone willing to go to any continuance or pay any price to obtain the perfect image.The media deeds hard at creating a society that view themselves negatively and accordingly they prey on the victims. Ultimately, Martin uses his play to force the audience to question ideas of beauty, happiness, and what it nub to live a good life. The characters, Bethany and Carla, present us with different elements of society. to each one yearns for something outside of themselves. However, the desire for beauty trumps the desire for other traits like knowledge and personal success to the extent that someone is willing to give up everything for it.WORKS CITEDKilbourne, Jean. Beautyand the Beast of Advertising. 21 December 2012. Martin, Jane. Beauty publications and the Writing Process. Ed. Susan X. Day, Ro bertFunk, and Elizabeth McMahan. Upper Saddle River Pearson, 2007. Print.