In many of the stories we have experienced on our journey so far, a large problem is the beauty of the main characters. Through their beauty they inadvertently attract the wrong kind of attention. The couple suffers at the hands of those who are jealous and vilify them, or they end up snatched away from their true love . This is a theme which runs through many stories and fairy tales. Snow White is a very obvious example; had she not been so beautiful she would not have inspired the wrath of the jealous Queen. In these stories, mainly An Ephesian Tale (so far), even the gods themselves are angered by the reaction to the beauty of the young couple. It would be a bad enough situation to anger a dark queen, but to anger a god is worse. Is it possible to escape the wrath of a god? The gods in these stories seem to bore easily and thankfully forget the young victims who could no more help being beautiful than they could help being born human instead of a duck. Then again, no one claimed life is fair.
The next question is why make the characters so beautiful that only terrible things befall them? Simple; it makes them memorable. It's more memorable and exciting to watch this perfect couple than it is to watch someone who is in no way interesting or special. I clearly remember when Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married. There she was; the beautiful woman who was living the fairy tale dream of every little girl. Every detail was fascinating to seemingly everyone in the world. (Maybe not my Dad) Anyway, I was 8 years old at the time and my best friend, Martha, wanted so much to be just like Diana that for weeks the only thing she would do was pretend to act out the royal wedding. Martha did not come from a well off family, she was quite large for kids of the time, usually dressed in what looked like her grandma's hand-me-down clothes cut off to fit her height, and to top it off, she was not especially intelligent. However, Martha insisted her hair be perfectly styled in ringlets every day, she always had a smile, and an innocent beauty that made what would be considerable challenges not matter. In fact, with her well styled hair, grown up clothes, amazing smile and passion for this couple's story, I began to think maybe she could become a princess someday. I was happy to play along and allow her the exclusive role of princess. It was as if it were enough of an honor to be the friend of the princess. A few weeks later we went back to pretending to marry Bo and Luke Duke from the television show The Dukes of Hazard.
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Princess Diana's story was a bit like the romances we read. She was so beautiful that people stepped in and her story ended in tragedy. This is another moment I remember clearly. People talk about the moment of this or that being forever etched in their memory. I have several, I am sure you do as well. This is just one of many for me.
So what do these stories tell us? Is being beautiful somehow bad? Is it their vanity that causes the problem? I do not think so. The women in these stories do not seem to flaunt their beauty. The people around them have judged them aesthetically. Perhaps what we can learn from this is we must appreciate beauty, but let it be. If we celebrate some one's beauty too much, we change it into an obsession which spirals into tragedy. Look at what happened to Dorian Gray. (If you don't know who this is for the love of literature go find out!). By putting so much weight on how beautiful or perfect someone is, that is all their value and it devalues those around them. This leads to jealousy. Snow White's queen was still amazingly beautiful, but this was not enough. Diana was not perfect, and not living happily ever after. At least in romance we get a happily ever after, but we must keep in mind, this is an ideal.
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