Jane Martin's Play Beauty Analysis

Imagine being told as a female in today’s world you must look or act a ¬¬certain way in order to be accepted. Being what you want to be is not allowed and changes have to be made in order to be included. They say “pain is beauty, and beauty is pain” as they way a woman looks today are completely different from ten or even fifty years ago. In this paper, the reader will understand the mind of a woman in today’s society and the difficulties to be not only accepted but being her own person as well. Not only has the appearance of a woman changed but also role titles and job descriptions as well. Jane Martin’s play “Beauty” shows us two different versions of the problems women are facing current while living in today’s world and taking a walk in

Everyone has their flaws as no human being is perfect nor will one ever be perfect either. “There are plenty of beautiful women that do not fit the projected form of beauty that we have been taught to idolize. Still, women constantly attempt to change the way their bodies are meant to be, in order to look like the edited models and airbrushed actresses we see in our favorite shows, movies and magazines.” (Curly) Women working behind magazine companies are playing apart in the downgrading of women as well and some don’t even know it. An average magazine cover is either a woman known to society as a very pretty or attractive woman, with a face full of makeup and on the side bringing attention to the main article of something like “find out the simple way to get this amazing body or how to lose weight in 10 days.” Enhancing the best products to look young, lose weight, clothes that draw attention or other things that are similar. “Bethany: But it’s what everyone wants. It’s the nasty secret at large in the world. It’s the unspoken tidal desire in every room and on every street. It’s the unspoken, the soundless whisper… millions upon millions of people longing hopelessly and forever to stop being whatever they are and be beautiful, but the difference between those ardent multitudes and me is that I have a goddamn genie and one more wish!” (Martin,

“The very thing that was meant to protect natural beauty has turned and threatened our very definition of beauty. A beautiful woman should strike you as different; as unique; as an individual. Her body can be attractive based on a number of things, but shouldn’t one of those criteria be that she is real?” (Curly) Martin’s play Beauty helps bring forth two different women living two different ways, one receiving all the attention of men and the other wanting to be receiving that attention. Everything is not as always as it seems to be, because you never honestly really know what someone else is going through. Throughout the play Carla is the beautiful one getting attention she doesn’t want, as she hopes for men to look past her looks and want to get to know her. While Bethany on the other hand wants Carla’s life and to be looked by men in more than just wasting time getting to know her or barely paying her any attention at all. These women are modern day women living in today’s society as Carla can be compared to a celebrity or model and Bethany being an average woman. Two different females with two valid but different viewpoints like every female living on earth and walking the streets full of men and