When someone reads fiction, they tend to connect with elements of the story that happen or can happen in real life. “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil” by Fay Weldon is one of those stories that made me think of this a lot. The book, while being intense, gross, and outrageous at times, conveys a heavy comical element that the reader cannot help but laugh at. The main character, Ruth, is married to a man that cheats on her and does not respect her. Ruth is particularly tall and robust in a way that makes her want to physically change her body. Ruth believes that if she is capable of becoming a beautiful woman, then she can use her looks to make her husband, and even other men, fall head over heels for her. Society places those who are beautiful …show more content…
The fact that Mary Fisher is both beautiful and famous really tears into Ruth. She starts doing a ton of erratic things in response. One of those things being an expensive, evasive, and dangerous procedure to change her appearance to look like Mary Fisher. This book exemplifies the notion that love does not always end similarly to the way they do in fairy tales. They can, and more often times do, end in flames of disgust, vengeance, and regret. Specifically, this book is very anti-romantic, and shows the reality of love. Toward the end of the book, Ruth has flipped the script and begun treating Bobbo with the same disrespect, if not more, he gave her. She even goes as far as to sometimes have sex with other men in front of him. This revenge that Ruth achieves is a little absurd. Yes, Ruth was clearly mistreated and her kids with mistreated, but the moral of the story is to do nothing like any of the characters in the story do. In the end of a horrible situation, Ruth made life even harder for everyone else and lost herself in the process— literally. Perhaps, in a similar scenario in real life, it would be best to not go to such lengths for revenge and to just be better than that. There are indeed other ways for someone to find solace then through pure destruction and revenge. The act of achieving the revenge can break down one’s moral code and cause