Beauty By Jane Martin

Andrea Isaacs
December 2, 2014
English 102-BD Fall

The Search for Happiness

In today’s society we live in a world were the media has the opportunity to attract us into wanting more than what we already have. We always feed into our desire just to satisfy our happiness. Many of out interpretations of Success and beauty comes from the images we see everyday. One’s unhappiness is cause by the jealousy of others and discontent within our lives. As an outcome we live in a society where people are endlessly longing for a happiness that can simply be reached through temporary things and superficially wants, which brings discontent and jealousy. In the comedy one-act play “Beauty” by Jane Martin the two characters Bethany and Carla both are on the urge of wanting things they do not have that in presently in each other. As they get their desires through a genie in a lamp.
Carla is a beautiful yet unsuccessful model with no brains and no personality.
Due to her outstanding beauty men flock to her and she is always going on dates and constantly getting calls and on the phone with these men. On the other hand Bethany is the opposite she is an accountant with high income and she also has a good career in writing short stories but she is still unhappy with her looks. These two characters both envy each other because they each want what the other has: Carla wants the gift of being smart and Bethany wants to be beautiful. These two characters are more different than similar; they both are discontent with their lives. Even though they both have something going for themselves they are still dissatisfied and discontent with life. Dissatisfaction can evoke jealousy feelings in a person because if others have what they want it makes mad; Carolyn Gard states jealousy and envy can set you on fire (Gard 1). Carla and Bethany are both insecure, the jealousy and envy with in a person stems from their
insecurities. In “Beauty” Carla is the stereotypical pretty girl, the very fact that she is a model give her beauty. She gets attention from the men but there is something missing that deep down she wants to have which is to be smart and have personality. As I read Martin’s work I notice Carla’s want are tangible, having brains and personality have actually help in many ways but just being beautiful doesn’t get one far in life. I believe that Carla puts on an act she is not really care about what Bethany lacks. She seems to be more conceited than to care about others. Besides that Carla sees the discontentment and unhappiness that comes with beauty and she tries to stop Bethany from wishing those problems on herself. But when someone wants something they will go at any cost to get what they want, according to Julie Fuimano in her article “Sources of Discontent” its an epidemic of unhappiness society is suffering from.
Bethany is a person that is supernatural, she even though Bethany cannot match Carla in beauty; she is a bright and very intelligent girl. Her intelligence has enabled her to be successful in her studies, in publishing and to be successful in her accountant career. She is a smart girl that has everything going for her but she doesn’t seem to get the right attention from men as Carla does. I believe that Bethany could hold a relationship more than Carla because she is more stable. Bethany has a low self-esteem and she does not put any confidence in herself or her looks she could be beautiful if she would not focus so much on what others have or the perfect qualities of others. Both characters she that they are jealous and envy of each other but Bethany shows it more than Carla. Bethany states, “ Pretty is the minor leagues of beautiful, pretty is what people discover about you after they know you. Beautiful is what knocks them out across the room. Pretty, you get called a couple times of he year; beautiful is 24 hours a day” (line 64). Bethany just shows that she is insecure within her self that brings out the jealousy she has of Carla.
Both characters send the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side. The two characters are discontent with their status to a point that it breeds emotions of jealousy. One can relate this discontent with the society today, whereby girls are willing to go to any length to alter their appearances because females are just always dissatisfied there is always something wrong. This idea of not being beautiful can come from most of the media and celebrities; in the media they have so many perceptions of beauty that confuses much of our society of females.
Throughout this comedy play write “Beauty” by Jane Martin many themes can be found. Some of the themes are Jealousy, envy and discontentment. Carla and Bethany are jealousy of one thing that each of them haves and they both are discontented with their lives. Carolyn Gard states that Jealousy is often referred to as the Green-Eyed Monster” (Gard 3) jealous something that no one likes in a person when people are jealous of you it can lead to destruction especially in friendships. Secondly, Envy is