The Fortunes of Beauty
Daniel Defoe's Roxana, or the Fortunate Mistress is an analysis of beauty on many different levels. Most importantly, it is a look at how closely a real woman can compare to an ideal. Throughout much of Western History, notions of beauty have been intimately connected with a whole series of particular characteristics. These qualities transcend the merely physical. A Greek statue is a beautiful work of art - it is flawlessly executed, has perfect proportions, and - in the case of the true Classical masterpiece - stands entirely alone; a self-contained image of virtue captured and immobilized. The viewer reacts to not only the physical perfection of the work of art, but even more powerfully, to the inner emotions that the work inspires. Curiously enough, these inner feelings are, in a way, not emotional at all. The Greek ideal of beauty is entirely rational, even mechanical. One understands the proportions of the ideal, and then seeks to reproduce them in a substance that is itself, hard, cold, and completely devoid of feeling. Fortune, personified as a goddess, is another example of the ideal given substance. Greek goddesses have a way of acting out, and behaving in highly unpredictable ways. This is strangely at odds wi
According to the view that prevailed until almost our own time, the male was the thinker, and the female was the "feeler." Man was governed by reason and woman by emotion. The best of emotions are perfect ideals: hope, faith, and love. Woman's fall was occasioned by the failure of woman to recognize her own perfection. The Christian God had made all human beings in his image. The Ancient Greeks gave their gods and goddesses physical forms that were as nearly "perfect" as possible. Woman, even more than man - chose to question the "reality" of the Cosmos. When Eve tasted of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, she surrendered her naive faith for worldly desire. The desire that informed her decision was none other than an overriding belief that change was possible. She had failed the first test of humanity - the ability to understand that Eden - and indeed all of God's world - was absolutely perfect, and required no change; no action, on the part of human beings, or anyone else. In giving the Forbidden Fruit to Adam, Eve was planting in his mind the sacrilegious idea that the world in which in which they both lived was less than perfect. In so doing, she robbed both herself, and the first man, of the opportunity to get through life without pondering its purpose. There had been no goals because there had been no need for them. The same was true of Roxana. If she had just allowed herself to be "beautiful" she could have enjoyed all that there was to enjoy in Good Fortune. Yet, in attempting to change her life - to make her life more beautiful - she was committing the very same mistake that Eve had committed before her - the failure to recognize that Faith is all this is necessary. Of course, no human being is ever capable of giving up entirely on the belief that a "change for the better" is possible - no one except maybe a few ascetics. Roxana was indeed a "Fortunate Woman." What that means, however, depends upon how you look at it. Did she deserve
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1334
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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