Eye of the Beholder
Our first glimpse
into this episode is a woman in a hospital bed with bandages covering her
face.
The nurse at her side and she have
a conversation about whether the operation had worked. She then reminisces on how, as a child, other
people would turn away screaming or run away from her, and she admits that she
never wanted to be pretty, she just wants to fit in. An aspect of this episode that is evident
immediately is that no persons' face is shown, but the nurses constantly talk
about how they could never live with a face like the patient's. It is revealed that she has tried this
operation eleven times, and all have failed to take effect. They have tried all techniques, and plastic
surgery is not viable for her, so this is her last chance at having a better
face. The doctor tells her that every
person only has so much time afforded them to look normal, and that her time is
at an end. He relays to her that if it
has failed, they can move her into a state run facility for people of "her
kind" since she will be unable to live in society with her face the way it
is. She complains that the state has no
right to punish people for the way they look and make ugliness a crime. The doctor and nurse contemplate ugliness and
why it is not accepted in society as much as beauty, but the nurse reminds him
that the conversation is treasonous. The
leader comes on the television and talks about "glorious conformity" while
the doctor is removing the bandages.
As
he removes them, he tries to talk her into living with others of her kind, away
from society, if the operation has been unsuccessful, and possible
extermination if she so desires not to live with her
"disability." It is finally
revealed that her "ugliness" is what people in our society and
culture would consider beauty, and the "normal" people possess
grotesque, distorted faces with upturned noses like pigs and twisted upper
lips.
The dictator is panned to once
again and he talks about how conformity is the only way for society to exist,
and that only when we are all the same can we have equality. She then runs into someone like her, a
handsome man who takes her away to the Northern Village ,
a location where people like them are free to congregate.
He tells her a maxim that makes it easier to
live with a facade like the one that they both were born with: "beauty is
in the eye of the beholder."
Socrates was famous for asking questions that
were hard to swallow, and this episode makes me question where true beauty
lies. A civilization constructed upon a
different basis of beauty would be radically different and, although it is hard
to imagine, all the things we know about beauty would be reversed. This episode shows just how superficial looks
are, and the inane desire to look, dress, or be a certain way. I doubt Socrates broached this subject, but
I'm sure he would have had he been able to watch a mere ten minutes of our
television programming. Aristotle would
have argued that she was wasting her time by trying so many procedures to
procure youth, a thing so fleeting that it is worthless bothering to spend time
that could be better spent preparing our lives
to enjoy long lasting happiness. Freud
would have chimed in about how this episode only offers a possible confirmation
of how cultural norms are only psychological, and that any number of different realities
could have come about had humans decided to pursue other avenues and either
give in to the id more often or pursue the superego to a greater extent. All three philosophers would have had valid
points, and it is only one more example of the worthlessness of chasing after
eternal youth, as it always ends and cannot truly be eternal.
Word Count: 673
Total Word Count 1278+673=1951
yeeeahhh one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteThis song has parts of this episode in it.
http://youtu.be/K-tpt6cbrG8