Billy Budd Beauty

In a similar route, Billy Budd by Herman Melville seems to draw the same connection between lack of substance and beauty that both The Rape of the Lock and The Tempest do, but through the lens of innocence and purity. Billy Budd is described from the beginning of the novel as having “unpretentious good looks” and a “genial happy-go-lucky air” (Melville 49)— the latter connoting a lack of self-awareness and depth that makes Billy Budd content and loved but lacking intelligence. The diction used to describe Billy Budd matches his demeanor. The words used to describe him are “sweet” and “pleasant” (Melville 71). Similarly to Belinda and oppositely Caliban, Billy Budd’s physical appearance seems to be covering up his real lack of substance. His

He cannot believe that Claggart may not have the best interest for him simply because he calls him nice words: “Why, he calls me ‘the sweet and pleasant young fellow,’ they tell me” (Melville 71). This moment in the text illustrates, how Budd’s appearance has shaped much of his perception in life. His physical beauty and handsome demeanor have made him immune to ridicule and bad treatment from most and thus, being seldom exposed to evil. Also, his lack of adversity could be explained by not only his beauty but his lack of mental superiority, that threatens none and hence, never excites evil-natured feelings towards him. Furthermore, Claggart also plays a role in the subversion of beauty’s importance as he in a myriad of instances shows his higher intellect by mocking Billy Budd for his lack of it, without him even noticing it. For instance, Claggart mocks Billy and expresses with a condescending tone that “handsome is as handsome did it too!” (Melville 72)— which alludes to the popular idiom of “handsome is as handsome does”, which means that character and intelligence surpass physical

Antoinette’s struggle to match the English ideal of a perfect, domesticated wife and an “angel in the house” once again subverts the value of physical beauty. However, in Jean Rhy’s novel this subversion has less to do with intellect’s connection to beauty, as it more so, seeks to reinvent the trope of beauty as a value by illustrating that beauty standards can be maddening and serve little purpose to reach a fulfilled life. From the beginning of the novel, Antoinette, a woman of mixed raced in post-colonial Jamaica, is “torn between two irreconcilable images, those projected by society and by her own self-image” (Fayed 237). Her self-identity is constantly questioned as she does not feel a sense of belonging due to her hybrid race. “Old time white people nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger” (Rhys 21), here Antoinette judges her own physical appearance and race as being inferior than being either full white or full black, which begins a long inner battle to try to grab onto traditional set physical ideals to develop her own identity. Physical beauty for Antoinette has always meant stability, perhaps alluding to its future connection of finding a subtable husband. Antoinette recalls moments of her childhood when she would obsessively stare at her mother