Week 2 Story: A Beautiful Soul
Author's Note: In this story, the main thing I wished to include was the Lion's willingness to give up everything for love which is something I have incorporated into the Beautiful Woman's character. I also wanted to include the innate sadness of loving someone you can never have but I altered it slightly in this story by making it the love interest's choice to reject the pursuer rather than the parent's choice. I also wrote this with the intention of having the female be the sympathetic character rather than a Lion because it felt much more relatable for me as a woman.
A Beautiful Soul
A Beautiful Woman once fell in love with an Ordinary Man. She did not love him for his looks nor his money, mind you, but for his soul, which she felt was akin to hers in a way that defied explanation. She proposed a shared life together with him and he agreed, for a price.
The Beautiful Woman must first make herself less attractive. She can't be too appealing to those who might be worthier mates than the Ordinary Man. Her current look could not suit his tastes either. He prefers a more subtle appearance.
The Beautiful Woman must then either lose her intelligence or pretend that she has none because the Ordinary Man could never be with someone more intelligent than he. His poor masculinity could not withstand that embarrassment and shame. She must fake it.
Finally, the Beautiful Woman must pretend to be someone that she is not. She is never allowed to be herself for, 'who could ever love someone as she?' The Ordinary Man must remind her constantly that she is not a person, she is an object and objects are not known for their personalities. She must keep herself empty so that she can be filled with his desire instead.
After all of this, the Beautiful Woman proposes a shared life together with the Ordinary Man who possesses a soul she feels is perfectly akin to hers. She is not beautiful nor intelligent nor individual anymore. She has made herself just right for him.
But the Ordinary Man had already chosen an Ordinary Woman. He proposed a shared life with her to which she demanded her price. So, the Ordinary Man must pay the price of love for himself now.
The Beautiful Woman ends up alone, having given up everything for someone whose soul could never truly align with hers. This is the price of having only one soul: Those we love to agony do not always love us back.
Bibliography: "The Fables of Aesop" by Joseph Jacobs. Website: Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook.
Hi Riley,
ReplyDeleteI think you did an amazing job on this story. You are very eloquent in your writing. I like the way in which you reversed some of the roles of the character. I too find this more relatable in a sense of how the beautiful woman was willing to give up everything she was in order to try and pursue the ordinary man. I think there are many important lessons that can be drawn from this story such as the way that women today think they have to change and conform in order to be accepted by a man. Many times they are left like the beautiful woman in your story, sad, lonely and broken from trying to change themselves. Wonderful job!
Hi Riley! This was such a beautiful story to read and you included such great detail! I liked how you changed the role to make the female character more sympathetic than the Lion. As a woman, I related to this role change and I felt I connected with the character. I think any girl can relate to the storyline of giving everything up to pursue their true love. I think it was so relatable to our society today where the beautiful woman said she needed to give up her intelligence for the man to love her. Our culture makes women feel like they need to be inferior to men or they have to conform to attract the male gender. Overall, great job! Keep writing!
ReplyDeleteHi Riley. This was a really good story and it seemed all to real. It is so sad to think that someone would have stop being any part of themself to make someone else feel better. This was really beautiful and it had an impact on me. I read the story and it was already sad but with this current spin of events it is all the more poignant.
ReplyDeleteHi Riley,
ReplyDeleteWow that was a really good story. It was sad but man was that interesting. That story was so well worded and structured to perfection. As I was reading it, I noticed that it all flowed so well together. The ending line absolutely crushed me when you said "those we love to agony do not always love us back." I mean that is such a powerful quote and it is so sad as well. It is honestly so unfortunate that the woman changed everything she was and played herself down to try and get a man that is not even worthy of her in the first place and all the works for nothing because she doesn't even get the guy.
There are so many powerful messages people can take from this story and how people should know their worth and also respect themselves. I really love this story and cannot wait to read more.