Old Mortality and Ideal Beauty

Because I found this story so intriguing, I wanted to take the time and post--even if it's a little late--my thoughts about the ideal beauty? Miranda believes a "beauty" must be tall with dark hair, smooth pale skin, beautiful teeth and hands. She must be light and swift, but more than anything a beauty must posses "some mysterious crown of enchantment that attracted and held the heart" (176). How, really can you define the last statement? Who declares which lady is enchanting and which lady isn't? Men, seem, to define who is beautiful in society. Miranda's father, for instance, claims "there were never any fat women in the family, thank God" (174). Evidently, according to men, fat women are not only less than beautiful, they are less than family. He furthermore, defined how his own daughters should look holding them on his knee only if they were "prettily dressed and well behaved" but sending them away in a disgusted manner if they fell short of his expectations of what defined nice looking young ladies. Moreover, Amy's father also dominated what she should live up to in terms of ladyness.When dressed for the ball, her father commanded her to change because no daughter should "show herself in such a rig-out. It's bawdy" (185). In other cases, however, she ignored her father, and depended on her brothers' advice on her appearance. Eager to seek their approval-- most likely because they knew what was stylish in their current generation--Amy would change had "they found fault in any way" (183). Surprisingly, Amy cared not at all what Gabriel thought of her beauty, even cutting her hair after he complimented it. Amy's refusal to be swayed by the opinion of men made me consider that perhaps the men are not the ones to define beauty, they just merely support the definition. In class I made the claim that it is women who actually suppress other women by creating the ideal beauty. I support this argument with the example of Eva and her mother. Her mother joked about her ugliness and how she would never threaten her youth by making her a grandmother, making her "blush as if she had been slapped" (178). While her mother wore elegant dresses, Eva wore hand-me-downs altered to fit her size. Eva is described as almost horse-like with a face,"chinless, straining her upper lip over two enormous teeth" (178). At dances where her mother was absent, "Eva bloomed out a little, danced prettily, and smiled" (178). The narrator implies that it was her mother that truly prevented Eva from feeling beautiful, accepted, and an adequate female in society. However, her mother marked her as ugly and "chinless"so her family followed in suit. In some ways, I believe Eva's inner bitterness stemmed from her family who "bedeviled her about her chine" and she succumbed to the psychological notion of "self fulfilling prophesy" where she transformed into what others expected her to be: a homely old maid.