TOW #11 "A Beauty" (Essay)

A beauty, written by Robert Boyers, a professor and author of multiple books, is an essay that examines beauty as a factor in one’s morality. Boyers wants to show his readers how the beauty of the people around them can effect their own moral compass, causing them to betray what is good because they are blinded by the bright and radiant light of beauty. In order to investigate this abstract idea, Boyers concentrates on how beauty may have poisoned his own morality through an anecdotal narration, but also further explained through the use of allusions.  

“The most beautiful man I ever knew was Charles Newman” (Boyers 52). Boyers tells this story by examining his life with one of his friends Charles Newman. Boyers writes, “In his fifties, when he was married to an obviously devoted and substantial woman, he was going around with a very attractive younger woman in St. Louis” (56). Boyers knew what his friend was doing was wrong but he did not know if he himself had a moral obligation to tell Charlie’s wife. He thinks of how he would feel if Charlie was flirtatious with his own wife, and he realizes that his view of Charlie’s beauty would have been severely compromised, because he could not understand how Charlie could cause so much pain for him and his wife. But Boyers does not tell Charlie’s wife. He knows it is wrong but he mentions how the beauty of Charlie allowed him to do horrible things. Not because it gave him options (with women), but because it almost seemed like a birthright, or natural. Boyers uses this as somewhat an excuse of his actions or more non-actions. Further explaining through the words of Doris Lessig, Boyers alludes to Lessig as she writes about how she feels knowing she stole a man from another woman, and she writes, “I felt it was my right.” This use of allusion helps the author explain how our judgment can be clouded by a deceived notion that beauty gives people leniency when it comes to right and wrong, and the use of anecdote helps the author show that most of us are guilty of believing it.

Although he presents an interesting concept, I do not feel like Robert Boyers achieves his purpose. His use of anecdote and allusions help his argument, but do not diminish counterarguments that can be suggested as well.