The Beauty in "The Tenth of January"

Beauty is a unique characteristic in life, but it surrounds so many different aspects of life in our society.  What is beauty?  Is it solely a person’s outer appearance? Is beauty seen as an inward quality?  Is beauty really in the eyes of the beholder? What qualifies a person to be seen as beautiful? These are all valid questions when America as a society is dominated by material success.  Americans are infatuated with beauty.  Advertisements and movies are filled with what America sees as “beautiful people.” Women need to be thin, tall, have long bond hair, and blue eyes in order to be beautiful by American standards.  However, this truly does not encompass what beauty really is in life.  Beauty is a driving force in America society, and this theme is also seen throughout “The Tenth of January” by Elizabeth Phelps.  

            During this time in America, there was a standard of beauty just as there is in today’s culture. Asenath is not seen as beautiful to the outside world.  She has a humpback and a scar on her face and she tries to hide herself from others.  One day when she was walking home, someone passing her said, “Look at that girl! I’d kill myself if I looked like that” (Phelps).  This is sad and just shows how inconsiderate people can be and just how important society views outer appearance.  The theme of beauty is also seen between the comparison of Del and Asenath, in which Del represents the ideal American beauty and Asenath displays the opposite.  However, it is interesting that Asenath is the one with the fiancé and Dick has promised to love her and be with her.  I think this displays that beauty is not always what is on the outside because Dick really does care for Asenath.  He may not have looked at her the way he once looked at Del, but he was faithful to Asenath.  The love that Asenath’s father shows for her is not conditional to her outer appearance; he loves her greatly and encourages her when life is challenging because of her condition.

            Physical beauty, especially during this time period was influential in American society and it is amazing that it is still a driving factor today.  I do think that things have gotten better surrounding this issue, but Phelps did a good job of displaying throughout the story how important this one factor was during this time.