After finishing Don Quixote, the class immediately transitioned to Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. At the beginning of the story, Genji's father, the emperor of Japan, falls in love with a woman (Genji's mother) who is very beautiful but of low social status. As a result of his passion for the woman, the other imperial wives and concubines despised her, and their raging jealousy and acts of hostility began affecting the woman's health.
This woman did nothing wrong; she simply was beautiful and caught the attention of a significant person. The situation she experiences in the book begs the question: "Can beauty be a burden?"
From my point of view, beauty can only be a burden if it, as a quality, does not hold the top rank in the hierarchy of social values. The text provides an example, for social status outranked beauty within the hierarchy of Japan's social structure at that time. If beauty was valued above all else in a society, then it could not be a burden; it could only be seen as a tool for acquiring power. In a society where beauty is valued above all else, people would still get jealous, but they would have less of an inclination to act on the jealousy because, no matter what, they cannot improve upon their beauty to a great extent. No matter what, people more naturally beautiful than them will always be more beautiful and nothing will change that.
Social status still outranks beauty in the hierarchy, however, and I do not know of any civilizations that contradict the trend. Even in modern-day United States, rich and powerful people, even if ugly, will have an easier time finding a partner. A woman may like a beautiful guy, but she will not stay with him if he's broke and lazy. The same applies if the genders are reversed.
Basically, I think beauty can be a burden due to the current social hierarchy of values, but in a theoretical scenario where beauty trumps all other values, beauty cannot be a burden. What do you guys think?
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