The Courtier

In Castiglione's The Courtier, there is a discussion about timeless topics such as beauty and love which could be relevant in this time period as well, because women are killing themselves as the price of beauty and young people are always looking to date people who are "hot." The conversation seems to go back and forth, trying to find a definition of love and beauty, as well as if beauty goes all the way through or only in the eye of the beholder. The male characters state their sexist judgments about women, listing all the things women should do for their looks and their wifely duties, while making men look like supreme beings.

Their discussion reminds me of the song "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, Cinderella. The prince sings to Cinderella, after seeing her at the ball, "Do I love you because you're beautiful or are you beautiful because I love you?" Like the men in this story, the Prince had seen Cinderella, when she was in her work clothes with smudges on her face and didn't give her a second glance till she put on a dress and got dolled up by her fairy Godmother.

In the same song, Cinderella's prince also sings, "Are you really as wonderful as you seem?" which goes along with M. Morello's argument: "Looks and words may be, and oftentimes are, false witnesses." Peter Bembo's statement of "I say beauty cometh of God and is like a circle, the goodness whereof is the center," meaning if beauty is on the outside, then surely it is on the inside. Haven't some of the world's most gruesome serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer also been good looking and charming?