Beholder meaning
Now the questions that come to mind: "Where is this place and when is it?" "What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm?" You want an answer? The answer is it doesn't make any difference, because the old saying happens to be true. Before the two leave, Walter comforts Janet, saying that she will find love and belonging in the village, and that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", meaning that even though the people from the State and their society might find Janet Tyler "ugly", others will find her beautiful. Flat-screen televisions throughout the hospital project an image of the State's leader giving a speech calling for greater conformity.Įventually, a handsome man (again, by the contemporary viewer's standards) named Walter Smith arrives to take the crying, despondent Janet Tyler into exile to a village of her "own kind", where her "ugliness" will not trouble the State. Distraught by the failure of the procedure, Janet runs through the hospital as what is considered normal in this alternate society "State" is revealed. The camera pulls back to reveal that, by the contemporary viewer's standards, Janet is beautiful by those same standards, the doctor, nurses and other people in the hospital are ugly, with drooping features, large, thick brows, sunken-in eyes, swollen and twisted lips, and wrinkled noses with extremely large nostrils, almost like pigs' snouts. The doctor removes the bandages, and announces that the procedure has failed, and her face has undergone no change. The nurse warns him not to continue in that vein, as it is considered treason. The doctor becomes displeased and questions why Janet or anyone must be judged on their outer beauty. The nurse expresses concern for the doctor and admits she still is uneasy about Janet's appearance. As he prepares, the doctor develops great empathy for his patient. Unable to bear the bandages any longer, Janet pleads with the doctor and eventually convinces him to remove them early. The outcome of the procedure cannot be known until the bandages are removed. Her face is described as a "pitiful twisted lump of flesh" by the nurses and doctor, whose own faces are always in shadows or off-camera. She is shown with her head completely bandaged so that her face cannot be seen. Janet Tyler has undergone her eleventh treatment (the maximum number legally allowed) in an attempt to look normal. This happens to be the Twilight Zone, and Miss Janet Tyler, with you, is about to enter it. Keeping in mind of course that we are not to be surprised by what we see, because this isn't just a hospital, and this patient 307 is not just a woman. In a moment we will go back into this room, and also in a moment we will look under those bandages. A universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness, length of the swath of bandages that cover her face. Suspended in time and space for a moment, your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness.