Introduction
As so often is the case, beauty can be a millstone as well as an asset to a young girl. The child who is pampered and continually told that she is pretty very often develops a personality that excludes all others from her own way of thinking. She mistakingly thinks that the great beauty that she possesses will carry the burden throughout her life. There is no need for the consideration of others. Those who behold her should be grateful for the privilege, happy that they can be in the company of. one who has been so gifted. If a well-formed figure goes with the pretty face, the transition from a normal, well-adjusted human being into a spoiled, ill-mannered, cold-hearted one is complete.
Shelly was such a girl. She was a beautiful child who lost none of her beauty as she grew into young womanhood. Vivaciousness went with it. She found life full of excitement and fun. Being such a pretty girl inflated her ego to such a point that she thought only of herself. She took from life what she wanted, regardless of what others wanted.
Along with her attractiveness, Shelly had also been born with a raging passion, a fact that she cleverly revealed in hints and innuendos. Then, often at the last second, she denied her body to the boy that she was with. It pleased her that they seemed to suffer when she refused them.
She fought against losing control, then found pleasure in finding that she had the power to do so, even though she was often torn and miserable afterward. The boys began to shun her when they found that she was nothing but a tease. This angered her. She began to hate them. All males were weak, she reasoned, and she would make them pay for ignoring her. They would pay by being seduced by her. Those that she didn't desire would hunger for her-and be denied. That was her creed.
She finally discovered the type of man that she wanted for a husband-one who would obey her, one who would live by her rules and be grateful to have her as his wife. The husband that she selected was placed into the role of nothing more than a household pet.
During their marriage, she made him suffer. His sexual inadequacies were thrown up to him repeatedly. She denied him at the slightest whim, seduced him against his will. It was a game with her. The suffering on his face only caused an inner delight in her. She felt that his weakness was confirmed when he committed suicide. His death caused her more embarrassment than grief.
Long periods in front of her one and only friend-her mirror-revealed a shocking truth to her: her greed for sex and her constant drinking had taken their toll. Her once beautiful face had slowly given way to the aging process. It frightened her. Her only big weapon was slipping out of her hands.
Men began to openly refer to her as a prostitute, a title she abhorred. She was humiliated when she was picked up and booked for soliciting. She was furious that men didn't always fall under her once-magic Shelly spell. She was even more angry when they offered her money.
Shelly's monumental ego blinded her to the fact that she had become a sort of unofficial prostitute. She deluded herself into thinking what she had done was just the natural behavior of a passionate woman taking from life what was rightfully hers.
But then, after long hours of soul-searching, she began to see herself for what she had become. Accepting money was only fair, she thought. Men owed it to her. Life owed it to her.
She felt no shame in seeing herself for what she was, only relief in accepting it. For the first time in her life, she discovered that she had made an honest judgment of herself.
In Shelly, we see the familiar blind belief that one's physical attributes are all important. She based her entire life on the shallowness of beauty, failing to recognize the value of developing a character based on honesty and fair play. Instead, she let hatred and greed grow in her. She hated men because, in truth, she loved them and the deep pleasure that they could give her. She deplored the title of prostitute, yet directed her entire life to being one. It is surprising that, with the obsession she had for her own beauty, she didn't fall into a life of prostitution much earlier in life.
And when we direct our thoughts in that direction, we wonder if there wasn't just a spark of character in Shelly all along, for she did maintain a cloak of respectability for quite some time.
-The Publisher