Beauty

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Paul Valery's quote above and attempts to answer the question of what makes beauty so difficult to define. It discusses how beauty is unique for each individual and what is beautiful to one may be ordinary to another. He therefore concludes that beauty is more of a concept than a reality and so is different for each who views it. The paper evaluates how beauty can be shocking, sublime, novel, intense and sometimes even strange and as a concept, it connotes perfection.

From the Paper:

"Sometimes beauty is so perfect it is shocking to think something so perfect could exist in the universe. The perfection of a beautiful woman, of bright white snow covering the needles of a deep green pine in the forest, the vivid and shocking colors of a sunrise over a mountain lake, all of these are beautiful and perfect in the moment. Beauty is shocking in its intensity, and in the reaction to it. That is a little like death, too. The moment is so perfect there is a little bit of death in it, knowing it will never occur again, and it cannot be held, except in the mind. This is a little like a moment of death and perfection mixed into one."

More papers on Beauty:

• Analytical Essay # 89116 : "Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth"
• Term Paper # 138526 : "Physical Beauty in Attraction"
• Poem Review # 71030 : "She Walks in Beauty"
• Analytical Essay # 57742 : "For the Love of Beauty"

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