Metamorphosis

Why do people put up with these self inflicted punishments just for beauty? Author John Dewey suggested the answer in his book The Live Creature. He proposed that pain and suffering are necessary for a beautiful world because complacement pleasure is not satisfying.
Culture has always made a strong link between physical appearance and moral worth. In fairy tales are beautiful princesses and ugly witches whose appearance show their inner kindness or wretchedness. Beauty and happiness are ideas that are so tangled together that most people misinterpret one from the other. Most women place themselves in Cinderella's shoes thinking, "Would the prince pick me?" Thus, women go to further lengths just to achieve beauty believing it would end in happily ever after thinking, "If I am beautiful, then maybe he would."

Perhaps it would also make sense if it were put in the context of heaven itself. The thought of heaven is only pleasurable because it is placed in the context of an imperfect and hurtful world. Following this train of thought, would the idea of heaven in a perfect world still be as appealing? The same goes for beauty. There will always be a need for people to be in pain in order to achieve it. Otherwise, the beauty and pride of life will be something more trivial than striking.

There is nothing wrong with acknowledging pain as a requisite to the beauty, or all things favorable for that matter. After all, what would life be if man didn't toil for his/her rewards? But one must remember that the concept of perfection is abstract, much more subjective. In the end, the state of satisfaction ultimately rests on the interpretation of the individual.