The Twilight Zone is a TV series that aired in the 1960s. The episode entitled "Eye of the Beholder" is episode six of season two. The scenarios of each episode are said to take place in the 'Twilight Zone' meaning it is some kind of alternate reality or possibly a look into the future. In this episode, a woman is in a hospital receiving treatment in order to fix the condition of her face. You don't see the faces of the doctors, nurses, and the woman until her bandages are removed at the end of the episode. The woman, Miss Tyler, is constantly exclaiming and pleading, "I want to be like everybody else!" or "All I've ever wanted is to be normal." It is finally revealed that Miss Tyler is a beautiful young woman, but 'normal' people have distorted pig-like faces.
The audience is to understand that the origin of evil is forced conformity (conforming everyone to have pig-like faces). The Leader is heard proclaiming, "It is essential for society not only that we have a norm, but that we conform to that norm!" The empire established by the Leader and government ensnares people to think that conformity is needed to have an ideal world. The seeds of redemption can be seen in some of the comments by the doctors. They question the conformist rules of the government and express that they see the true human underneath Miss Tyler's appearance. Miss Tyler herself had a captured imagination. She did not want to accept any alternative to the empire; she wanted to be the 'normal' that was chosen by the empire.
Questions:
How could the doctors have responded subversively to Miss Tyler's appearance?
Miss Tyler was sent to live in a community with others "of her kind." Could this be considered as an act of grace by the government? Or is it only suppression?
This seems to be a very interesting episode. I like your reference to the capturing of imaginations. I think this could be sadly realistic in some senses where people miss what is good about them because they want to be "normal." But what is normal? How can it be defined? How is it defined by the empire? I'm not asking what it is so much as how is it conveyed. Why do people want to blend in? How should we respond? I think the act of sending her away is an example of suppression. It is an attempt to cause Miss Tyler to forget about what makes her different. I think this is another angle being used by the Empire to trap her imagination.
ReplyDeleteInteresting choice, Angela! The Twilight Zone certainly finds a lot of ways to make our world seem a little strange, all the better to question our assumptions. Confronting the notion of "normal" is always a good idea, though we shouldn't necessarily think that no "normal" exists. Rather, we should conform our expectations of normal to a Kingdom shaped view of the world (i.e. - the least of these should always be cared for).
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