The Deeper Meaning of the Eye of the Beholder

The Whole Image

The eye of the Beholder, is a 22 minute long short film directed by Douglas Heyes, the Eye of the Beholder belongs to a series called the Twilight Zone. This episode of the Twlight Zone is set in a dystopian version of Earth where we are introduced to patient 307 who is having a procedure to make herself look beautiful so she can fit in with society again, but it turns out that in this dystopian world everyone looks "deformed" and "ugly" to us, but from their perspective we are the ones who look "deformed" and "ugly", which is where the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" which is where people look different from other peoples perspective, and it turns out that patient 307 was a normal looking human, and because the operation didn't work she had to be segragated with other people who look like her away from the rest of society.

The deeper meaning

The story "the Eye of the Beholder" has a deep meaning to it, with its main phrase being beauty is in the eye of he beholder, but if we peer deeper into the depths of the episode we can find hidden meanings in almost everything that is said.

"What about the day?" (0.53)

This phrase helps us realise that she still remembers what the sky looks like so she hasn't been in the hospital for that long of a time, it also shows us her hope about the surgery being a success, and she thinks that she will be able to intertwine with society again.

"I feel the night out there" (9.09)

This phrase helps transition to her plea of help for the removal of her bandages, this is because in the scene before the current one she was arguing with the doctor about segragation and she was annoyed why people have to be segragated, so she stood up to feel the breeze of the calm night air, which would have helped her calm down and think about her current position and whats happening, but she was still been annoyed about having to be segragated away from society if the procedure dosent work and she was getting tired of having the bandages on her head, but she can still do it again if she wants, because there is no limit on how many times it can be done.

"Please, take this off me, please."(9.33)

Before paient 307's (also know as Janet Tyler) head wrap is taken off she spouts this line at the doctor that is looking after her, because she can't handle living in the blank void of the cloths that cover her face, this line also tells you how desperate she is to getting back into society and becoming "normal" again, all in all this line tells you how desperate Janet Tyler is to get her bandages taken off of her face.

"But you're destroying yourself this way."(11.03)

This line helps show you how much the doctor has been working on Janet Tylers condition, so he has been staying up to keep an eye on her and give her the prescribed medication, and making sure that everything is good. The line may also link to the chase scene, thats why he couldnt hold onto Janet as she struggled away from her room from the deformed doctor and nurses, becasue the doctor was weaker due to his lack of sleep.

"It is essential, in this society, that we not only have a norm, but that we conform to that norm!"(17.30)

This line that comes from the dictator helps show why they segragate the "ugly people" away from them, because they want to live in a world where people are regulated to the societal norm, and it also shows how strict the dystopian government is to people who look different to them, which would be a form of racisim, so from the line we can find out that the world is ruled by a controlling racist government and societal norm.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"(19.55)

This is the main phrase and meaning of the entire episode of the Eye of the Beholder, the meaning of the phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder means that, different people look beautiful, ugly, etc from another persons perspective, so I may look at someone and think that their ugly, but another person could come over and think that their beautiful. So from the "ugly" humans perspectave the "normal" looking person looks ugly, while its the other way around for the "normal" looking people.

Writers Statement

Even though I had multiple chocies to work on something different like a narrative or a drawing, I chose to do a website because it was something out of the box and I wanted to do something different from everybody else in class, so I did a website, it was hard to get the hang of the coding, but it was easy to work on when I got into the gist of it. My Website is mainly for people who have watched the Eye of the Beholder by Twilight Zone, mainly because they would get the story and the refrences on this page, the meaning for the creation of this page is to help look into the deeper meaning of the Eye of the Beholder.