The Artist as a Scapegoat

Throughout time there has always been a code of morals and ethics that people have obeyed throughout time. Whenever some one breaks these morals or code of ethics, people get very upset. Countries base their government on morals and makes laws according to their set or morals and ethics. In the play "The Shape of Things" the four characters in the play break morals and ethics in todays society. They cheat on each other, lie to each other, and manipulates one another to reach their goal. Once character stands out, Eve, she is manipulative throughout the play and continues to destroy long lasting friendships to achieve her goal. Her goal throughout the play was to make shape and sculpt a character named Adam into a piece of art. She transformed him from a man considered ugly by most, to a handsome man that was desirable by all. However, throughout this process Adam continuously became more twisted, his moral compass lost its way. Despite that, was Eve really the worst character or was Adam? Is Eve to blame for Adam's actions?

One possible answer is that Eve is clearly the evil villain of this play. Her actions continue to show her immoral side as she manipulates Adam throughout the entire play. She meets Adam and shows immediate interest in him, they start dating and Adam thinks they are in a committed relationship. Throughout their relationship Eve starts changing small things about Adam. At first, she asks him to change the style of his hair or to wear a specific shirt. Continuing deeper into their relationships her demands become more and more obscene. He starts dieting to lose weight, he buy an entire new wardrobe, and even has a cosmetic surgery to improve his facial features. Adam doesn't notice these small things as much as first, but starts to question Eve the bigger the demands become. Furthermore, every time he questions her demands she convinces him saying "its for the better, do you not like the changes?" She also uses seduction to convince him whenever he starts thinking about what is actually happening. Adams morals deteriorate as his appearance is becoming falser and falser from the real him. He lies to his friends, he cheats on Eve with other girls, but he doesn't realise it because he is simply not himself anymore. Eve states at the end of the play she only did this for the sak of art, and she shows no remorse for what she did. At the end of the day, her actions caused a caring man to become a liar and a cheater, friendships were ruined forever all because of the sake of Eve's art.

Another possible answer is that Adam is the villain of the play as he is responsible of hos own decisions even though he is influenced by others like Eve. As adam changes throughout the stories, his behaviour also changes with his appearance. He starts flirting with more girls as well as becoming increasingly confident in his appearance. His best friend Philip has recently become engaged with his long time girlfriend Jenny. Adam is well aware of this and states several times that he is very happy for them. Regardless, Adam spends some time alone with Jenny and ends up having intercourse with her. When Philip confronts Adam about what really happened when he hung out with his fiancee, Adam lies. Eve eventually finds out what Adam did and meets up with him to talk about it. As they are talking about it Eve states that she will only continue to date Adam only if he stops opening time ties Philip and Jenny. Without barely hesitating Adam gives his long time friends up for his apparent love for Eve.

Finally, after knowing what each of these character did wrong, who is the real villain? In my opinion I think Eve is the the villain because of the consequences her actions caused between the other characters. Her reasoning for doing her "experiment" was to make her greater art project. During the entire relationship she sees Adam as sculpture that she is constantly making aesthetic changes to him. Also, as she is changing his appearance she is also changing his morals. He turns into someone who he is not, he becomes another person in an alien body. Although, we will never know if he changes his morals after Eve tells to him what she really did to him. That could be a defining moment if Adam was worse than Eve. However, using what my fundamental moral beliefs are I think Eve pushed Adam into the person he became and in that way made his choices her choices. According to me is it so wrong to make a person love you and spend an entire year of their life just to find out he was a project. In that sense Eve is the villain of this play, every morally wrong doing can be traced back to her actions or words.