The Artist as a Scapegoat

Gavin Spellmeyer

2/27/17

Hon English 12

Boswell 4

The Artist as a Scapegoat

Over the last century or so there has become a heated and controversial debate between what is considered ‘ethical’ and ‘justice’, and which is considered to be more important. In the play “The Shape of Things” by Neil Labute, this topic arises again and again, as each character seems to cross many different lines. However, defining what is considered crossing a line, and deciding whether or not it was deserving, is open to interpretation by the audience. Personally I believe many lines were crossed throughout the play. Many actions and consequences were deserved, but many were not. We see this most frequently among Adam and Evelyn.

Evelyn did many things in the play that I would consider ‘unethical’. Starting at the beginning of the play, she did not respect Adam’s duty to follow his boss's orders and keep her away from the exhibit, deciding it was okay to cross the velvet rope and go places she wasn’t allowed. After that she then influenced Adam into leaving her alone in the exhibit, with the intention of illegally vandalizing someone's artwork. She continued to cross ethical lines as the play went on by manipulating Adam into doing things he originally would not have wanted to do. She coerced him into many things, including: changing his dressing style (causing him to get rid of his favorite jacket), convincing him to work out and change his physical appearance, getting a nose job because she said it would look better, and changing the way he styled and cut his hair. Not only did she cause Adam to change himself, but she also crossed a line when she decided to kiss Philip in retaliation to what Adam did with Jenny. Even though she wasn’t the one who caused this (Adam did) it’s not right to do it back as a result. Of all of the things she did, the action I consider the worst is how she took advantage of how Adam was blinded by love, and never fully realized what she was doing. She manipulated him into thinking she loved him, and as a result took advantage of his love and influenced him into changing himself, when in reality it was all for an art project. She permanently changed his life all for an art project. Although she never instructed and forced him to do anything, she still took advantage of his weakness, and used it against him.

Despite Evelyn’s numerous unethical actions throughout the play, Adam had many of his own as well. First off while dating Evelyn he cheated on her with Jenny, not only betraying Evelyn but also his best friend Philip. He knew what he did was wrong and continuously lied to Evelyn and Philip about it, further admitting his own guilt and making matters worse. Another issue he had was the changes he made to himself. One of the most important things a person needs to do is to stay true to their values and core beliefs - something he had trouble with. He allowed Evelyn to influence him into changing virtually every aspect of his physical appearance, whether it be his clothing, hairstyle, workout routine, nose, etc, many of which he did not want to do. He did it because to him it was more important to have Evelyn’s heart rather than being happy with himself. The argument could be made that having her love his appearance would in turn make him happy, however deep down that doesn’t have the same effect as being comfortable with your own body. He was blinded from noticing that there wasn't a true connection between them and that she was using him for his own personal gain. It’s important to find out what someone’s true intentions for you are as quickly as possible, so that you can prevent them from using what they know against you. In this case Adam fell victim to Evelyn and he did not maintain his integrity and stay true to himself.

There are arguments to be made that either one of the characters was worse when it comes to following ethics, however between Adam and Evelyn I think the blame eventually falls on Adam. Yes it was terrible what Evelyn did, and yes she took complete advantage of him, however it’s Adam’s own fault for allowing her to do so. At any given time he could have stopped her and said “No I'm not going to do that” but he never did because he had no power in the relationship. He didn't stand up for what made him feel himself, and decided rather to be whatever made Evelyn ‘like’ him more. If he stayed true to his values and beliefs he wouldn't have lost his two best friends and never would have had to deal with Evelyn in the first place. She knew he was an easy target who would do whatever she wanted, and it's Adam’s fault for not recognizing that.