In class we discussed how the female characters tended to make silly mistakes, like Snow White continuously letting the witch into the house when she really should have known better. However, she didn't really know better because she was really innocent. I think within these tales, beauty and innocence become one in the same. Both Snow White and Rapunzel are characterized as being beautiful, Snow White with "none as so fair as she" according to the mirror and Rapunzel's beautiful hair. These characters make mistakes but it ends up being all right because they are innocent/beautiful.
This reminded me a lot of Bess. In the beginning, Venters didn't really know just how innocent she was, but she still seemed innocent. Then as she kept maturing in front of his eyes, he couldn't think of her as being innocent because of being near Oldring. However, when Venters finds out she never did anything with Oldring, she is at the point completely innocent and completely a matured woman to Venters. I think this is a really interesting point to look at if comparing these two stories how all the authors paralleled innocence with beauty so you may not physically see innocence but you can see beauty. Their bodies become a way that the reader can observe the innocence of a character from the outside.
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