Significance of Paul Tallent's Beauty

The physical attractiveness of the man who becomes Perina's mentor and friend, but eventually becomes estranged, represents an aspect of Perina's life that he cannot have. Beauty like Tallent's is for Perina personally unobtainable and something of a trigger for his inferiority complex, even as he longs to be more intimately connected to it. It is a trigger for simultaneous envy and joy, suffering and celebration that eventually results in a desperate desire for approval, which ultimately never comes ... just like physical beauty.