HIV as a symbol for death
By setting the narrative within the grips of the HIV pandemic, the reader is asked to consider the dynamics within the book in the context of death. HIV functions as an ultimatum, an un-ignorable threat of death, which causes the women to be bold about the injustice of their situation.
The final words as the symbolic gift
With the title Beauty's Gift the reader is asked to consider what the gift might be. When Beauty's charming final words cause the four friends to realize the threat they are in, there is an ironic gift of hope. By showing them the grim reality of their life, Beauty also offers hope for a better life, which is perhaps the meaning of the symbolic "gift."
Each story as an allegory for spousal abuse
If the reader treats the four women's stories as synoptic accounts, then an interesting thing happens. Abuse is not only are the women in violent relationships, but also to Doris whose fiancé seems fine on the surface, but in light of the HIV test comes up suspicious. This means that abuse can often be very tricky, and there is good warrant to interpret the book in this way. All four women are called upon to re-evaluate their relationships, and the husbands responses are like variations on the same theme—the theme of misogynistic abuse.
The men as symbols for misogyny
The husbands are demonstrations of different aspects of the kind of abuse that arises from systemic injustice against women. With the culture's complicit approval, the men have license to objectify their wives, but until there is a serious issue, the women don't notice it. This means that the men are being used as a symbol for the widespread mistreatment of women by their husbands.
The motif of paranoia
The four friends are certainly paranoid. In addition, the husbands seem paranoid about HIV as well, although they choose to deal with it from a position of supremacy over their wives instead of handling the threat as a team, because they are all cheating on their wives (probably). This causes even more paranoia among the women. Selby is an interesting picture of a bad attempt to stifle paranoia, and Doris quickly identifies his response as paranoid.
Paranoia is an indication that there isn't safety for the characters, either for the men whose wayward behavior leaves them susceptible to infection, and for the women whose wayward men put them in danger. The novel even starts with the decision to cleanse the palette of paranoia by asking everyone to be tested. But this request for clarity and protection is universally denied, and in one story, is rejected by way of violent rape, leaving Edith in an even more excruciating experience of paranoia, because she likely has contracted the disease.
