Essay based on the text: “I saw this on a suburban dance floor. Cheerful, hook-nosed, flexible, with a violet tint to his black eyes, he invited her to dance... ” Bondarev Yu. V.
The problem of true and false beauty of a person is raised by the writer Zh. Yu. Bondarev.
An incident that happened many years ago on a suburban dance floor shocked the author and was etched in his memory, as evidenced by the words CANNOT FORGET and the detailed narrative itself. A young man with a bright, attractive appearance decided to make a girl laugh by inviting her to dance. He pretended to be a city gentleman, feeling his own superiority against the background of a timid, inept, ugly partner. The girl, of course, “understood... all his unforgivable baseness” and accepted this challenge. So a miracle happened before everyone’s eyes: the narcissistic, arrogant, cheerful handsome man faded, “changed his face,” trying to hide his embarrassment. And the awkward ugly girl suddenly transformed into a beauty, full of dignity and inner strength.
The problem of true and false beauty is discussed in detail and deeply in L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.” Thus, the soulless, thoroughly “physical” Helen Kuragina is contrasted with the spiritualized, charming Natasha Rostova. Helen is selfish, mercantile, and therefore, according to the writer, she is ugly. And what makes Natasha truly beautiful is intense inner work, naturalness, sincerity, talent to love.
In my opinion, the beauty of the soul illuminates a person’s face especially brightly at an advanced age (it is more noticeable in contrast with wrinkles). I remember Matryona, the main character of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryonin’s Dvor.” Indeed, a warm, peaceful light emanates from this Russian woman, with her humility, wisdom and love for the world.
To summarize what has been said, it can be noted that the main distinguishing criterion for the truth of a person’s beauty is the perfection and impeccability of his moral character.
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How to learn to pay attention to the beauty around us?
D.S. Likhachev. "Letters about the good and the beautiful"
According to Academician D.S. Likhachev, life is nothing more than breathing. As long as a person breathes, he is alive. Lack of breathing symbolizes death. Dmitry Sergeevich focuses our attention on internal moral constraint and limitations. He compares it to the atmosphere of a stuffy room. Petty worries and vanity fill our hearts, determine our attitude to life and shape our worldview. One has only to say goodbye to this, deeply exhale all this garbage outward, free up the inner space, and the emptiness will immediately be filled with completely different values and filled with true beauty. If we consider life as the most great value, everything around will change beyond recognition in one moment. We will begin to perceive the beauty of the world in its unexpected harmony and uniqueness.
External beauty and inner world– edges of contact.
L.N. Tolstoy"War and Peace"
L.N. Tolstoy in his great work “War and Peace” introduces us to two completely opposite characters. Helen is a symbol of external impeccability and brilliance. She is incredibly beautiful in her feminine attractiveness, and just as empty inside. Despite all the picturesque appearance, Helen, with her selfishness and exceptional unscrupulousness, does not evoke anything other than a feeling of disgust and moral rejection. Her motto is to satisfy her own whims and desires at any cost. Everyone around her is viewed by the heroine only as a tool for achieving her own goals and solving personal problems. Princess Maria, on the contrary, shines with her inner beauty and moral depth. The events of 1812 reveal Helen's internal contradictions. Her insignificance and depravity emerges and appears before the reader in all its ugliness and deafening cynicism. Against the backdrop of an unfolding national tragedy, the heroine tries to solve her personal problems, for which she even changes her faith. She personifies the atmosphere secular society the beginning of the 19th century and strictly follows its laws and principles. Helen's death is presented by the author as a completely natural consequence - spiritually she died much earlier than her heart stopped beating. Lev Nikolaevich did not even consider it necessary to dedicate the reader to the details of her death, and limited himself to only fragmentary scandalous rumors related to this event.
External beauty and inner peace - what comes first?
In his novel M.Yu. Lermontov raises the question of the relationship between external attractiveness and internal depth, using the example of the inconspicuous Doctor Werner. Judging by Pechorin’s descriptions of his appearance, this man could not be classified as “handsome.” There was absolutely nothing in it that could be noticed. Werner was short in stature, had legs of different lengths and was in very poor health. His skinny figure was crowned by a huge head with an uneven skull and small, expressionless eyes. According to Pechorin, when we first met, appearance Werner could not arouse any interest in his interlocutor - he rather produced an unpleasant, oppressive and repulsive impression. And how much the attitude towards this person changed with closer communication with him. Werner had amazing inner depth, high intelligence, spiritual purity, impeccable moral organization and a very strong character. According to the author, one must learn to see and understand such beauty. It is she who fully characterizes a person, and no flaws in appearance can erase the depth of his inner world and the beauty of his heart.
A person’s character and his appearance – what is the connection?
M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time"
In the same work M.Yu. Lermontov introduces us to Pechorin’s thoughts on the influence of a person’s character on his appearance. Giving an assessment of the people around him, the main character comes to the conclusion that a person’s appearance is mirror image his spiritual world. In his opinion, the eyes reflect the soul of the interlocutor, like in a mirror. The penetrating expressiveness of Bela’s eyes penetrates the interlocutor’s soul to the very depths. Kazbich reflects his wild nature with a sizzling “fiery” look. The same applies to brother Bela. When he starts talking about horses, his gaze is filled with a unique sparkle, and his eyes sparkle like hot coals. Mary's velvety, enveloping gaze fully reflects her inner essence - her eyes are beautiful and expressive. Pechorin comes to the conclusion that there is a strange and undeniable connection between a person’s appearance and his spiritual world. Following his logic, flaws in appearance indicate that a person has lost a piece of his soul.
What is the importance inner beauty of a person, and in what relationship is it with his external appearance?
Antoine de Saint-Exupery " A little prince»
In the allegorical story "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, young hero lands on our planet and is delighted with the abundance of beautiful roses discovered. He admires them for a long time, but comes to the conclusion that external resemblance earthly roses with the flower that he grew and left at home do not make them the same as his beloved rose - they are internally empty. A young admirer of the earth’s flora suddenly begins to understand that everything that is most important cannot be seen with the eyes, but visual appeal and the similarity is just a shell. The inner content is inaccessible to the eye; it can only be felt with the heart. That is, a person is determined not by appearance, but by the beauty of the soul.
What comes first - external shine or internal content?
O. Henry "Tinsel Glitter"
Towers Chandler, the hero of O. Henry's short story “Tinsel Glitter,” regularly, once every two months, tried to rise in the eyes of those around him, presenting himself as a wealthy aristocrat. This venture was going quite successfully until fate brought him together with Marian. Towers, according to a well-established scheme, seduced the girl with stories about his enormous fortune, but did not take into account the fact that wealth is not always the determining factor in the manifestation of interest. At the end of the story, Marian, in a conversation with her sister, describes in detail the person she could love. It becomes clear that we are talking about Towers Chandler, only not about the one he wanted to present himself as, but about who he was without all this tinsel. The conclusion is simple - external gloss is not always a full reflection of the inner world.
Does a person's appearance reflect his inner world?
D. Granina “Falling Leaves”
Daniil Granin touches on the same topic in his autobiographical story “Falling Leaves.” He describes his meeting with Stephen Hawking. Being paralyzed and forever bedridden, this man surprised and amazed the writer to the core. After graduating from Oxford, Stephen began to have health problems, resulting in complete paralysis. The first impression of meeting a helpless interlocutor at a certain moment dissipated completely. in front of him wheelchair sat a brilliant astrophysicist who had achieved all his regalia, already being in such a deplorable state. Despite the fact that he could communicate with others only with the help of a special device, the scientist actively lectured to students and participated in almost all scientific seminars on astrophysics. After this meeting, Daniil Granin writes about him: “it turns out that we do not have the slightest idea of what our mind and will are capable of.”
This problem occupies a special place in the works of O. Wilde.
In “Star Boy,” the writer very consistently defends the principle of the inseparability of the external and internal beauty of a person, and illustrates the idea that the basis of morality is aesthetic feeling.
The star boy at the beginning of the fairy tale appears before us as surprisingly handsome: “Every year he became more and more beautiful, and the inhabitants of the village marveled at his beauty... His face was white and tender, as if carved from ivory, and his golden curls were like the petals of a narcissus, and the lips are like the petals of a scarlet rose, and the eyes are like violets reflected in clear water stream" (1, 476).
This beauty conquered everyone around, forced him to obey the boy: “... And his peers obeyed him because he was handsome” (1, 477).
But beauty and unlimited power brought him only evil, “for he grew up selfish, proud and cruel” (1, 466). Because of his cruelty, the hero of this fairy tale becomes a freak: mental malice, exorbitant pride, inability to love anyone and, above all, his mother - this, in the end, is reflected on his face: “He approached a pond and looked into it, but what did he see! His face became like a toad, and his body was covered with scales like a viper” (1, 479).
The impetus for correction as spiritual cleansing is disgust for one’s own ugly appearance. Beauty returns to him only after he atones for his sins.
In “Boy Star” the writer most clearly shows the relationship between internal and external beauty. The star boy is beautiful, but his inner world is ugly, but everything falls into place - as punishment, his most valuable thing is taken away - his beauty. And so we see that the inner world corresponds to the outer. Once the hero repents, his body becomes as beautiful as his soul.
This is how the writer reveals the problem of the relationship between internal and external beauty in the fairy tale “Star Boy”.
He views it differently in the fairy tales “The Infanta’s Birthday” and “The Happy Prince.”
“The central idea of O. Wilde’s fairy tales, says T. Krivina, is the idea that life is ugly, but beautiful lies are beautiful, and as soon as reality invades a dream, fantasy, modern beauty created by someone, it all perishes.”
Wilde associates with beautiful illusion spiritual ideals that turn out to be incompatible with reality. TO perfect love The Dwarf strives (“The Infanta’s Birthday”), as does the Nightingale (“The Nightingale and the Rose”), but the truth of life destroys them. But reality destroys only the external, the ugly shell, in order to expose its amazing, invincible inner beauty to the world.
Theme of self-sacrifice
The theme of self-sacrifice is central to fairy tales such as The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose.
The Happy Prince sacrifices himself to heal the pain of his, albeit tin, but still heart. First, after giving the ruby from his sword to the poor seamstress, the Happy Prince gives away his eyes. But he sacrifices not just stones and gold - but his beauty: “God! What a ragamuffin this Happy Prince has become! - exclaimed the Mayor. “The ruby is no longer in his sword, his eyes have fallen out, and the gilding has come off of him... He is worse than any beggar!” (1, 373).
But the Happy Prince, like the Swallow, who sacrificed her life, is rewarded: “And the Lord commanded his angel: - bring me the most valuable thing that you find in this city.
And the angel brought him a tin heart and a dead bird.
“You chose correctly,” said the Lord. “For in my gardens of paradise this little bird will sing forever and ever, and in my shining palace the Happy Prince will give me praise” (1, 373).
The Nightingale (“The Nightingale and the Rose”) and the Dwarf (“The Infanta’s Birthday”) remain without a reward for their sacrifice - the rose for which the Nightingale gave his life, disappointed by the refusal of the Professor’s Daughter, is simply thrown away by the Student. And the little Dwarf, dancing for the beautiful externally and internally terrible Infanta, unable to withstand the despair of his own ugliness, simply dies on the floor of the castle where he danced. But the higher the sacrifice of both the Nightingale and the Dwarf, the lower and uglier Wilde paints both the soulless Infanta and the overly rational Student. It is on the basis of contrast that the writer shows the beautiful inner world of his characters and the ugliness of external reality.
Conclusions to the section
So, this section was devoted to the analysis of the problems of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales. Analyzing the tales, we came to the following conclusions:
1. The problem of the relationship between heroes and the outside world is very clearly presented in the writer’s fairy tales. And, having highlighted such fairy tales as “The Young King”, “The Devoted Friend”, “The Infanta’s Birthday”, we came to the conclusion that often the inner world of the heroes - the world of romantic illusions - collapses from a collision with reality. These fairy tales are a kind of warning; they contain reproach and criticism of the cruel real world.
2. The problem of the relationship between external and internal beauty in the fairy tales “Star Boy”, “The Happy Prince”, “Infanta’s Birthday”. The essence of this relationship is that the external and internal worlds are not always identical, but fate puts everything in its place.
This collection of arguments lists the main problems related to beauty from texts for preparing for the Unified State Exam in the Russian language. Examples from the literature, arranged under headings with the formulation of the problem, will help graduates collect required material, which will help out at the decisive moment. All arguments can be downloaded in the table, link at the end of the article.
- The most popular and famous image a woman whose beauty is visible in her actions and emotional experiences - Turgenev's girl. She is very feminine, she may not be beautiful at first glance, but there is something special and elusive about her. Such heroines read a lot and sometimes even escape reality. But at the same time they strong-willed and sacrificial, to the point that they are willing to sacrifice their lives, and are often stronger than any male hero. Turgenev even has a famous (poem!) in prose - “The Threshold”, in which a woman, instead of men, sacrifices herself and renounces everything. Other similar heroines are more familiar to us, because they are written in prose, for example, - Asya, the young girl from the eponymous Turgenev's stories. Unlike an adult and experienced hero, she is not afraid of her feelings and goes towards them, without fear of getting burned. The greatest beauty lies in this passion, strength and emotionality.
- Work Charlotte Bronte named after main character – Jane Eyre. This girl has an elusive attractiveness, Christian purity and, most importantly, the strength with which she experiences illness, hunger, poverty and love turmoil. Outwardly, she is invisible; the thin orphan from the orphanage, where children were beaten and starved, was not distinguished by any special elegance and grace. However, in her big and kind heart there was always a place for strangers, to whom she happily helped and devoted herself entirely. For example, the heroine devotedly loves the crippled Mr. Rochester and heals him with her affection. At the end of the work, she finds the happiness and love that she suffered and deserved.
- While contemporaries Shakespeare wrote sonnets “like a carbon copy,” admiring girls for their mere appearance and making them into some kind of lifeless dolls, the poet decided to ridicule all these patterns in his Sonnet 130. It begins with the words “her eyes are not like stars...”. The author shows us an ordinary girl who does not shine with beauty, she is simply alive and real. Shakespeare shows us that creativity is not only something sublime, but also something mundane, close to an ordinary person. In his chosen one, he saw not the stereotyped gloss of secular living rooms, but a rich nature that was spiritually close to him. In this closeness, he saw true beauty, and not the lies of pompous comparisons.
Discrepancy between external and internal beauty
- Leo Tolstoy in the epic novel “War and Peace” showed a girl who was as beautiful as she was disgusting in character. This is Elen Kuragina. It was she who seduced Pierre Bezukhov, a man completely opposite to her both externally and internally. It was rumored that almost her own brother was flattered by her. She knew how to skillfully use her beauty; it cost her nothing to extract huge sums from her unfortunate husband, blackmail and mock him. And there is one important detail that tells us about Helen. Leo Tolstoy considered children happiness and the highest good; at the end of the work, children appear among the heroes who, according to the author, have come to happiness and the right way. But when Helen notices her rounded belly, she does not rejoice at it, but tries to get rid of it, and this, according to Tolstoy, terrible sin. Such a person is unworthy of a child and the happiness it brings. Helen's death is described sparingly; the character is simply removed from the novel.
- In Yesenin’s poem “You don’t love me, you don’t regret me” we are shown an image of a libertine similar to Helen. A girl whose love has “burned out” and faded away makes others fall in love with her and says goodbye to them without regret. Yesenin does not scold her, because he himself leads a similar lifestyle. The vice of frivolity in the poem is a slight reproach, or rather a conversation between the author and himself. In it, the author distinguishes between attractiveness and true beauty, which manifests itself in the soul and mind, and not in ostentatious passion.
- O. Wilde's novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” completely devoted to the problem of beauty and its value. Main character Although Dorian has extraterrestrial beauty, his actions and words speak of spiritual poverty. He drives a girl to suicide, goes around brothels and at the end of the story decides to kill. He tries to fix everything, but this seems to be only vain motives. He saved the body, but destroyed the soul. Therefore, death takes off the mask, and not a secular dandy appears before society, but an ugly old man, mired in vices.
- The ability to see beauty around speaks about the inner beauty of a person. A striking example is Andrey Bolkonsky from Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace". It is at the moment of spiritual enlightenment that he sees nature and the sky, “Endless Sky.” The hero feels that everything around him is “empty” human life and happiness in family, home, the ability to forgive and love. Thus, the beauty of the landscape has a healing effect on the personality. It helps you realize true values, develop an aesthetic sense and look deep into yourself.
- Love for homeland helps Blok see her peculiar beauty. In the poem "Russia" the poet speaks of “robber beauty”, when everything around is poor, gray huts and loose ruts. He feels an elusive gaze, hears the “coachman’s song,” and in this he sees all of Russia. The beauty of the landscape, inaccessible to many eyes, contributes to the understanding of character home country, its people and history.
The influence of beauty on personality
The little prince said very words of wisdom, which not every adult will understand: “Only the heart is vigilant. You cannot see the most important thing with your eyes.” He meant that appearance says nothing about a person. The main thing is what is in his soul. Beautiful person may turn out to be completely immoral, and an unattractive person may turn out to be a person with high moral principles.
F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"
Svidrigailov is pleasant in appearance. His appearance does not betray his terrible inner world: the hero is ready to do anything for the sake of his slightest whim. At first glance, it is impossible to see Svidrigailov as a tyrant and rapist.
You can say something completely different about Sonya Marmeladova. Because of her lifestyle, she is pale, thin, and intimidated. But behind this appearance lies a truly beautiful inner world.
Oscar Wilde "The Portrait of Dorian Gray"
As a young man, Dorian makes a wish: he asks that a portrait painted by Basil Hallward grow old in his place. The wish comes true. Beauty becomes the main source of power for a young man. Dorian Gray does not change over the years. His appearance is not spoiled by immoral actions. Behind the beautiful appearance of the young man hides an immoral creature for whom nothing is sacred. People who don't know what this person is capable of don't see anything bad in him. Beauty only outwardly hides moral ugliness. It turns out that appearances are deceiving.
L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
Helen Kuragina is beautiful, but that doesn't make her a good man. This woman is immoral, selfish, selfish, stupid. Attractive appearance has nothing to do with the moral qualities of the heroine.
Marya Bolkonskaya's appearance cannot be called attractive. True beauty this person is manifested in high moral principles and moral actions. The heroes, capable of seeing real beauty, did not attach importance to the appearance of Princess Marya.