Morality, morality - concepts that have always been in close contact with the life of society and have changed depending on the era. Some categories of them belong to the so-called eternal values. Others are relative. And what was considered unacceptable at one time becomes perfectly acceptable at another.
Deformity categories
Our article is devoted to the consideration of the concept of "moral monster". In order to understand it, it is necessary to study the phenomenon of ugliness from an aesthetic, ethical, lexical point of view. Let's start with the first one. The standards of beauty, for all their subjectivity, were reduced to a certain uniformity. If we were talking about a person, he appreciated the correct features, proportional slender physique, the presence of paired limbs, organs (eyes, ears). Everything should have functioned normally. Any deviations in appearance that caused negative emotions were perceived by others as non-standard. The meaning of the word "ugly" in this case was identical to the concepts of "ugly", "ugly", "repulsive", "unpleasant". Remember the famous novels of Victor Hugo - "The Man Who Laughs" and "Notre Dame Cathedral". Their main characters arethe hunchback Quasimodo and the itinerant actor Gwynplaine are typical aesthetic renegades. They are literally terrible in appearance, even a casual glance at them plunges the soul into awe.
Ethics and aesthetics
But on the same example, we can easily see something else: there is no equal sign between ethical and aesthetic beauty. Therefore, a moral monster and a freak in appearance are often at opposite poles. The same Quasimodo turned out to be capable of sublime wonderful feelings, of the feat of self-sacrifice in the name of love. His soul, enclosed in an ugly shell of the body, is amazingly beautiful, because it is based on the best human qualities. But the spiritual antagonist of the hunchback - the priest Claude Frollo - outwardly quite ordinary, and there is a real, one might say a classic moral freak. Why? This is a despotic ascetic, deliberately killing in himself all human weaknesses and feelings. Having dedicated his existence to God, he forgot that the Lord is love: for people, light, beauty, life. A hypocrite and a misanthrope, the priest destroys the young Esmeralda because she awakened in his body and heart those needs and emotions that Frollo fought for years and, as he thought, managed to win. Consequently, a moral monster is one who violates the norms of human society, acts contrary to them. Whoever betrays commits cruel, vile, criminal acts. Another character of the work fits into this category - Captain Phoebus, a handsome officer who conquered Esmeralda with his courteous manner and ostentatious brilliance. How muchsunny is his name, so mean and low is the soul of the hero and unsightly behavior.
Moral and immoral
“Moral” and “immoral” are antonyms, and in this sense the phrase “immoral freak” means the highest degree of immorality, spiritual squalor, moral decline. Who fits into this category? Any person, regardless of gender and age, who deliberately acts badly. It is immoral to offend the defenseless, to humiliate the weak: kick a kitten, leave a dog to the mercy of fate, abandon a child or elderly parents. To say nasty things behind a comrade's back, to "hook up" a colleague, to deceive someone who has trusted - this is also unscrupulous and goes beyond what is permitted. And in this regard, an ordinary envious person, angrily looking at a more successful neighbor, and the government of the largest country, plundering national we alth, spreading rot against its people or inciting wars, are equally criminal.
Immoral is what is vicious, what is inconsistent with the universal code of Good.
