If you watch Narnia the majority of the evil creatures (with the exception of the smoking hot ice queen) are very ugly. The good guys on the other hand are all beautiful. I would expect this out of an ordinary movie but not a Christian movie.
Isn't it true that one of the messages we recieved from Narnia then is that we should worship beauty and that ugly people are bad.
2007-11-16 09:12:33 · 8 answers · asked by the_honorable_spm 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
So far as I can tell, depicting evil as also being ugly is about as old as depictions themselves. Though it is more prevalent in some cultures than others (gargoyles, for example, are good BECAUSE their ugliness scares off evil), it seems to be a recurrent theme throughout all of them.
I think this stems primarily from the observation that PURITY is fleeting and easily corrupted. When we think of pure water or pure metal, it is natural to think of an unmarred clear stuff that is beautiful on a kind of gut level. And contrariwise if a person thinks of disease and infirmity, you might imagine dirt, blood, festering pustules that ooze pus and the like. On this level it is difficult to argue that what is beautiful tends to be good and what is ugly tends to be bad.
Christians are not only not immune to this prejudice, I would tend to say they suffer more greatly from it. I think it is this (not racism) which causes them to tend to show angels as white and pure and demons as twisted and black. How else would you know who is who in a painting or the like? And they do have SO many paintings...
2007-11-16 10:45:44 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't think CS Lewis intended the good guys to be beautiful. I think of the Pevensie Kids who appear in many of the chronicles. Remember that Susan doesn't get to come back to Narnia precisely because she is so caught up in her own looks and beauty. In my minds eye, the visitors to Narnia were all just your typical 1950's school kids. Ruddy faced and reading Beano. The good guys that probably were good looking in any modern sense would the princes, Caspian and perhaps the one in the Last battle as they would have trained to fight and so would have a sporting physique. In the Voyage of the Dawntreader, one of the kids turns into a quite ugly dragon. Aslan painfully removes the layers of dragon skin to reveal and teach the value of beauty within. I don't see the books portraying what you say. Perhaps you are thinking too much of the movies.
2016-05-23 10:53:50 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why would you not expect this out of a "Christian" movie? I don't understand that statement.
Not all of the bad guys are ugly. The Snow Leopards were fighting on the "bad" side and I think are one of the most beautiful animals on earth.
If the message you take away from that movie is that we should worship beauty, that's a little sad.
2007-11-16 09:20:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
In the book, the characters aren't exactly described as "ugly." In fact, the White Witch, in her introduction in the Magician's Nephew, is described as the most beautiful woman the characters have ever seen. One of the characters went out of his way for her because he worshiped her. It didn't turn out so well for him.
In other books, the "ugly" dwarfs are good characters. Also
The hags, minotaurs, etc. are arguably the "ugliest" characters in the book and movie. But are they really ugly because of their appearance, or because of the significance and meaning we attach to them? Minotaurs are a prime example of this. They can either be threatening monsters, or fascinating beasts. In other books, animals like bulldogs, ravens, and mice are good characters. However, if a negative connotation was attached to them, we might just as easily find them ugly.
It is not a new or uncommon thing for "good" to be associated with light, and "bad" to be associated with darkness. In the movie especially, the shadows and darkness around the bad characters assuredly added to their "ugliness." Likewise, the light around the good characters added to their beauty.
2007-11-20 01:29:17 · answer #4 · answered by SurrepTRIXus 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, we already worship beautiful people. But here's the real question : what came first - the ugly, or the evil? Were they ugly people who turned evil? Or were they evil people who turned ugly? Perhaps the appearance of the characters is meant as a metaphor for their inner beings : the evil has made them "ugly" inside.
2007-11-16 09:54:34 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
look at the wizard of oz.. good witch= pretty, wicked witch = ugly.. its normal.. movies have been doing that for decades.. its not a message at least not a hidden message.. good guys wear white hats, bad guys wear black..
2007-11-16 09:18:14 · answer #6 · answered by northshore_angel_fan 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The outward beauty you see in the characters represents the inner beauty they have. The bad guys don't have inner beauty so you don't see any outer beauty. The good guys do have inner beauty so you do see outer beauty.
2007-11-16 11:06:57 · answer #7 · answered by User 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You mean ugly people AREN'T all evil minions??
2007-11-16 09:22:16 · answer #8 · answered by Jim P 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋