Morality, morality are 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 completely acceptable at another.
Ugliness categories
Our article is devoted to the consideration of the concept of "moral freak." In order to understand it, you need to study the phenomenon of ugliness from an aesthetic, ethical, lexical point of view. Let's start with the first one.
Beauty standards, for all their subjectivity, came down to a certain uniformity. If it was a question of a person, his
regular facial features, proportional slim physique, the presence of paired limbs, organs (eyes, ears) were appreciated. Everything had to function normally. Any deviations in appearance that caused negative emotions were perceived by others as non-standard. The meaning of the word “freak” in this case was identical to the concepts “ugly”, “ugly”, “repulsive”, “unpleasant”. Remember the famous novels of Victor Hugo - "The Man Who Laughs" and "Notre Dame de Paris". Their main characters - the hunchback Quasimodo and the roving actor Guinplen - are typical aesthetic renegades. They are literally terrible outwardly, even a glance cast at them casually throws the soul into awe.
Ethics and Aesthetics
But on the same example, we can easily see something else: there is no equal sign between the beauty of the ethical and aesthetic. Therefore, a moral freak and a freak in appearance are often at the opposite poles. The same Quasimodo was capable of sublime beautiful feelings, the feat of self-sacrifice in the name of love. His soul, enclosed in an ugly shell of the body, is amazingly beautiful, because its foundation is made up of the best
human qualities. But the spiritual antagonist of the hunchback - the priest Claude Frollo - is outwardly completely ordinary, and there is a real, one can say a classic moral freak. Why?
This is a tyrannical ascetic, deliberately killing all human weaknesses and feelings in himself. Devoting his existence to God, he forgot that the Lord is love: for people, light, beauty, life. A hypocrite and a hater, a priest destroys young Esmeralda for awakening in his body and heart those needs and emotions that Frollo struggled with for years and, as he thought, managed to win. Consequently, a moral monster - one who violates the norms of human society, acts contrary to them. Who betrays, commits cruel, vile, criminal acts. Another character of the work fits into this category - Captain Phoebe, a handsome officer who conquered Esmeralda with a courteous courtesy and ostentatious brilliance. How sunny his name is, so mean and low is the hero's soul 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 this category? Any person, regardless of gender and age, knowingly doing bad. It is immoral to offend the defenseless, to humiliate the weak: to kick the kitten, to abandon the dog,
to abandon the child or elderly parents. To say disgust behind the back of a comrade, to “sit up” a colleague, to deceive the one who trusted, is also unclean and goes beyond what is permitted. And in this regard, an ordinary envious person is equally criminal, viciously glancing at a more successful neighbor, and the government of the largest country, plundering national wealth, spreading his tongue or fomenting war.
It is immoral that it is vicious that comes into conflict with the universal code of Good.