Beauty in HP (only evil needs advertising)

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 114340

Antosha wrote:
>> In JKR's fictional world, outward beauty seems to go 
>> hand-in-hand with vanity, an evil for which she has 
>> little patience. It will be interesting to see if Fleur 
>> continues to flourish (pardon the pun) and Cho redeems 
>> herself.
 
feklar replied:
> Ironically, I've always thought the opposite -- any 
> character that is fat or ugly is also evil, stupid or 
> both.  Vernon, his sister and Dudley are all of the 
> above, Petunia is "horse-faced" and abusive.  Pettigrew 
> is fat and probably ugly.  Fudge is fat.  LV is ugly 
> (tho' 16 yo TR was not).  Most Slytherins are described 
> as ugly in some way (Crabbe and Goyle, Flint,
> Bulstrode).  Hagrid and Neville aren't evil, but they 
> are generally portrayed as having unflattering looks and 
> being somewhat stupid.
> 
> About the only exceptions are the Malfoys, they get away 
> with being beautiful and evil.

While I won't dispute the correlation (btw, you missed the best
example, Ms. Umbridge!), it certainly is not universal.  Dumbledore
has his somewhat odd looks, and Tonks is decidedly odd.  Snape is
certainly not handsome (although his allegiance has some ambiguity to
it).  McGonagall is severe at best, and Mad-Eye is no eye candy. 
Bellatrix was once a beauty, and Narcissa apparently still is. 
Perhaps there's a bit of a motif of people's looks being twisted by
their descent into evil (Bellatrix; Riddle).  Perhaps some of what we
see of peoples' looks is colored by Harry's positive or negative
perceptions -- is Dudley really wider than he is tall?  

-- Matt