looks determining character

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 139652

Hickengruendler wrote:

You are right. The villains are both, good looking and ugly. You
already mentioned Tom. Bellatrix, too, is described as beautiful (at
least before her holiday in Azkaban), as is Narcissa. Gilderoy
Lockhart, who is not as evil as the ones mentioned above, but still
completely unlikable, too, is very handsome. Other villains, like
Quirrell or Crouch jr are at least average looking and certainly not
completely ugly. But I think the problem, that many people have, is
not, that nearly every villain is ugly, it's that nearly every ugly
looking person is a villain. Snape is deeply unpleasant, no matter on
which side he is, the Dursleys, who in their features are complete
caricatures, are horrid (snipped)

Leah:
There seems to me to be a sense in which some of the ugliness of 
the 'ugly villains' is self-inflicted.  Vernon and Dudley's obesity, 
for example, while Dolores would not look quite such a fright if she 
did not favour little-girl dresses and hair ribbons.  Snape's looks, 
the black hair, hooked nose, sallow skin, are actually quite similar 
to those of Victor Krum, but Snape always comes with an air of 
neglect, he does not appear to wash his hair (or his underwear 
apparently).  While there are reasons for Draco's decline in HBP, 
there is a definite focus on the loss of his good looks.  Sirius and 
his cousins were/are lookers, so perhaps his mum was once one too.  
Is this failure to look after oneself's physically related to a 
moral neglect, and if so, why does it seem to affect only some of 
the 'villians'- Snape, but not Bellatrix?  Did the affected 
characters have more innate possibility of goodness?  That seems 
difficult to relate to Umbridge, and of course to the prime example 
of physical decline, Tom Riddle.

Conversely, we have a few characters who are now fairly hideous, but 
started off well- Alistir Moody and Bill Weasley are the obvious 
ones; we haven't seen Frank Longbottom, but Alice started off at 
least sweet looking and is now in a bit of a state.  In all these 
cases, the ugliness has been inflicted upon them in the fight 
against evil.    Are we being asked to look beyond the obvious to 
moral cause?

Leah