Beauty and the beast

We have discussed before a question whether art necessarily has to improve us morally and concluded that not all art has moral impact, or is morally relevant. But think about the following questions, please explain each in detail: 1) Is a work with a moral message a better work because of this, than the work without any moral relevance?

I believethat on general terms a work is better with a moral message than without one, meaning that its having a moral message is not the only measure of a work of art but that it is better because it reflects a consciousness, aresponsibilityon the part of the artist, of trying to make a statement, of sharing his stand to all the eyes that will look at the art work. An artist will eventually die, a work of art has more chances of surviving through the years, and it will be his testament.

If it will survive then it would be better if it can show the coming generations a grain of truth on the human condition. 2) Could an immoral work be praised as artistically successful? Personally I do not believe that an immoral work could be praised as artistically successful. Should art have no meaning but simply satisfy aesthetic taste? Could we look past the effect of a work of art and just choose to look at aspects of it and not its wholeness including the statement it makes?

An immoral work goes against the goodness that we recognize as beautiful – and in this it seems that human nature is innately good, as we associate what is good with what is beautiful. It is only when we disassociate with what our emotions and our instinct tells us that we take a calculating look and examine a work based on rigid standards. 3) Are goodness and beauty in any way related in real life? I believe that in goodness we see beauty, but not all things beautiful truly have goodness.

We know of beautiful faces but have evil hearts, but we also know of good hearts but may not come in what society brands as beautiful. However, when there is goodness in heart and spirit, we feel safe and good about ourselves and others as well, and we see the beauty in things. After all, all things have beauty and goodness in the – as long as we look for it – and what is good is the beautiful in them.