History BeautyEqualsGoodness / Literature

* ''Literature/OldMansWar'': Used in training to teach recruits not to make assumptions about aliens. One species looks like Lovecraftian nightmares; they are pathologically peaceful and one of the few species have an alliance with. Another species looks like friendly deer; they are ruthless cannibals who treat every other species as a food source.

* Creator/CSLewis goes back and forth between this and BeautyIsBad in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''; the adventurers meet the star's daughter who became Caspian's wife and think, "when they looked at her they thought they had never before known what beauty meant." Swanwhite the (good) Queen who lived in one of the long periods of peace in-between the Chronicles "was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day afterwards." On the other hand, Jadis, aka The White Witch, and The Lady of the Green Kirtle (in her human form anyway), are also incredibly beautiful. Though, if you wonder which way Lewis wound up leaning, remember that, [[Literature/TheLastBattle concerning Susan,]] [[Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader "Grown-ups thought her the pretty one of the family...."]]

!!(Mostly) Straight examples:

-->In all this ancient and mysterious history, the most mysterious figures of all were without a doubt the Great Circling poets of Arium. These Circling Poets used to live in remote mountain passes where they would lie in wait for small bands of unwary travelers, circle around them, and throw rocks at them.
-->And when the travelers cried out, saying why didn't they go away and get on with writing some poems instead of pestering people with all this rock-throwing business, they would suddenly stop, and then break into one of the seven hundred and ninety-four great Song Cycles of Vassillian. These songs were all of extraordinary beauty, and more extraordinary length, and all fell into exactly the same pattern.
-->The first part of each song would tell how there once went forth from the City of Vassillian a party of five sage princes with four horses. The princes, who are of course brave, noble and wise, travel widely in distant lands, fight giant ogres, pursue exotic philosophies, take tea with weird gods and rescue beautiful monsters from ravening princesses before finally announcing that they have achieved enlightenment and that their wanderings are therefore accomplished.
-->The second, and much longer, part of each song would then tell of all their bickerings about which one of them is going to have to walk back.
* In ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', all the protagonists are strikingly beautiful, while the villains' [[{{Anvilicious}} ugliness is often mentioned in connection with their ]][[StrawCharacter ridiculous beliefs]].

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Literature/TheMonsterMen'', how Virginia deduces Bulan's character
-->''At first she wondered if he could be a fugitive from justice—the perpetrator of some horrid crime, who dared not divulge his true name even in the remote fastness of a Bornean wilderness; but a glance at his frank and noble countenance drove every vestige of the traitorous thought from her mind. Her woman's intuition was sufficient guarantee of the nobility of his character. ''

!!Subversions and [[PlayingWithATrope played-with]] examples:

* In ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'', beauty doesn't really equal anything. Villains are just as likely to be attractive as heroes (perhaps even more so), and most heroes are fairly unremarkable in their looks. Of the ones that stand apart, some are just ugly (Pradji with his squashed nose and pockmarks), others possibly attractive save for one or two off-putting qualities (Arutha's perpetual gloom, Erik's brutish face), and others are beautiful, but it doesn't do them any favors (Tomas's disturbing slightly-alien features, Sandreena's gorgeousness destroying her childhood). Similarly, all the elves of the series are beautiful, but you can't tell the good from the evil ones just at a glance.

--> ''[[ScienceMarchesOn A disciple of such characterjudging anatomists as Gratiolet or Engel could have read this man's features like an open book]]. Without hesitation, I identified his dominant qualitiesselfconfidence, since his head reared like a nobleman's above the arc formed by the lines of his shoulders, and his black eyes gazed with icy assurance; calmness, since his skin, pale rather than ruddy, indicated tranquility of blood; energy, shown by the swiftly knitting muscles of his brow; and finally courage, since his deep breathing denoted tremendous reserves of vitality.''
--> ''I might add that this was a man of great pride, that his calm, firm gaze seemed to reflect thinking on an elevated plane, and that the harmony of his facial expressions and bodily movements resulted in an overall effect of unquestionable candoraccording to the findings of physiognomists, those analysts of facial character.''
--> ''[[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow I felt "involuntarily reassured" in his presence]], and this boded well for our interview.''

-->'' On th' other side up rose\\
BELIAL, in act more graceful and humane;\\
A fairer person lost not Heav'n; he seemd\\
For dignity compos'd and high exploit:''

** As Beatrice ascends closer to God throughout ''Paradiso'', she becomes increasingly beautiful until her smile would crack a human's brain and her face defies all description.

* Used for {{tragedy}} in ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': The monster is a hideous ghoul stitched together from various corpses, yet is the most warm, kind-hearted character in the book... at first. The people he meets are unable to see past his exterior and, with the obvious exception of the {{blind| and the beast}} man, assume his heart is as ugly as his face. Over time, this mistreatment twists him into the very thing people assume he is.

* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. The adaptations have various takes on Erik's deformity. He still is evil, though. Though it's made explicitly clear that he became evil and insane because people shunned him for his appearance, instead of appreciating him for his considerable genius. Erik originally became evil because, with his deformity, people '''assumed''' this trope, and...[[ThenLetMeBeEvil well, it's very hard to turn out ''good'' if everybody insists you're evil from the moment you're born.]]

* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. The adaptations have various takes on Erik's deformity. He still is evil, though. Though it's made explicitly clear that he became evil and insane because people shunned him for his appearance, instead of appreciating him for his considerable genius. Erik originally became evil because, with his deformity, people '''assumed''' this trope, and...well, it's very hard to turn out ''good'' if everybody insists you're evil from the moment you're born.

* A strange example - neither subversion nor aversion but not completely straight either - comes from the work of Rex Stout, the writer of the Literature/NeroWolfe novels. Stout wrote a short story called "Murder is No Joke" in late 1957. One of the characters, Flora Gallant, is a fat, shrewish, bitter, ugly, crude middle-aged female social misfit - virtually a perfect example of the trope played straight. The next year, Stout was asked by the ''Saturday Evening Post'' to expand the story into a novella. In this version, Flora Gallant is a gorgeous, vivacious young woman who romances Archie to some success - the opposite of the trope. The rest of the plot, including the identity of the killer, is identical, except that in the first story, Archie has Flora tagged as the killer; in the second, he thinks she's the next victim. [[spoiler: She's neither.]]

* Often inverted in Creater/AgathaChristie novels, which are replete with examples of beautiful people using their looks to get away with a whole host of seedy behavior. In particular, in one of the few consistent tells throughout her writing, [[spoiler: if the narrative goes out of its way to describe a young man as handsome or pretty, nine times out of ten, he's the murderer.]]

** Bellatrix is sort of in between subverting and playing straight this trope - while she [[IWasQuiteALooker ''was'']] clearly quite attractive, she is shown to be gaunt and worn from her time in Azkaban. On the other hand, the same is said about Sirius. And while Harry did think at one point that the Slytherins mostly appeared to be an unattractive lot[[note]]it is likely this meant personality-wise[[/note]], some, like Blaise Zabini, are considered to be quite attractive. Plus, seeing as Harry tended to be a bit biased against the Slytherins, there is a case of UnreliableNarrator to consider.

*** The general rule is that ugliness will not make you become evil, but evilness will make you become ugly. Voldemort's looks began to deteriorate when he started using large amounts of dark magic resulting in his inhuman appearance, while Bellatrix lost her beauty through insanity and her stay in Azkaban. More morally ambiguous characters like the Malfoys are the middle ground; Lucius is never said to be particularly attractive in the books, and Draco is occasionally called ferret-like. Narcissa is beautiful because she's a Black ([[StrongFamilyResemblance they're ''all'' described as good-looking]], and [[spoiler:later redeems the family through [[MamaBear motherly love]]]], however her beauty is marred by her snootiness.

* Subverted, along with every other cliche of space opera, in Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers''. Arriving on a new planet, our heroes see a war between the Garnishee (hideous tentacled monsters) and the humanoid Ormoloo (who don't look too bad if you overlook the four arms), so they wade in on the side of the more-or-less-humanoids. Of course, it's only after exterminating 99.9% of the Garnishee race that they discover that the octopoids are the wise, gentle and cultured good guys and the Ormoloo are the equivalent of cattle being mind-controlled by evil PuppeteerParasite aliens out to conquer the galaxy.

* One ''Ghosts of Literature/FearStreet'' book has the protagonist acquire a ClingyMacGuffin whose owners turn out to be tentacled, sluglike aliens. Another alien who looks more humanoid shows up and ostensibly tries to help the protagonist. The fact that the slugs turn out to be the good guys, while the humanoid alien is an intergalactic criminal they're trying to catch, is meant to be a twist.

* Played with in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice''. There are the Whistlers, the hero's family, who are all very good-looking. Their neighbours, the Brindles, "look like horses" according to Jerin, and have a reputation for starting fights at markets and fairs and the like. Then there is Keifer Porter, who allegedly was very, very, pretty, but also very, very cruel towards his [[ExoticExtendedMarriage wives]], using psychological abuse against the older ones, while physically hurting at least one the defenseless, younger ones.

* One ''Ghosts of FearStreet'' book has the protagonist acquire a ClingyMacGuffin whose owners turn out to be tentacled, sluglike aliens. Another alien who looks more humanoid shows up and ostensibly tries to help the protagonist. The fact that the slugs turn out to be the good guys, while the humanoid alien is an intergalactic criminal they're trying to catch, is meant to be a twist.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', if a woman appears who is devastatingly beautiful, chances are, she's ''bad news''. Most common with vampires of the White Court, succubi and incubi; for the most part, they are by nature impeccably beautiful and normally evil, cold, evil, manipulative, and evil. There are some notable exceptions, however: Thomas Raith, [[spoiler:Harry Dresden's half-brother]], is in a gray area. The Faeries, and especially the High Sidhe, are also perfectly formed but can be either nice or very not nice.

* In the ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series by Jean Auel, Ayla is considered hideous by her Neanderthal foster family. She is described as being tall, muscular, blond, and blue-eyed - stereotypically lovely - but she suffers from her adoptive Neanderthal family treating her as ugly throughout ''Clan of the Cave Bear.'' It isn't until the second book, after she is exiled from her clan, that she runs into someone who looks like her and treats her as if she's beautiful.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' both follows and subverts this trope with various characters. Many of TheBeautifulElite are admired for their regal or exotic appearance, such as Cersei Lannister or Joffrey Baratheon, but are actually quite incompetent and cruel. Others are mocked, belittled or hated for their ugly appearance, including Brienne of Tarth and Tyrion Lannister, but show far more compassion and integrity than many others. However, other characters follow this trope straight. Many heroic characters are described as being quite handsome or beautiful, such as Daenerys Targaryen ([[WellIntentionedExtremist arguably]]) and Sansa Stark. Many villainous or anti-villainous characters are also quite hideous, such as Sandor Clegane (though he looks hideous due to his monstrous brother burning his face, leading to him becoming cynical and bad-tempered). In general, a character's appearance is more likely to be an influence on their personality rather than a reflection of it.

** Stannis and Renly Baratheon, {{Foil}}s to each other. Renly is very attractive and charismatic, but is privately shown to be vain and greedy, planning to usurp rule basically out of arrogance and because he can gather a [[AppealToForce large army]]. His older brother Stannis is a rather scary-looking man, with a stern face, baldness, and who barely smiles. As the books continue, due to his blood being used for magical rituals by Melissandre, he becomes more gaunt and ages greatly. However, he is arguably one of the most honorable people in the series, always trying to uphold the law and stick to his morals.

** Played very straight with [[BastardBastard Ramsay Snow]] (later legitimized to Ramsay Bolton). He is one of the most evil and unattractive characters in the series, described as being fleshy, with pink blotchy skin, thick lips, dark dry hair and sloping shoulders. Ramsay is an incredibly psychotic {{Sadist}} who is believed to have murdered his legitimate [[CainAndAbel half-brother]] and has such a reputation as TheDreaded throughout the North that even his ruthless father tells him to tone it down as it is making their House unpopular.

* All of the protagonists of [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]] are described as - at the very least - good-looking at some point. Then, most bad guys are ugly as road kill. [[spoiler:AND THEN you have everyone who got infected by the Shadow - horribly deformed. But they're back to being pretty after it's gone.]]