The inner beauty of a person - the arguments of the Unified State Exam. Forming a first impression of a person

Impressions and reality § 1. The question I am examining in this cursory essay represents, I think, in addition to scientific significance, great interest for everyone thinking man. Isn't it really interesting to know whether they have any similarities, and what kind of similarities,

A well-known saying urges us not to judge a book by its cover. But people tend to do this even after they have read one or two chapters. Vivan Zayas, a professor of psychology at Cornell University, and her colleagues found that people remain influenced by another person's appearance even after prolonged interaction. The first impressions formed from just looking at photographs predetermined what people felt and thought about the person after the live communication that followed later.

A person’s appearance, his image, have strong influence on how we feel about him or think about what he is. Facial features are a very powerful tool for forming attitudes, even with additional information about the person.

Researchers conducted an experiment in which 55 participants looked at photographs of four women who were smiling on one card and maintaining a neutral expression on the other. After examining each one, the subjects had to rate how attractive it was. They were asked to guess whether she was an extrovert, emotionally stable, conscientious and open to new experiences, and whether they could become friends with her.

A month to six months later, the participants met with one of these women, not realizing that they had previously rated her photo. They played quizzes and other games for about 10 minutes and then were tasked with getting to know each other as best they could over the next 10 minutes. After each interaction, participants again rated the woman's attractiveness and personality traits. As a result, the researchers found strong consistency between how participants rated a person based on a photograph and in real-life interactions.

If the subjects thought that the person in the photograph was attractive and pleasant, emotionally stable, open and kind, this impression remained after the face-to-face meeting. Participants who thought the person in the photograph was unlikable and emotionally unstable maintained this view after they met. What's remarkable is that the participants interacted with the same person, but even after 20 minutes of face-to-face interaction, they retained their dramatically different impressions.

Vivian Zayas gives several explanations for the experimental results. In her opinion, the formation of lasting sympathy in in this case– is nothing more than the result of the concept of behavioral confirmation or self-fulfilling prophecy. References to this concept can be found in myths Ancient Greece and India, but the term itself was popularized by the American sociologist Robert K. Merton in the 20th century. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that appears to be true, but actually is not. It can greatly influence people's behavior in such a way that their subsequent actions themselves lead to the fulfillment of the prophecy.

Those study participants who liked the person in the photo tended to interact with him in a more friendly and active way. They smile a little more and lean forward a little more during conversations. Their nonverbal cues will be “warmer.” When someone is disposed towards a person from the very beginning, shows more active participation, he responds in kind. This reaction is reinforced by the fact that the participant in the experiment likes such a woman more.

If we talk about why the participants retained their judgments about the woman’s personality after the meeting, then the halo effect comes into play - a cognitive distortion, as a result of which a person tends to transfer the general impression to the feelings and character of the interlocutor. Participants who rated the woman in the photo positively went on to attribute to them positive traits and further. “When we see an attractive person with a certain amount of authority, we automatically assume that their marriages are stronger and their children are happier. We follow the direction of the initial judgment and attribute other things to the person we like. positive characteristics", notes Zayas.

In a related study by Zayas and her colleagues, people said they would reconsider their judgment of people in photographs if they had a chance to meet them in person. This would give them more information on which to make an assessment, the experiment participants argued. But last work by Vivian Zayas shows us that this is not so. People do believe that they will reconsider their decision, but this does not happen: they show much greater consistency in their judgments, and there is very little evidence of reconsideration.

For a speaker, the issue of first impression is extremely important. This is important, of course, for every person, but for a speaker it is doubly and even triple. Why? The meeting of the speaker with the audience, as a rule, is short-lived, and he does not have enough opportunities to change the impression of himself in his favor if he was not immediately able to win the sympathy of the audience.

There is a well-known saying: “they meet you by their clothes, they see you off by their intelligence.” If only this were always the case... This saying is only true in relation to long-term communication, and meeting with an audience is not such. We must remember that a lecturer or speaker is most often judged “by his clothes,” evaluating him mainly by external signs. Hence the huge role of the first impression for a speaker.

What should a speaker keep in mind?

Firstly, the first impression is very strong, vivid, and is well remembered. In the future, it has to be refuted, changed, corrected, and this always requires a lot of effort. It’s easy and pleasant to obey your first impression; people usually don’t like to change it, or at least do it reluctantly. Let us remember: unusual, sensational messages, the first news are always perceived by a person easily and with great confidence, and we trust subsequent refutations and explanations with great difficulty. That is why newspapers strive to be the first to report news, a sensation: whoever reports first forms an opinion, whoever reports second or refutes is forced to change their opinion, which is always more difficult.

Secondly, the first impression is mostly far from the truth and erroneous.

It has been experimentally established that most of the traits that are attributed to a person upon first impression cannot be inferred from his appearance or observed behavior. Thus, 58% of the traits attributed at first impression cannot be visually derived (such as determination, mental capacity, moral values, etc.; in the experiment, the subjects even identified

Some features such as “likes to sit in a cafe”, “cries alone”, etc.;), and another 27% of the identified traits represent purely value judgments (good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant, etc.). Thus, 85% of the qualities attributed to a person at first impression cannot be detected externally, but, nevertheless, they are attributed to the person. These are what determine large percentage erroneously attributed traits.

Psychologist A. A. Bodalev at Leningrad University also conducted the following experiment: the same teacher entered different audiences in different ways and, accordingly, was evaluated differently. So, when determining his attitude towards people, 75% of respondents made mistakes, volitional qualities - 42% and emotional qualities - 28%. Thus, the emotional qualities of a person are most accurately determined.

The first impression strongly depends on the age, life and professional experience of the listeners, their mood, that is, it is very subjective.

Thirdly, the first impression is very stable; it is stored for a long time and reliably. It has been established that during the lecture, changes in the assessment of the lecturer amount to 4–6%, no more, and for the factors “trust” and “attractiveness” such changes amount to no more than one percent.

Fourthly, the lecturer or speaker is assessed by the audience both from the point of view of his objective role characteristics (who he is - a scientist, deputy, man, woman, writer, commentator, journalist, etc.) and from the side of his individual personal characteristics (appearance, communicative behavior , personal traits). So, it has been established that for the audience perceiving the speaker, his individual characteristics turn out to be three times more important and “noticeable” than his role characteristics. The individual qualities of the speaker are most important to the audience; Almost only they are remembered: 20% of the external characteristics of the speaker are remembered, 34% of his communicative features and 44% of his internal qualities; Thus, 98% of individuality is remembered, and only 2% of role characteristics are remembered.

And fifthly, the basis of the first impression is the visual image. A person’s speech always makes the audience want to complement the speaker’s image with his visual image. The following experiment was conducted: one group of subjects

They let me listen to the speech first, and then showed a photograph of the speaker, the other - first the photograph, then the speech. In both cases, they were asked to characterize the speaker. So, after the photograph was presented, the speaker’s characteristics changed to a much greater extent than when the photograph was first evaluated and then speech was added. This leads to an unambiguous conclusion: the visual image when perceiving a speaker is much more important than speech in forming an impression of him. At the first impression, the role of the visual image cannot be overestimated.

Speaker personality

It is very important to keep in mind that during the speech, listeners do not separate the information that the speaker conveys from the personality of the speaker himself. Everything he says is directly connected to his personality. Wed: a schoolchild is asked: “What is your favorite subject?” He answers: “Physics! We have such a teacher!” “What don’t you like?” - "English. We have such a teacher...” The student completely connects the subject with its interpreter. Any audience does the same: they remember the speaker, and only then what he said: “Here N. spoke with us, so he said that...” The information is tightly tied to the personality of the speaker.

In a speaker, the audience wants, first of all, to see personality, individuality, and difference from others. She wants to know what distinctive features next speaker, what position he takes, whether he can be trusted.

At the same time, any audience sees and remembers the personality of the speaker in a simplified way, subsuming it under some stereotypical schemes, ideas, roles: a hopeless theorist, a pure practitioner, a young man, an old man, a moralist, a bureaucrat or official, a smart guy, a merry fellow and a joker, etc. It is necessary to ensure that your image is favorable and that you are perceived exactly as you want to present yourself.

The individuality and difference of the speaker from others should be obvious to the audience, it needs to be cultivated and demonstrated. And here you don’t have to try to “work for someone else” - you need to cultivate your own individuality in every possible way. As V. Mayakovsky said: “I am a poet, that’s what makes me interesting.” Wilhelm Grimm criticized W. Goethe for using dialect words in his speech.

wa, showing where he comes from. To this, V. Goethe said: “You cannot give up what you have. You should be able to tell from the bear’s roar which den it comes from.” D. Carnegie emphasized: “The most precious thing for a speaker is his individuality, cherish it and take care of it.”

A speaker must take care of his image, just as politicians, journalists, and actors do. Let us remember many of our wonderful actors - their individual image makes us remember them: E. Leonov - “good-natured”, A. Abdulov - “handsome”, N. Mordyukova - “simple woman”, L. Akhedzhakova - “bungler”, etc. d. It is the image that creates the speaker’s individuality for the audience; on the other hand, he should reflect your personality.

It should also be noted that the individuality of the speaker increases the suggestibility of the audience. As the American poet R. Emerson once remarked, “What you are is so overwhelming to me that I cannot hear what you say.”

All outstanding speakers were individuals.

Ivan the Terrible was an excellent orator in the 16th century. He was very excitable, emotional, and in this state he was unusually eloquent orally and in writing, witty, and used barbs; however, fatigue deprived him of eloquence.

A. V. Lunacharsky had enormous erudition, improvised, demonstrated enormous personal charm, and had the gift of making unusual comparisons and parallels.

I. I. Mechnikov was distinguished by crystal clarity and imagery of presentation, freedom of behavior in the audience, and the ability to hold attention in the audience.

D.I. Mendeleev, speaking, showed the path by which certain truths were obtained. He was equal parts logical and emotional, citing only carefully selected facts. Listeners were very fond of his method of “verbal excursions” - retreats into other sciences, into practical life. He masterfully changed the pitch of his voice during his performance.

K. A. Timiryazev amazed listeners with his high scientific level combined with imagery, artistry of presentation, and also by the fact that he very often accompanied his speeches with experiments.

V. I. Lenin differed from other speakers in his passion,

polemical and striving to solve practical problems.

F. Castro is distinguished by his enormous ability to improvise, passionate, emotional performances, and intense gesticulation.

M. S. Gorbachev, as a speaker, is distinguished by his detachment from the text, the ability to improvise within the text, the ability to pause, and hold the attention of the audience. He often refers to personal experience, the opinions of the people present in the hall, includes their ideas and statements in his speech.

It is the individuality of the oratorical manner that is the most important factor that encourages you to listen to the speaker, trust him, and remember his ideas. The personality is remembered, and along with the personality, the ideas of this personality.

IN Everyday life, in a work and non-work environment, every person has to meet new people. In many cases, circumstances develop in such a way that, on the basis of only short-term perception, we are forced to evaluate these people and choose what seems to us the most reasonable way of behavior and action in relation to each of them. In all such cases, we are dealing with the so-called first impression and with acts of behavior based on it.

The first impression is a complex psychological phenomenon that includes sensory, logical and emotional components. It always includes certain features of the appearance and behavior of the person who turns out to be the object of knowledge. The first impression also contains more or less conscious and generalized value judgments. It is always present emotional attitude to the person who was the subject of perception and evaluation.

The first impression is formed both with the special intention to evaluate a person from some point of view, and in the absence of such intention.

Among the factors that determine the nature of the impression we form about the person we meet in our lives for the first time, the most important are the characteristics appearance and the behavior of the person about whom we form an opinion. Just as the psyche is a reflection of reality as a whole, one of the manifestations of such a reflection is the impression we form about another person. It is this person himself, his appearance, his behavior that first of all always determines what will be reflected in our impression of him.<с.242-243>.

An equally significant influence on the formation of impressions about a person previously unknown to us is exerted by the situation under which our cognition of another person occurs; this situation is the second factor determining the nature of the impression of a person. The second goal of our research is to show the influence of the social background against which the formation of an impression unfolds on its characteristics.

Our own personal qualities, in which our mental make-up and attitude to various aspects of reality are manifested, also have an equally significant influence on the formation of impressions about a person previously unknown to us; it is clear that it is possible to separate the two above-mentioned factors that determine the impression of a person from the third - from the subject himself, who knows another person, only conditionally, in the interests of scientific analysis. It is quite obvious that in a real process these three global factors always act in the closest unity.<с.243>.

When forming our opinion about the personality qualities of a person whom we see for the first time, the general aesthetic expressiveness of the appearance of this person and, in particular, the degree to which the person’s physical appearance corresponds to the ideal of beauty that we have developed in the past are of considerable importance.<с.243>.

..."The halo" of physical attractiveness causes a "shift" in assessments not only when their object is personality traits, but also when a specific result of a person's activity or his individual act is assessed.<с.244>.

... "The beauty effect" strongly influences the content of the emerging concept of personality only at the moment of forming the first impression of a person. Subsequently, the assessment of this person by other people increasingly begins to be determined by the nature of their interaction with this person, the value in their eyes of his deeds and actions.

Features of the physique, the constitution of a person, considered in general, at the first moment of perception by other people, also influence the impression formed about him.<с.244>.

A person’s characteristic facial expression - gloomy or joyful, evil or kind - affects our impression of the person. And the look of another person influences our attitude towards him.<с.245>.

The influence of a gaze on the formation of the first impression of a person is a consequence of people’s past experience of the idea that a strong-willed person by nature is not afraid to look people in the eyes and that, on the other hand, if a person fixes his gaze on us, then we interesting in some way.

The impression we form of a person can be influenced, as research shows, by the person’s posture.<с.246>. ...The meaning of a person’s characteristic posture influences the formation of an impression of him. This further reveals the role of posture versus the role of face in conveying the true state experienced by a person. ...People usually learn to control their face better when expressing feelings and to control their body worse. Therefore, very often it is not the face, but precisely the pose that reveals people’s real experiences, their actual attitude towards us.

As significant as his facial expressions and pantomime are for forming an impression of a person, the features of his speech and voice are just as significant for this impression. Low and high voices in men, on the one hand, and in women, on the other, they evoke completely different associations regarding the personal qualities of the owners of voices among those listening to them for the first time. Just as tension in a woman's voice does not lead to the attribution of negative characteristics to her, tension in a man's voice usually makes people think that he is not very self-controlled, has low intelligence, is vulnerable, etc.<с.245-246>.

Interesting data were revealed when comparing the ratings received from people who perceived for the first time. For men, verbosity is perceived as a serious flaw in their personality, for women - as almost normal condition, which does not suggest any personal flaw.

The influence of the characteristics of a person’s voice and speech on the impression formed about him made it possible to reveal very interesting fact: People who were good at distinguishing the states of other people by the shades of their speech and voice usually had a high skill in conveying their own emotions to other people through their speech and voice.

The peculiarities of a person’s appearance at first also influence the impression we form about this person. Enough facts have now been collected to support this statement.<с.247>,

Experiments showed that when a person appeared before each new group of subjects in a different suit - either in ordinary civilian clothes, or in training, or in overalls, or in clerical attire, or in military uniform - then the tested groups, in addition to the traits noted in this of a person by all groups, they also named those qualities that they were clearly forced to point out by the suit in which the person they were assessing was wearing. For example, when a person was in military uniform, such qualities as discipline, accuracy, and perseverance were consistently attributed to him; when in an ordinary civilian suit - inner relaxation, openness towards other people, freedom in expressing feelings.

Certain relatively private details in a person’s appearance can influence the impression that is formed about him.<с.247>.

The content of people’s opinion about the personality of a person perceived for the first time is influenced not only by the strength and brightness of the manifestation in his appearance and behavior of a certain quality or the frequency with which this quality reveals itself, but also by the sequence in which people who know another person gain knowledge about different sides of his personality.<с.248>.

In a number of works, when clarifying the conditions that influence the nature of the impression formed about a person, there is data on the importance of the space factor in determining a number of features of this phenomenon. Thus, the fact has been established that for every person who is in his usual environment, there is a distance that should separate him and stranger so that the latter does not cause feelings of annoyance.

The magnitude of this distance varies depending on the height of people, their gender, state of neuropsychic health, and the intentions they have towards the person about whom they are trying to form an opinion.

People who are accustomed to loneliness and who are more focused on themselves usually have a longer personal distance than people who are focused on others and love to communicate; Although we do not know people who we like, we allow, as a rule, to approach us at a shorter distance and do not experience a state of psychological discomfort.

Researchers of the problem of first impression have long emphasized the role in the formation of our opinion about a person, the attitude towards him of the social background against which this process unfolds. How many people are around the person whom we must evaluate, what they are like, what their appearance is and how they behave - all this, as both the everyday experience of many people and fairly rigorous experiments show, more or less strongly influences what we will notice features in the external appearance of another person earlier and better, how we will evaluate them as a whole, and what personality traits or condition we will first of all attribute to this person and how we will treat him.

Compared to short people, a tall man seems even taller. Against the background of laughing faces, a calm face more strongly attracts the attention of the person perceiving these faces. Against the background of working people, a person languishing from idleness is also more likely to attract the attention of those observing the entire group. Against the backdrop of people’s angry and seemingly unfair remarks about what he (in public place) mistakes, a kind word spoken by someone in defense of this person is not only perceived by him with gratitude, but also makes him look at the speaker with sympathy. When, during some incident, almost all the people who are witnesses to this incident show confusion and suddenly among them there is a person who behaves courageously and accomplishes a feat, we perceive his behavior in sharp contrast with the behavior of other people and not only more clearly see the things he discovered dignity, but also highly positively evaluate his entire personality.<с.249-250>.

Although the first impression of a person is primarily determined by his inherent characteristics, as well as the background against which his formation unfolds, what it will be - more generalized or more specific, complete or fragmentary, positive or negative - depends on the personality of that person. , in whom it is formed. The same pattern applies here that characterizes a person’s reflection of any object of reality: " External reasons act through internal conditions... Every mental phenomenon is ultimately conditioned by external influences, but any external influence determines a mental phenomenon only indirectly, refracting through the properties, states and mental activity of the individual who is exposed to these influences.”<с.251-252>.

The formation of the image of another person, the nature of the psychological interpretation of his appearance and behavior and the attitude that he evokes towards himself depend on the personality of the cognizing subject. ...The personality factors of the subject that determine the course and results of the formation of his impressions of other people are only part of the reasons that more or less strongly influence the nature of the impressions formed in people about a person. There are other reasons, depending on the personality of the subject, that also influence this impression.<с.252-523>.

All researchers who have observed the phenomenon of projection when forming an opinion about another person note that the tendency to attribute one’s own qualities or one’s own states to other people is especially strongly expressed in individuals who are characterized by low self-criticism and poor insight into their own personality. According to Newcomb, this tendency is to a very large extent characteristic of representatives of the so-called “authoritarian” personality type and is almost not found in representatives of the “democratic” type.

In his experiments, he introduced representatives of these two extreme types to each other, and then asked each how his new acquaintance would answer certain questions (Newcombe specially selected these questions). Representatives of the “authoritarian” type, speaking about the possible responses of “non-authoritarian” individuals, attributed to them an authoritarian manner of speaking, their judgments, their own opinions on the questions that the researcher who conducted the experiment asked them. Representatives of the “non-authoritarian” personality type, according to Newcomb, did not go to such an extreme.

Researchers of the problem of people knowing each other have also quite convincingly established that the completeness and nature of the assessment of another person depend on such qualities of the assessor as the degree of his self-confidence, his inherent attitude towards other people and the attitude associated with this attitude that he always has (but not always conscious) “theory” of personality.

Bossom and Maslow, studying how a person's level of confidence affects his assessment of other people, found that confident people often evaluate other people as friendly and disposed towards them. At the same time, people who are not confident in themselves tend to look at other people as tending to be cold and not disposed towards them. Speaking about the reasons for the manifestation of stable tendencies in a person when assessing other people, one cannot ignore such an important subjective reason as the system of concepts formed in a person, in which all his experience of knowing people, obtained by him both through personal contacts, and through other channels - fiction, theater, television, radio, etc. A person’s general view of other people, the place they occupy - men and women, old people and children, workers and peasants, whites and blacks, etc. in the system he has values, always and constantly influences the nature of the impression that a person develops about any other person.<с.255-256>.

The study of the effect of a person’s “personality theory” on his assessment of other people also showed that the impression he has about another person is largely determined by his ideas about the structure of personality, that is, about what traits are what qualities in must be accompanied by her. So, if, for example, we evaluate a person as aggressive, do we not also tend to evaluate him as high-energy? Or, evaluating him as kind, do we not at the same time attribute honesty to him?<с.25б>.

Characterizing the first impression and tracing the features of its formation, one cannot avoid the question of how true and deep is the knowledge about a person that arises in the subject at his first perception. First perceptions, as a rule, give the individual knowledge about the main features of the external appearance of a previously unfamiliar person - about his gender, height, physique, approximate age, and the nature of his appearance. The first impression almost always reflects some manifestations of expression and some actions of the person who is the object of perception and evaluation. Nevertheless, the image of a person that an individual develops on the basis of first impressions always contains inaccuracies, and his assessment of the personality traits of this person may turn out to be a hasty generalization.<с.257>.

Noting the existence of significant differences in the accuracy of first impressions of the same person among different people, it is apparently necessary to emphasize again and again that this accuracy is associated not only with the capabilities of the person acting as the subject of cognition, but also with the characteristics of the person being assessed by first impression. Pointing out the difficulties of correctly judging a person based on first impressions, it is appropriate to recall the words of F. M. Dostoevsky, who, speaking about the shortcomings of simple photography of facts, thereby warned against the danger of making categorical judgments about people only on the basis of first impressions.<с.260>.

In the manifestations of the personality, reflected in the first impression, its essence is expressed, but in order to truly reveal and understand this essence, one must see the personality in all its main connections with reality, that is, in work, knowledge and communication. Facts show that the formation of a first impression almost always means that an individual assigns the perceived person to one of the groups of people in those “type classifications” that he developed in the past. His subsequent knowledge of this person in the normal course of the process leads to the discovery in him of such features that constitute the uniqueness of his personality and form his individuality.

• The true beauty of a person does not depend on his appearance
• Beautiful is the one who does moral deeds
• The most important thing in a person is sometimes impossible to see with the eyes
• External beauty is not always a reflection of the rich spiritual world of a person
• It happens that people who seem attractive outwardly commit absolutely immoral acts
• A person with a truly beautiful soul creates a special, incomparable atmosphere with his presence

Arguments

L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”. As a child, Natasha Rostova, one of the heroines of the great epic novel, was not beautiful. The attention focused on her is impossible without inner beauty: both in childhood and in adulthood, she was distinguished by her love of life, spontaneity, and pure soul. Another heroine you should pay attention to is Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. In appearance, she was clearly inferior to beauties; only her eyes were beautiful. But people who are capable of feeling real beauty appreciated her inner qualities. Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova can be contrasted with Helen Kuragin: society admired her beauty. But this beauty is only external. In fact, Helen Kuragina is a stupid, callous, selfish, calculating, selfish person. The heroine's external charm does not compensate for her immoral behavior.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matrenin’s Dvor”. Matryona has a completely ordinary appearance. The only part of her appearance that attracts attention is her beautiful smile. But what is important to us is not external beauty, but internal beauty. It is not for nothing that the author writes that only those who are at peace with their own conscience have a good face. Matryona is a person from whom comes inner light, spiritual warmth. This is much more important than external attractiveness.

F.M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”. Svidrigailov, a rather rich and well-groomed man, is in fact not distinguished by good spiritual qualities: he is ready to do any meanness for the sake of his own whim. Physical beauty and ugly inner world do not fit together in any way: at first, in this tyrant and rapist you can see a wonderful person. The image of Sonya Marmeladova is the opposite. Due to malnutrition, poverty appearance The girls suffer greatly: pale, thin, frightened, wears terrible clothes. But the inner world of Sonya Marmeladova is beautiful, despite her lifestyle and appearance.

O. Wilde “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” In this work, the problem of internal and external beauty is the main one. At the beginning of the work we see in Dorian Gray timid, bashful and incredibly beautiful young man. Beauty is his source of power: no matter what the hero does, his appearance does not change. All changes affect only the portrait of the young man, painted by Basil Hallward. Gradually, Dorian Gray turns into an inhuman, immoral monster who has committed many nasty things, including even the murder of an artist. He is still as handsome as he was many years ago, only the portrait depicts the state of his soul. Dorian Gray wants to put an end to the terrible image of himself and dies by stabbing a dagger into the portrait. External beauty turned out to be destructive for him.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry “The Little Prince”. Wise thoughts The Little Prince They can teach even an adult a lot. Our hero said: “Only the heart is vigilant. You can’t see the most important things with your eyes.” And we can say without a doubt that he is right. True beauty is inside a person, in his soul, in his right actions.

A.S. Pushkin “The Captain's Daughter”. In the work we do not see a description of Pyotr Grinev. It doesn't matter at all whether he is beautiful in appearance. All the beauty of this person is expressed in his moral qualities and noble deeds. Pyotr Grinev is a man of honor who did not allow himself to betray his homeland or leave his beloved girl in danger. His actions are beautiful, which means he himself is beautiful.

M. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man.” The fact that it is impossible to judge a person by appearance is proven by the image of Andrei Sokolov, the main character of the work. He was summoned to the German Muller when he was in captivity. Exhausted from work, hungry, Andrei Sokolov could not be beautiful in appearance at that moment. All his beauty was manifested in his moral actions: Sokolov refused to drink German weapons to the victory, and to spite the enemy he did not take a bite, despite hunger and lack of strength. By these actions one can judge that a person has a beautiful soul.