Culture, Beauty, Class: Assessing the Writings of Arnold and Ruskin Anonymous College

In the Platonic dialogue, Greater Hippias, Socrates and Hippias argue that the beautiful is primarily the fitting. Like perfection and wholeness befitting the gods, certain qualities can be assigned to a body. Militarism and strict law adherence are qualities which the city-state of Sparta embody, for example. Hippias, who touts himself as being wholly beautiful, is not allowed to educate Spartan youth because he is a foreigner. He can speak to them but they will not listen. They will just smile and nod. Spartan law is so deeply engrained within the Spartans that they wear it as their culture. Hippias respects the beauty of the Spartans noting that their culture is their clothing, their national costume. Each Spartan fits what it means to be a Spartan because they have a definition of “Spartan.” This makes them a beautiful race of people, their sense of identity, how they embody the very things which fit them. The Spartan government and military are objects, for example, which reflect the ways of their people. Because the Spartans already have a sense of togetherness it is reflected outwards as the beautiful.

“Sweetness and Light” is the term Victorian critic Matthew Arnold uses synonymous with culture. Sweetness and light is...