“We find it difficult to conceive of evil and beauty together. The fear of beauty fay that ran through the elder ages almost eludes our grasp. Even more alarming: goodness is itself bereft of its proper beauty. In Faerie one can indeed conceive of an ogre who possesses a castle hideous as a nightmare (for the evil of the ogre wills it so), but one cannot conceive of a house built with a good purpose - an inn, a hostel for travelers, the hall of a virtuous and noble king - that is yet sickeningly ugly. ” -J.R.R Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories (79)
The power of the queens deceitfulness is rooted in her beauty. As the Sirens of greek mythology used their beauty to deceive their victims, Jadis beauty was a vital part of her success. Upon experiencing beauty, whether that being a person, stunning landscape or beautiful song, we assume it must be good. The Beautiful must prove evil to be perceived as anything but good or holy. Typically the response to this discovery of evil is met with a recalculation of the object. Just as Edmond and Digory no longer see the White Witch as beautiful once they are aware of her evil, a person's reaction to the discovery of evil in beauty is not to consider it a conflicting beautiful evil. No, the natural reaction changes the perception of the object as a whole and one no longer can see the beauty in the object, even if it does indeed exist. Is this correction incorrect, can pure beauty and pure evil coincide? Or is the original assumption of beauty a misleading deception as a result of a fallen world?
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