Descriptions of physiognomies in English fiction from realism to modernism (PDF)

Diploma Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: very good, University of Graz (Institute for Anglistics), language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction: Descriptions of physiognomies in (English) literature and their significance
It is a fascinating phenomenon, that whenever we meet another person for the first
time, we unconsciously and immediately judge him or her by merely looking at the person's
face. Although we may call ourselves the most tolerant people free of prejudices, we cannot
help thinking a person likeable or not right away by the first visual impression we get, without
ever having talked to him or her. Even though we know that a correspondence of
physiognomic and 'inner' traits has never been convincingly or scientifically proved, it is
unquestionable that most of us are impressed and influenced by visual data we receive from
our fellow human beings' faces.
In the course of history (and thus, of literature), people have repeatedly tried to come
to terms with this phenomenon and to find explanations as well as definitions that may help to
'face' and deal with physiognomy in everyday life. Apparently, it has always been, and still
is, people's wish to 'read' in other faces so as to facilitate contact and to know how to judge
characters. That this desire is not new can be seen by the fact that even (Pseudo-)Aristotle set
up (very questionable, highly racist and sexist) rules according to which one could
'categorise' faces and thus know what kind of character is hidden behind the surface. Today,
nobody relies on his writings anymore, which categorised people, among other factors, by
establishing an analogy between animals and human beings. According to the author, those
who had certain traits that were seen as resembling certain animals were considered to have
the respective animal's 'inner' traits as well, as in the following examples. "Die [Menschen]
mit dicken Lippen, wobei die obere weiter vorsteht als die untere, sind dumm; siehe die Esel
und Affen. [...] Die eine kleine Stirn haben, sind ungebildet; siehe die Schweine."1
In (English) literature, the question of whether there is an indexical or arbitrary
connection between inner and outer traits has been approached in many different ways which cannot be analysed in detail here. In a large number of older texts, descriptive passages
containing physiognomic hints were not included, which points to a certain disinterest in this
field of explanations (as well as in visual details in general). [...]

1 [Pseudo-] Aristoteles (~ 300v.Chr./1999). Physiognomica. Übers. u. kommentiert von Sabine Vogt. Berlin:
Akademie Verlag. 26f.