the realm of humanity. Herein lies one of the curiosities of Lessing's
polemic: he dismisses ugliness in the realm of art, and concedes its place
within the written word. Yet, he refrains from discussing its relevance
within drama. In drama—that in a play performed on the stage—the
audience is visually confronted with a representation of ugliness.
The connection between Richard's and Mendelssohn's malformed
bodies initially seems perplexing in light of Lessing's insistence on
complete forms. While the other characters confirm Richard's ugliness;
Nathan's remains privative. It is only because the ugly figure of
Mendelssohn stands like a ghost behind Nathan that the character can
be discussed within the context of ugliness. The audiences' knowledge of
the connection between the two causes them to project Mendelssohn's
ugly and malformed body onto the figure of Nathan. Both Richard's and
Mendelssohn's malformation seem pertinent in regard to Lessing's
discussion of ugliness and beauty in terms of bodily Vollkommenheit and
Unvollkommenheit, terms which contain a degree of ambiguity. According
to the Deutsches Worterbuch, the etymology of Vollkommenheit is:
im vergleich mit uollkommen zeigt vollkommenheit im
entwickeln nhd. eine starke einschrankung des gebrauches;
es wird im allgemeinen nur werthend grebraucht, es
bezeichnet also nicht nur vollstandigkeit, ganze,
vorhandensein aller theile o. bedingungen, sondern
verbindet (Grimm).
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