On Beauty

On Beauty

by

Zadie Smith

The Nature of Beauty Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
The Nature of Beauty Theme Icon
Politics in Academia Theme Icon
Race and Identity Theme Icon
The Value of Family Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Beauty, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Nature of Beauty Theme Icon

At the center of On Beauty is a longstanding feud about Rembrandt and how to judge his body of work. Monty Kipps is a traditionalist who believes that Rembrandt is a genius and that beauty comes from God. His rival, Howard Belsey, is a skeptic who believes that Rembrandt is overrated and that almost all paintings of human subjects lack aesthetic value. But while the question of beauty divides Howard and Monty, it unites their wives Kiki and Carlene, who bond over a Hyppolite painting, each expressing admiration for the painting’s depiction of Black female beauty and possibly even expressing queer romantic feelings that they have hidden from the rest of the world. Beauty can take on many forms, and characters’ discussions about beauty reveal how beauty can be easy to recognize but difficult to quantify.

These lofty, philosophical discussions about beauty often contrast with the reality of how the characters experience beauty in everyday life. Carl, for example, is a gifted poet whenever he goes up on stage, but his speech becomes disappointingly crude (at least in Levi’s opinion) whenever Carl tries to describe an attractive woman he sees. Similarly, Zora likes to picture herself as a highly educated intellectual, but she finds herself at a loss for words one day when she sees the muscular Carl in his swimsuit. Even Howard, who has spent most of his career lost in abstract theories about beauty, gets overwhelmed by Victoria’s physical beauty, and he has sex with her knowing that it will likely tear apart his family and possibly even end his career. In this way, On Beauty captures the power and contradictions of beauty. While beauty can be elusive and difficult to quantify conceptually, it can also be powerful enough to change the course of people’s lives.

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The Nature of Beauty Quotes in On Beauty

Below you will find the important quotes in On Beauty related to the theme of The Nature of Beauty.
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 5 Quotes

And this is another thing they do. They flirt with you violently because there is no possibility of it being taken seriously.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Claire, Warren
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 7 Quotes

The young man stepped forward cautiously, with one hand up as if to show he meant no harm. He turned the Discman over in her hand and showed her the sticky patch. He lifted his hoodie and the T-shirt beneath it to reveal a well-defined pelvic bone and drew a second Discman from his waistband. ‘This one’s yours.’

‘They’re exactly the same.’

Related Characters: Zora (speaker), Carl (speaker), Howard
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
Kipps and Belsey: Chapter 12 Quotes

Too quickly, Claire removed her hand from Howard’s body. But Kiki wasn’t looking at Claire; she was looking at Howard. You’re married to someone for thirty years: you know their face like you know your own name.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Claire
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 5 Quotes

‘She’s fabulous,’ replied Kiki, only now taking the time to look at her properly. In the centre of the frame there was a tall, naked black woman wearing only a red bandanna and standing in a fantastical white space, surrounded all about by tropical branches and kaleidoscopic fruit and flowers. Four pink birds, one green parrot. Three humming birds. Many brown butterflies. It was painted in a primitive, childlike style, everything flat on the canvas. No perspective, no depth.

Related Characters: Kiki (speaker), Howard, Monty, Carlene
Related Symbols: The Hyppolite Painting
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 6 Quotes

‘It’s true that men – they respond to beauty . . . it doesn’t end for them, this . . . this concern with beauty as a physical actuality in the world – and that’s clearly imprisoning and it infantilizes . . . but it’s true and . . . I don’t know how else to explain what –’

Related Characters: Howard (speaker), Kiki, Claire
Related Symbols: The Hyppolite Painting
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:
The Anatomy Lesson: Chapter 8 Quotes

‘Are you interested in refining what you have?’

Related Characters: Claire (speaker), Zora, Carl
Related Symbols: Hip-hop
Page Number: 232
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 4 Quotes

‘But your class – your class is a cult classic. I love your class. Your class is all about never ever saying I like the tomato. That’s why so few people take it – I mean, no offence, it’s a compliment.’

Related Characters: Victoria (speaker), Howard, Carlene
Page Number: 312
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 7 Quotes

For the first time it occurred to Howard that this gorgeous, single nineteen-year-old giving her attention to a 57-year-old married man (albeit with a full head of hair) might have other motives besides pure animal passion. Was he – as Levi would put it – being played?

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki, Monty, Levi, Victoria
Page Number: 343
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 9 Quotes

Zora Belsey’s real talent was not for poetry but persistence.

Related Characters: Zora, Carl, Claire
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 10 Quotes

Kiki looked up. ‘Howard, I love you. But I’m just not interested in watching this second adolescence. I had my adolescence. I can’t go through yours again.’

Related Characters: Kiki (speaker), Howard, Victoria
Page Number: 398
Explanation and Analysis:
On Beauty and Being Wrong: Chapter 13 Quotes

Howard looked back at the woman on the wall, Rembrandt’s love, Hendrickje. Though her hands were imprecise blurs, paint heaped on paint and roiled with the brush, the rest of her skin had been expertly rendered in all its variety – chalky whites and lively pinks, the underlying blue of her veins and the ever present human hint of yellow, intimation of what is to come.

Related Characters: Howard, Kiki
Page Number: 443
Explanation and Analysis: