It is painful to meet with treachery and unexpected bad deeds. Only after the event does understanding come that both gentleness and kindness were ostentatious. This behavior is called hypocritical. And people who are characterized by this are compared with the two-faced Janus, a Roman deity. What is hypocrisy and what are its varieties?
Fear of truth
This quality is often manifested, but the reasons that provoke it are very different. The most common is banal cowardice, when a person is afraid to show his true attitude. This is a feature of asthenic, weak personalities. An example of cowardly hypocrisy is Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter saga. He behaved ambivalently out of fear of all who were stronger than him.
Show mercy
Aphorisms about the hypocrisy from the Bible show us a completely different example. It speaks of a man who shows alms. And it is in this context that the main book of Christians speaks of pretense. In this case, we see that such a hypocrisy is characteristic of a hysteroid personality. When a woman considered beautiful, spoiled by attention “plays a role” mainly for the sake of attention, this is also hypocrisy. An example is the character of Corilla from the novel Consuelo by George Sand.
All is mine!
This quality is not so noticeable in people seeking material benefits. They are usually not recognized as unseemly. This species is characteristic of mundane people. What is hypocrisy for the sake of material gain, what can be an example? You can name one of the most beloved American heroines - Scarlett O'Hara, who mainly uses men for their own purposes, without feeling for them. For example, it deceives its potential customers about the quality of wood from competitors. Even her marriage to her second husband was conceived to get to his money.
Charming criminal
Finally, there is a fourth hypostasis of hypocrisy. It is found in people of a paranoid warehouse, that is, those who are very much striving for their goals, and "trifles" like the fate of people do not care about them. An example is Milady Winter from The Three Musketeers. She did not deceive others at all for the sake of attention to her person, money or cowardice. She had goals - and everything else meant little to her. According to statistics, the character of Milady is considered one of the most attractive among the negative characters of foreign literature. And yet she is a moral criminal.
What's the catch
What is hypocrisy and why are world religions equally condemning it: Islam and Christianity? Is acting in itself so bad? Well, the traditional religions do not approve of acting too, but the problem is not the fake behavior. Behind a hypocritical act is always fraud and seeking profit at the expense of another person. That is the whole immorality of hypocrisy.
Do not get confused!
A hypocrite, a hypocrite are synonyms? No, between these concepts the relationship is hypo-hyperonymic (part-whole). Every hypocrite is a hypocrite, but not every hypocrite is a hypocrite. So do not confuse. There are different hypocrites. And a prude is simply a person who condemns that which he himself participates in, or that which he secretly desires and approves. This is hypocrisy of a cowardly kind, since the prude is afraid of the opinions of others. The one who does not approve and does not practice, but condemns, is holy.