Oscar Wilde, Beauty, and Pleasure...
Lessons Learned...
In this beauty-conscious world, where everyone wants a home that is Insta-ready and makeup tutorials are flooding the Internet, Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray has never been more relevant. Given Wilde’s connection to white supremacy, blackface, and racism it’s likely that his work could be canceled though. On the other hand, being an Irish homosexual during a time of discrimination against both communities might give him a reprieve. (For more on Irish discrimination during the Victorian Period click here.) Regardless of whether Wilde is canceled, problematic, or anything in between, The Picture of Dorian Gray is still worth the read. This work offers up a fascinating and horrific story with deep lessons about hedonism and asceticism while providing the reader with Wilde’s scathing critique concerning the zeitgeist of the Victorian Period.
Zeitgeist…
So what is zeitgeist? The simplest definition of the word is the defining spirit of a particular historical age. This spirit is shown in the ideas and beliefs of the time. When academics seek to understand it they often look to the art, literature, and music produced in that time period. This kind of makes you wonder what future historians will say about the fact that WAP broke the record for most streams in its first seven days during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn’t it? Of course, the number one book read during this same period was The Plague by Albert Camus so maybe the historians won’t judge us too harshly. Historians also look at the political, social, and economic policies of the time in question which might make tip the scales back in the other direction though, but I digress.
As anyone who has studied the Victorian Era knows, the zeitgeist of this period consisted mainly of strict social rules and a clearly defined class hierarchy. It also included some pretty close-minded views regarding gender and sex when compared to today’s standards. Because of this, it is always helpful to remember when reading works from this period that the Victorian era was a period in and of itself so its morality or lack of openness to alternative lifestyles and gender ideals should not be judged by modern standards.
Comparing Victorian zeitgeist to Oscar Wilde’s lifestyle and belief system, it is fair to say that he was a man ahead of his time in many ways and that in many ways he was a man of his time as well. Part of the reason for this seems to lie in the fact that life and art were shifting as the 19th century drew to a close, and Oscar Wilde was in the middle of it all. He was both hedonistic and aesthetically pleasing and in conflict with both as well, as his life experiences bear out.
Life and Art…
One of the ways that life and art were shifting as the Victorian Era drew to a close was in the way that people understood their purpose. As with any age, during this time period, there were those who were fighting to maintain the rigidity that often comes with tradition. There were also those looking to embrace life and art with a more carefree attitude. Enter the Aesthetic Movement.
Wilde was one of the biggest advocates for the movement known as Aestheticism which cropped up in Europe at the end of the 19th century. This movement centered itself on the belief that art should exist to give the consumer pleasure. Looking at the discourse between Lord Henry Worton and Basil Hallward in the first chapter of The Picture of Dorian Gray demonstrates the conflict that existed in the later Victorian period between this new movement and the more traditional view that art and artistic expression should educate and provide moral lessons.
The conversation between Lord Henry Worton and Basil Hallward gives the reader insight into the conflicting feelings that Wilde actually seems to have had concerning this Aesthetic Movement. Looking at Wilde’s life in comparison to his work in Dorian Gray also underscores this.
Excess and Foreshadowing…
Although Wilde seems to be saying that art should take no part in molding the social or moral identity of society in his preface to Dorian Gray, his life seems to resemble the conflicts raging both within himself and the society he occupied. Dorian Gray, therefore, seems to be a critique of those excesses. Upon further examination, it also appears to be Wilde’s attempt to make sense of them and his way of demonstrating what can occur if too much social control is ignored. The timing of the penning and publishing of Dorian Gray could be used to argue this most effectively.
Dorian Gray was penned and published in 1890. Incidentally, this is at the same time that Wilde began a love affair with Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas. The age gap between Douglas and Wilde seems to be expressed in the novel through the age gap between Dorian and Basil. It could be then that Dorian Gray the novel is just one long love letter to Douglas which expresses Wilde’s own fears regarding what will happen to him if they are publicly outed. When you consider the novel Dorian Gray in this way it seems to be almost like foreshadowing that art would imitate life as in 1893 Douglas’s father would accuse Wilde of being a sodomite.
The accusation by Sir John Sholto Douglas would see Wilde put on trial for gross indecency in 1895 effectively killing Wilde socially in London circles just as Basil is murdered by Dorian Gray. When Wilde was released in 1897 he also went to Paris just as Basil was supposed to have done if Dorian had not murdered him. Once Wilde arrived in Paris he converted to Catholicism and lived quietly for the most part until his death in 1900.
Hedonism…
Before he became a shrinking violet of Paris, Oscar Wilde lived a life of flamboyance that flew in the face of his Victorian contemporaries. This seems to be echoed in the sentiments of the poisonous yellow book that Dorian is gifted by Lord Henry in The Picture of Dorian Gray. It should be noted that the color yellow often symbolized decay and rot for Victorians. Yellow also became a way to symbolize a rejection of Victorian ethics and morals for some authors of the period. Both ways of looking at the yellow book in Dorian Gray have their merits.
So what is the title of the book that Dorian is gifted? Most critics agree that it is most likely Joris-Karl Huysman’s decadent nineteenth-century novel which has been translated as “Against the Grain” or “Against Nature”. No matter what the book actually is, it sends Wilde’s character Dorian down the path of hedonism and debauchery as he begins to seek everything and anything that is aesthetically pleasing to him in order to surround himself with it. Dorian also participates in every pleasure of the flesh that strikes his fancy much to the chagrin of Wilde’s editors who cut out big sections of the book to avoid an outcry of immorality This outcry eventually followed though when Wilde insisted that some of the content be put back.
Death of an Author…
The fight between his editors, the public, and himself could explain the preface of Dorian Gray where Wilde defends art for art’s sake. Here Wilde states that “The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well-written, or badly written. That is all.” Essentially what Wilde is arguing is that if a reader sees certain things in a book it is because that book has held a mirror up to them and made them face those parts of themselves. This falls in line with the type of literary criticism known as Death of the Author.
Death of the Author, made popular by Roland Barthes in the 1960s, seeks to remove the author’s personal experience from having influence over his or her narrative. This would have been a very necessary thing for someone like Wilde whose work in some of the edited parts of Dorian Gray included homosexual themes at a time when homosexuality could carry a death sentence either physically or socially depending on the situation. Personally, I think it is a combination of both the author’s and the reader’s experiences that determines how a book is perceived which is why reading and one’s relationship with books is so intimate.
Regardless of the reasons behind the preface to Doran Gray, one thing holds true, Dorian the character’s downward spiral into immorality and debauched behavior will eventually cumulate in the murder of Basil Hallward. With this one action, the artist that created the beauty is now dead as is the decadence and decay that beauty created. This death marks a shift in Dorian’s character as beauty and the pursuit of pleasure no longer hold any joy for him. It begs the question though, did the painting drive Dorian to do it, or did the yellow book? Does surrounding yourself with too much beauty eventually drive you mad as you seek to raise the bar when looking for the next beautiful thing to own or possess? All worthy questions for further examination if someone were so inclined.
Shades of Yellow…
While the poisonous yellow book seems to play as big a role in Dorian the Character’s life as the painting, it is not the only place yellow is seen throughout the novel. Wilde also includes yellow in several other places to foreshadow the death and decay to come. For instance, it is present in the yellow and red roses that Dorian sees as he wanders aimlessly after dumping Sybil Vane. Red being the color of love and passion of course, and yellow the color of decay. There are also yellow roses the next morning at breakfast as Dorian ponders the change in the portrait.
Dorian also sips on yellow wine as he denies having seen Sybil after the show the night she killed herself. Dorian mentions yellow crow’s feet when discussing how the body ages as well. There are also “grave, yellow-shawled Tunisians” plucking “at the strained strings of monstrous lutes” when Dorian considers his pursuits in the art of collecting things dealing with music. There are “rose-pink and wine-yellow topazes” in his jewel collection and “the yellow jonquils” that “bloomed and died many times” in his embroideries as well. The list goes on and on.
The use of yellow in various places in Dorian’s collections seems to symbolize that the more he tries to fill the hole in his soul with things the more the pursuit of these things adds to the decay of his soul itself. This is not unlike the way that Charles Dickens used yellow in his novel Great Expectations. Anyone who has ever tried to shop their way out of depression or anxiety also knows that this is a downward spiral that often ends badly for all involved.
Aestheticism…
No matter where you look in the novel, Wilde always gives in-depth descriptions of the objects that surround his characters. The overt way that Wilde discusses the aesthetics of things in Dorian Gray seems to act as a criticism against seeing things only for the sake of seeing them. Wilde seems to be saying that beauty really is only skin deep, but ugly is to the bone. This is why the portrait carries with it every emotional, psychological, and intellectual scar that Dorian Gray inflicts on himself even as his outward appearance remains unchanged. Put in modern terms, you can nip and tuck all you want, but if you’re ugly you’re ugly.
Throughout the novel, Wilde does not seem to be concerning himself with the question of how to remain beautiful from without, but rather how to radiate beauty from within. Instead, Wilde uses Dorian’s life as an example of how a beautiful person becomes ugly if they live only for pleasure and without regard for the thoughts and feelings of others. That is a heck of a lesson for a man to try to teach after swearing that art was for pleasure in his preface.
Inner Reflection and Consumerism…
Wilde appears to be like Robert Louis Stevenson’s character Dr. Jekyll in that he accepts both sides of his nature and does not see himself as hypocritical since the good and bad sides of him are both him. Wilde thus seems to be saying with both his life and his novel that you can’t be a hypocrite if you are being wholly you and that a novel can indeed be both informative and pleasurable. This is a very attractive message to many readers. His ability to look at art, life, and literature using the efferent and aesthetic approach is why so many people are attracted to what he brings to the table. They also seem to enjoy his criticism of Aestheticism and hedonism, even if Wilde the man enjoyed both in his early years.
Although Wilde appears to have believed that surrounding yourself with pleasure and beauty is a good thing, he does seem to give such approval to the practice of consumerism. This can be seen in how he makes his character Dorian feel less and less joy the more he buys beautiful things. Why would Wilde concern himself with consumerism though? Because the Victorian era is the first time that it made a real showing. The Industrial Revolution brought a mass of consumer goods to the market and people—especially those from the wealthy and middle class—were beginning to find that life was better when you filled it with small pleasures that made life easier. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing though, and by the end of the 19th century, the Gilded Age was infecting both sides of the Atlantic. Rich people like Dorian were able to indulge in every hedonistic and consumeristic impulse, while the lower classes began to feel the pinch. The novel Dorian Gray could therefore be read as a critique of class and a subtle…or not so subtle…attempt at class warfare.
Rivalry and Inspiration…
Another way to read The Picture of Dorian Gray is to look at the characters and who they may or may not represent in Wilde’s own life—like Douglas as Dorian and Wilde as Basil Hallward as mentioned above. There was, however, another relationship that was just as critical in shaping Wilde’s work as the one between himself and his lover. This relationship was the one that existed between himself and Henry James.
These two authors had a very complex relationship that saw them peers, rivals, and friends…depending on the circumstance. Indeed, they often went out of their way to critique each other’s work, and they kept tabs on each other’s lives. James was also noted to have been extremely disgruntled at the speaking engagements that Wilde could procure.
In a previous blog post, I insinuated that Henry James may have been a closeted homosexual, and if so perhaps this led to a lot of the tension that was often between them. Sexual tension is, after all, a very powerful thing. If James were a closeted homosexual then it could explain his jealousy of Wilde for the open life that Wilde seemed to lead. If, however, James was completely heterosexual, the jealousy could have stemmed from Wilde’s boldness in his writing style compared to the restrained way that James approached the craft. One thing seems certain, their rivalry brought out the best of them through their art, and for that, as a reader, I am thankful.
Dark Academia Aesthetic…
In recent days, Wilde has been linked to the fashion and reading trend of Dark Academia courtesy of his links to Aestheticism. So how would Wilde look at these trends and the fact that those who participate in this trend claim his work as part of its canon? Given the lifestyle of his early days, it is a good bet that he probably would’ve participated in it to some degree. Given his critique of Aestheticism in Doiron Gray though, I’m sure that he would’ve been appalled by its lack of substance in certain areas as well.
If you look at the life of Wilde’s life it is easy to imagine that he might even have said that there’s nothing wrong and being fashionable, however, carrying around a book and reading a book are two different things. Wilde was, after all, one of the forefathers of literary criticism as we know it. With this in mind he might also have said that while reading or owning a book brings with it a type of pleasure, the true pleasure is derived from examining the things that we possess less they come to possess us.
I think that Wilde would’ve most likely frowned upon the hedonism that comes with collecting and surrounding yourself with things because you think they will bring you joy and pleasure as well. Looking at how he lists in great detail the things that Dorian took pains to collect only to tell the reader that none of these things brought Dorian joy beyond the thrill of the hunt speaks to this. Because of this, I think that while Wilde would have most likely initially participated in Dark Academia, eventually he would have found it wanting since it does not examine anything beyond the beauty that the objects express on the surface.
Inspirations and Inspired…
Ultimately, Wilde was an academic and artist all rolled into one, and anyone who is one or both knows that academia and art are more pleasurable when the pursuit of knowledge and understanding are undertaken in-depth and with passion. This idea is the one that stands out the most in Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde’s novel Dorian Gray also seems to be an almost complete rejection of the themes and writing style found in the works of Charles Dickens.
The formality of the language used and the overt life and social lessons that Dickens takes pride in weaving into his work can be found in places like the works of Henry James, but in the works put forth by Oscar Wilde, they seem to be beautifully subtle. In fact, I told a few friends of mine that reading Wilde after reading Henry James was like eating a sugar cube after licking a spoonful of mustard. Part of this is the differences in writing style, but part of it is the way that James and Wilde approach the strange, wonderful, and often confusing human experience known as living.
While James clearly seems to have been inspired by Charles Dickens, Wilde seems to be writing in conflict with him, but that is not to say that he did not take inspiration from others. Indeed, there is definitely an air of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body-Snatcher in the scene involving Alan Campbell and the disposal of Basil’s body. Wilde also seems to have inspired JRR Tolkien’s distaste for allegory in much the same way that Dickens seems to have inspired C.S. Lewis’s embrace of it. There are also similarities between Wilde’s character Dorian Gray and E.L. James’s Christian Gray upon deeper examination.
Onward, or Backwards as Were…
As fun and fascinating as Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray were, it's time to move on. Next week I will change directions as I examine Wilkie Collins’s 1859 work The Woman in White. This detective story was based on a true story that Collin’s found in a French book about true crimes. Will it end up feeling like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body-Snatcher then? Or is his writing style more like that of Wilde? We will find out together next week. I will also be looking at five classic stories that Disney produced as animated films and how these films compare to their written counterparts. Until then, feel free to visit Grace Slick and me on Instagram by clicking any of the pictures in this blog and I have included links for you to read many of the works I talked about here. You can access these by clicking any title of the works with a hyperlink attached. Until then go seek joy, and read a book.
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