In Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Wilde depicts to readers an extraordinarily handsome young man — Dorian Gray. The entire story is about how Dorian Gray changes from an innocent young man to a rotten person in his soul of vanity and selfishness. His changes are At the end of the story, some people who are related with Dorian Gray lose their reputation and even their lives. In fact, in the story, many people are at fault for valuing one’s appearance rather than one’s quality of character.
Admiration of beauty is the nature of human being, there is nothing wrong about it in the story. In C. W. Valentine’s book “ The Experimental Psychology of Beauty”, Valentine states that beauty is :“quality or combination of qualities which affords keen pleasure to the senses, especially that of sight, or which charms the intellectual or moral faculties.” (Valentine, 3) Although Valentine thinks this is a wide definition of beauty, indeed, people will feel pleasure and delight when they see beautiful things, such as flower, picture and one’s look. Therefore, a person with awesome beauty can easily attract others to like him than those who do not have beauty. Dorian Gray resorts to his handsome look, he earns a lot of favor among people. Because it nature to worship beauty, so in the story, no one has mistake by just adoring Dorian’s beauty.
Admiration of beauty or beautiful things is human being’s nature, it is not the real problem in the story. Then what is the reason of the fault? In the mid-nineteenth century, the middle-class’s wealth started booming. Many middle-class people started improving their reputation and position in society; they spent their money on art work. In Dianne Dacha Mccleod’s book “Art and the Victorian Middle Class - Money and the Making of Cultural Identity,” she mentions that :“Mid-Victorian motivations embrace the roster of reasons for spending money on art that was displayed by their middle-class predecessors: patriotism, self-education, investment, a need for social communication, and a desire for status, even for immortality.” (Dianne, 214) Increasingly middle-class people joined into collection of art work created a new Victorian social value. Wilde bring this new social value into the story. By the influence of this newly created social value, many people become unilateral in their thinking, they think making friends with aristocratic people — usually with nice appearance and being wealthy — will improve their own reputation and position. This is the reason of judging people by their appearance in the story.
One’s influence on an other is what judgement should depend on. in the story Lord Henry is the protagonist who should be judged because his bad influence on Dorian Gray, however Dorian think Lord Henry is a interesting person because of Lord Henry’s theories. In story Lord Henry tells Dorian :“to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul.” (Wilde, 33) However, this is not the truth. Soul is one’s morality’s reflection which is not observed easily. People are influenced by other’s thought. Thoughts could be vain, but soul always is one’s true self. Lord Henry is a perfect theorist in his philosophy of hedonism, but he is not a participator in his philosophy. Because Henry knows his philosophy is sordid and immoral against social morality. He can only think about it, but never dared to do any immoral thing. Although Henry does not dare to do himself, he influences other people to do immoral things. In Ataos Ojala’s book “Aestheticism and Oscar Wilde”, Ojala summarize Lord Henry :“ Lord Henry exists only in the intellectual sphere” he is mere voice, a mere intellect . . . To Lord Henry, Dorian meant an interesting scientific experiment . . . Lord Henry was a man without heart, who exercised his influence, not for the best of his fellow-men, but to satisfy his own curiosity.” (Ojala, 207) All of Henry’s cares and suggestions are trying to seduce Dorian to pursue hedonism. Dorian used to be an innocent lad who is like a blank canvas. Lord Henry’s theory totally changes this naive lad. In the article “Theatre and Theory In the Language of Dorian Gray” by Price Hannon, Hannon mentions :“Dorian is the one who really takes Lord Henry’s talk seriously and put his theories into practice, thus making them ‘dangerous’ rather than delightful. And they are dangerous more because they are immutable theories of someone else’s devising than because they are immoral.” (Hannon, 154) In the end of story, according to Dorian’s dismise, Lord Henry’s influence is absolutely negative. Going too close with Lord Henry could be the most fatal mistake in Dorian’s life.
Another mistake Dorian makes is that he judges himself in a wrong way. He thinks his beauty will protect him in any situation. In real world everyone has to follow the universal law of aging and changing. One’s strength and youth will fade away with flowing time; one’s appearance will also be affected by what he or she has one done. However, Dorian is the outlier from the universal law, his beauty will not age no matter how many years pass; his body will not look faint by enjoying in hedonism. He always is perfect. That is all because his portrait replaces him to undergo everything he experiences. “Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins — he was to have all these things.” (Wilde, 126) So Dorian properly knows that he will make more sins for himself, but because “the portrait is to bear the burden of his shame: that is all,” (Wilde, 126) he thinks the portrait will protect him all the time. Wilde mentions a few time that Dorian is like Narcissus — a poet who falls in love with his own beauty, “in boyish mockery of Narcissus, he had kissed, or feigned to kiss, those painted lips that now smiled so cruelly at him.” (Wilde, 126) Dorian worships his unchanging (or say eternal) body, and he loses his eyes to see his sins. Because he gets assault by Sibyl Vane’s brother, Dorian becomes aware that the portrait cannot protect him from physical assault and psychological punishment. After Sibyl’s brother’s death, Dorian decides to reform himself well. So he can get retrieval from his sins. When he realizes that no matter what he does do will not help himself to be released from his sins, he destroys the only evidence of his sins — the portrait — which is his source of unchanging beauty and protection. As a result, Dorian dies with his unchanging beauty.
One’s soul can only be seen by God, one’s look is only one’s veil. In the story, Dorian Gray conquers many people by his awesome handsomeness. Sibyl Vane — who is captured by Dorian’s charming face — is a talented actress. Each time Dorian mentions her to his fellows — Lord Henry and Basil, he will say how wonderful her acting is, how ingenius she is. However the one Dorian loves is the one on the stage playing many different characters with talented acting skill. Dorian tells Basil :“I can’t help going to see Sibyl play. . . To-day she is Imogen, and to-morrow night she will be Juliet.” (Wilde, 63) Dorian’s friend — Basil wonders when she could be real herself, then Dorian tells him she “never” is herself. Or to say Dorian never wishes her to be herself. Unfortunately, Sibyl’s acting is fragile, her talent of acting is from her superb concentration. When she experiences real love, her all mind is absorbed by Dorian and she cannot concentrate on acting any more. Over that time, Dorian is only about twenty; he does not recognize that he has a responsibility for Sibyl’ failure on acting. As a result of Dorian’s lacking of responsibility, Sibyl is deserted by Dorian because she loses her gift of acting. Then, she commits suicide with desperate mood. Sibyl’s tragedy, on one hand, is attributed to her undeveloped values of love; on the other hand, is caused by her judgment of Dorian is by good look but not by if he is a man she can rely on. She does not know that Dorian’s soul lacks the responsibility to what he is done.
One’s appearance could be used as poison to anesthetize people’s judgement. Basil Hallward — painting the portrait for Dorian and worshipping his physical beauty — is murdered “by the hand of Dorian in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurd vanity.” (Ojala, 206) As a painter, Basil is the one who pursues aesthetic art, he gains a lot of inspirations for Dorian. However, because Basil pursues art too much, he loses himself after he meets Dorian. “I know that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that . . . it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.” (Wilde, 21) So Basil is anesthetized by Dorian’s beauty. Even Dorian’s rumors have been diffused all of London; even Dorian has been called sordid in a public place by Lord Staveley, Basil still does not wish to believe Dorian’s corruption. When Dorian brings Basil to see Dorian’s soul through the portrait, Basil’s image of Dorian is downright ruined. He gets shocked strongly and his mind becomes disordered causing him to say something that irritates Dorian, :“Let us kneel down and try if we cannot remember a prayer. Isn’t there a verse somewhere: ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, yet I will make them as white as snow’? . . .You have done enough evil in your life. My God! don’t you see that accrued thing leering at us?” Then Dorian murders him. Basil probably is not the only one who does not believe Dorian’s corruption before he see Dorian’s “soul”. Dorian’s beauty also bring imaginations to other people. In club, people “who talk grossly become silent when Dorian Gray enters the club.” Dorian’s “mere presence seemed to recall to them the memory of the innocence that they have tarnished.” (Wilde, 150) The poison of Dorian’s appearance is strong, those friends of Dorian eventually get harmed by him.
In Victorian periode, people over think about other’s appearance had been a social value. Wilde brings this value into his story. In his story, people unilaterally judge other ones by appearance. The one protagonist — Dorian Gray always judges other ons by how their appearances are, and at the same time he does also be judged by others in a same way. At the end of the story, by showing some characters’ dismises, Wilde tells readers that Dorian he does not only misjudge Lord Henry, but also misjudge himself. As same as other dead characters, they misjudge Dorian. To judge other people unilaterally is a fatal fault in their lives.
Work Cited
Hannon, Patrice. “Theatre and Theory in The Language of Dorian Gray.” Victorian Literature and Culture. Volume 19. Ed. Maynard, John, et al. AMS Press, nIc, 1992. 143 -166.
Ojala, Ataos. Aestheticism and Oscar Wilde. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Saurian Kirjapainon Oy, 1954.
C.W, Valentine. The Experimental Psychology of Beauty. The Camelot Press Ltd. , London and Southampton, 1962. Print.
Sack McAllen, Dianne. Art and the Victorian middle class-Money and the making of cultural identity. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1996.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. World Publishing Company, 1946.
I'm impressed =)
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