Rants on the Picture
Wilde's flowery style, and flowery is precisely the word I'd use for his writing, was quite a shock after the austere words loaded with meaning in Hesse's books I've read lately. Wilde's a British dandy, a flamboyant gentleman cultivated in controversy and classical education; valued much more in those times than nowadays. Dorian's, and through Dorian Wilde's, search for Beauty or Truth or beauty in truth or truth in beauty shows the frail sensibilities of a man before, or if not before most definitely outside, his age. He reminds of Baudelaire, as if Dorian's character is outlined by Baudelaire himself:
It will take more than those picture-paper beauties,
Spoiled products, born of a worthless century,
Those feet in tight boots, those fingers made for castanets,
To satisfy a heart like mine.
His philosophy of hedonism, of the everlasting search for the Ideal in apparently superficial debauchery, in the enjoyment of the senses; is an unresolved paradox. Like two forces in his being, they drag him in opposite directions and yet he always claims they are the same thing. Seeing true Beauty as a matter of superficial sensory phenomena, the truth (or the upper case Truth, as both Wilde and Baudelaire like to accentuate their ideals - pardon, Ideals) as living every moment to the fullest and taking what joy life can offer. The dichotomy of Dorian's physical beauty that is seemingly everlasting and the slow rot eating at his soul and finally devouring him entirely; it immediately reminded me of a borderline personality. A person having the borderline personality disorder can't integrate what she perceives as 'black' and 'white' parts of her being - and constantly shifts between those two extremes. This ineptness of integration of their own self image is symbolically represented by Dorian Gray and his picture - the beautiful, perfect Adonis that Dorian Gray is and the urges of his vile soul, his wickedness and literally - evil which are shown in the picture as the real, visible manifestation of his soul.
Interestingly, at the beginning of the novel, Dorian is shown as a simple, humble young man who is greatly unawares of his enchanting, otherworldly beauty. And despite it might strike the reader as if Wilde wanted to show Dorian's beauty as a purely physical, superficial thing; it seems that his beauty, that enchanting visage all the people around him couldn't get enough of did not come from the mathematical perfection of the lines of his face, his full lips or blond curls. It came from his innocence.
That's why the moment Basil (the painter) and Lord Henry, Basil's debauched noble friend, start corrupting the youth his beauty comes under risk of disappearing. Wilde, again, forced it upon us with a strong symbol of 'wrinkles of spite or thinking', of real, physical deterioration of Dorian's beauty in the picture- but in fact, his beauty would diminish the moment he lost his innocence and became aware of his influence on people. In the world of Wilde's symbols, were physical beauty could really be the Ultimate Truth, the ultimate evilness could make a man ugly. And only in this world of symbols could Wilde's philosophy of hedonism give what it was supposed to give - the Holy Grail, the Beauty, the Truth, the Ideal.
This might explain much more than a character in a novel - it might explain why Wilde, despite his life-long search for the Ideal in the bodily pleasures, converted to Christianity before he died.
As a conclusion, another verse by Baudelaire:
Viens-tu du ciel profond ou sors-tu de l'abîme, o Beauté?
(Do you come from the depths of heaven or up from the pit, o Beauty?)
It will take more than those picture-paper beauties,
Spoiled products, born of a worthless century,
Those feet in tight boots, those fingers made for castanets,
To satisfy a heart like mine.
His philosophy of hedonism, of the everlasting search for the Ideal in apparently superficial debauchery, in the enjoyment of the senses; is an unresolved paradox. Like two forces in his being, they drag him in opposite directions and yet he always claims they are the same thing. Seeing true Beauty as a matter of superficial sensory phenomena, the truth (or the upper case Truth, as both Wilde and Baudelaire like to accentuate their ideals - pardon, Ideals) as living every moment to the fullest and taking what joy life can offer. The dichotomy of Dorian's physical beauty that is seemingly everlasting and the slow rot eating at his soul and finally devouring him entirely; it immediately reminded me of a borderline personality. A person having the borderline personality disorder can't integrate what she perceives as 'black' and 'white' parts of her being - and constantly shifts between those two extremes. This ineptness of integration of their own self image is symbolically represented by Dorian Gray and his picture - the beautiful, perfect Adonis that Dorian Gray is and the urges of his vile soul, his wickedness and literally - evil which are shown in the picture as the real, visible manifestation of his soul.
Interestingly, at the beginning of the novel, Dorian is shown as a simple, humble young man who is greatly unawares of his enchanting, otherworldly beauty. And despite it might strike the reader as if Wilde wanted to show Dorian's beauty as a purely physical, superficial thing; it seems that his beauty, that enchanting visage all the people around him couldn't get enough of did not come from the mathematical perfection of the lines of his face, his full lips or blond curls. It came from his innocence.
That's why the moment Basil (the painter) and Lord Henry, Basil's debauched noble friend, start corrupting the youth his beauty comes under risk of disappearing. Wilde, again, forced it upon us with a strong symbol of 'wrinkles of spite or thinking', of real, physical deterioration of Dorian's beauty in the picture- but in fact, his beauty would diminish the moment he lost his innocence and became aware of his influence on people. In the world of Wilde's symbols, were physical beauty could really be the Ultimate Truth, the ultimate evilness could make a man ugly. And only in this world of symbols could Wilde's philosophy of hedonism give what it was supposed to give - the Holy Grail, the Beauty, the Truth, the Ideal.
This might explain much more than a character in a novel - it might explain why Wilde, despite his life-long search for the Ideal in the bodily pleasures, converted to Christianity before he died.
As a conclusion, another verse by Baudelaire:
Viens-tu du ciel profond ou sors-tu de l'abîme, o Beauté?
(Do you come from the depths of heaven or up from the pit, o Beauty?)