August 26, 2013
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of my absolute favorite plays. I especially love the character Algernon, how flippant he is, always spouting off these ridiculous truisms, never taking anything too seriously. That's exactly like Sir Henry (aka Harry), one of the main characters in this novel, one of Wilde's most famous works along with the aforementioned. Though the book is full of his quotable lines (I highlighted many of them on my Kindle; here's one that I especially liked from early on in the book, and kind of expresses some feelings that I've had today: "I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves"). However, Dorian Gray is actually quite a dark story, not at all light and carefree like Earnest.
The picture in question is a portrait, done by an artist named Basil Hallward. Basil serves as a foil for the ridiculous Harry (and later Dorian, who emulates him); he is much more practical, much more heartfelt and sincere. He is enamored with the young Dorian, a handsome young man. One might even speculate that his feelings for Dorian were romantic; after all, wasn't Wilde a homosexual himself? Basil is friends with Harry, but is afraid that the cynical gentleman will have a negative influence on his friend. He does, at the beginning...but Dorian goes really bad on his own.
On the day that the portrait is completed, Dorian and Harry meet for the first time, to Basil's chagrin. Harry, in his offhand way, comments that Dorian should value his youth and beauty while he still has them, because once they fade away, it's basically all downhill from there. Dorian has been warned that Harry is insincere, not someone to be taken seriously, but he does completely the opposite. He looks to Harry as a wise mentor, and he laments that he will grow old and ugly. Dorian is shallow from the beginning, but getting his wish (to stay young in appearance, while the picture bears his aging and the marks of his sins for him) makes him truly evil.
Dorian sells his soul to the devil to get his wish for lifelong beauty and youth. When he realizes what has happened, he is first in disbelief, then horrified. He notices a change in the picture after he viciously breaks the heart of a very young actress. He fell in love with Sibyl for shallow reasons: because she was such a good actress. One bad performance, and he disavows his love for her, and cancels their hasty engagement. When he learns that she committed suicide, he feels guilty...though Harry comforts him with his remarks that she died a noble, dramatic death, very becoming of an actress, much like the Shakespearean heroines she had portrayed in life. After this, Dorian notices that his portrait seems to be sneering. Shocked, he hides it away in a locked, abandoned room.
But he goes to the picture often, fascinated. I saw some parallels to Jekyll and Hyde in this; Dorian is able to live a life of debauchery, and never have it show in his appearance. To the world, he continues to look like an innocent youth, so who would believe the rumors that begin to circulate about him? The reader is only given a glimpse of the true nature of Dorian's dark activities, when he goes to an opium den to drug himself into a stupor. This is after he kills Basil, years after the painting is complete and after it has undergone some radical changes. It shows the deterioration of his morality, and his soul, as well as the aging he would have naturally undergone. Dorian was, at first, fascinated in watching the changes, in seeing how his dark deeds reflected in the painting, rather than on his own face. But went Basil confronts him on the rumors, and on the fact that Dorian's influence brought many people to ruin (including one young man, who became a very serious heroin addict); that's when Dorian shows him the painting, and kills him.
The novel is quickly paced for the most part. There's really only one chapter that bored me, one that explains some of Dorian's activities during the eighteen years since the painting was made. Not the evil things; that all comes out later. But it goes into these obsessions that he had with outward beauty: art and jewels and things like that. He read about the glorious riches of kings, and he gathered up his own store of wealth. But as I read it, I found myself thinking, this shit is so shallow. Yeah, the part about the different instruments was kind of interesting, since music (and art) are beautiful in a soulful way (when they're done right). But Dorian was only interested in the novelty of these things. And I later found that this section was in contrast to a quote near the end of the novel. Harry is telling Dorian about a preacher that he heard on the streets, who asked, "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Harry himself does not realize how serious such a question is, but Dorian is too fully aware, and it touches a chord with him, for that's exactly what happened to him.
By the end of the book, Harry's little quips become tiresome...but I think that that was Wilde's intention, in this case. Sure, his clever comments were fun to start with, and the scenes in which he is teasing and scandalizing others with his offhand remarks were the most entertaining. But in contrast to such a serious story, it seems to me that Harry, in his disregard for true beauty, and real love, is the most evil one of all. I found myself hoping that Dorian would kill him, too...but alas, Harry was the sole survivor of the trio in the end.
I find myself more fascinated with Wilde than I was when I started the book. He was, on the one hand, very humorous. His humor is very British...I found myself thinking at one point that he may be the father of British humor himself. Then, the text made a reference to Moliere; I've studied Tartuffe and it's clear that Wilde was inspired in part by that playwright. On the other hand, the story has a serious moral. Shallow love, possessions, and beauty...none of those things mean anything, and the pursuit for those things only, and pleasure, only leads to an empty life. Dorian had what he wanted in the end, and he was terribly miserable. When he attempted to destroy the painting, he instead killed himself, and was transformed into the hideous old man, while the painting went back to its original form. Kind of saw that one coming...
This was an excellent book, with timeless themes. I could see this being one classic that could be masterfully modernized, because even though it was published over a century ago, the characters are so dreadfully real that they could be found in the world today. Is society more shallow today than it was in Wilde's time? I don't really think so, I just think that it's shallow in a different way. The shallowness of the society, the lack of depth, leaves me feeling depressed and empty at times. I take some comfort in Wilde's real wisdom...not in his witticisms, but in the real and very powerful message of this work.
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There are many pictures to be found depicting Dorian Gray and his infamous portrait. I thought this ink print was pretty cool.
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