Wilde’s Sibyl Versus Tennyson’s Lady
“I have grown sick of shadows, “ cries Sibyl Vane, shifting her allegiance from
acting to Dorian Gray (Wilde, 84). Wilde creates Vane as a foil to the Lady of Shalott,
Tennyson’s mysterious artist, who is “ half-sick of shadows,” entirely aware of the
curse that imprisons her in the tower, forcing her to be an artist. Several parallels
exist between the two characters - namely their artistry, their inability to separate
art from life, their isolation from the real world, and their obsession with the artistic
representation of a man. Wilde can be seen to be talking back to his esteemed
predecessor, Tennyson, adopting some similar perspectives on the creation of art,
harking back all the way to Plato and his theory of divine inspiration. Not
necessarily a godly force for Wilde, but the divinity of beauty in appearance or
speech nonetheless casts its virtually divine spell onto both the spectator and the
artist. “He would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to
the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait,” Lord Henry declares,
consciously exercising his influence over the still innocent Dorian. For Tennyson,
the inspiration manifests itself in a mysterious dark curse and an almost equally
powerful spell cast over the Lady of Shalott by the beauty of Sir Lancelot. Both
authors acknowledge the danger of art, its ability to possess one body and soul, and
its capacity to destroy. A notable difference BETWEEN their views of aestheticism is
that Wilde perceives it as a SORT OF POPULAR ZEITGEIST that can GROW, affecting
the masses; Tennyson, on the other hand, views aestheticism as more INDIVIDUAL
AND abstract, SA DIVINE AFFLATUS THAT CAN only BE experienced by a true artist.
BUT each character in The Picture of Dorian Gray who is possessed by art
dies. And so does Tennyson’s Lady. Both Wilde and Tennyson would most likely
agree that whereas the pursuit of pleasure and beauty can provide a man or woman
the greatest pleasures in life, it is also powerful enough to be fatal. But what is not
an insignificant difference between them is that Tennyson famously genders art
female in his poem; Wilde, of course, in his novel personifies it otherwise.
Both Sibyl Vane and The Lady of Shalott are MORE ASSOCIATED WITH art
THAT MAKERS OF IT. The Lady of Shalott, arguably, is more of an actual CRESTOR,
but nonetheless Dorian DOES claim that Sibyl “is simply a born artist.” IT MAY BE
THAT Sibyl IS RESTRICTED BY BEING TRAPPED circumstantially and figuratively;
SHE is a victim of her economic status, forced to be an actress in a third-rate theater
in order to provide for her family. As a result of her “nonmodern” lifestyle, as Lord
Henry would characterize it, she lives vicariously through the roles that she plays:
Juliet, Imogen, Rosalind. Sibyl lives all her passions in the theater, which is what
makes her a great actress. This, however, also contributes to her failure to
distinguish between life and art. Tennyson’s Lady is physically and metaphysically
trapped in a tower on the island of Shalott. The Lady, who “delights to weave the
mirror’s magic sights,” grows tired of seeing the world through a reflection. She, too,
like Sibyl, can only experience life through the medium of art. Alternating between
art and artist and the melding of the two is a consistent theme with both Tennyson
and Wilde, especially in these two characters. The beauty that lies in these two
women, IN Dorian Gray, and even in Sir Lancelot may be attributed to their physical
artistic qualities; in Oscar Wilde’s, The Decay of Lying, Vivian notes that “art really
reveals to us Nature’s lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary
monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.” Assuming that humans are natural,
without any plastic surgery or genetic alterations, we could not achieve the beauty
that is assigned to Dorian or Sibyl Vane. Their beauty is supernatural and could only
be accomplished with the assistance of artistic genius.
Wilde explicitly maintains that mystery is vital to the sustainability of beauty.
Tennyson’s poetic language upholds the magical nature of the Lady of Shalott and
her narrative. Wilde expresses his value of suggestion through the paradoxes of
Lord Henry and does it perfectly in his Decay of Lying: “He develops a morbid and
unhealthy faculty of truthtelling, and often ends by writing novels which are so life
like that no one can possibly believe in their probability.” Here, even when Wilde
seems to be asserting his belief that exercising the imagination ranks higher than
factual research in terms of intellectuality, he presents this argument in the form of
a paradox. A great novel does not imitate life; rather, life imitates a great novel.
GUIDED by Wilde’s, or Vivian’s theory, that Nature imitates art, I relate back to our
exploration in class of the word, “tremulous” in the context of Picture of Dorian Gray
as well as in The Lady of Shalott. “Tremble,” THE VERBAL FORM, IS synonymOUS
with “quiver,” which WORD APPEARS in both WORKS. “Willows whiten, aspens
quiver;” here is nature responding to the artificial beauty created by the Lady of
Shalott. This same beauty that Lady Shalott creates, however, both she and Sibyl
seek in their men. Because of BOTH WOMAN’S disconnection FROM real life, they
perceive Sir Lancelot and Dorian Gray, respectively, as PERFECT WORKS OF ART-“Prince Charming,” as Sibyl calls Dorian
BUT WILDE’S WOMEN ARE MORE THAN JUST ETHEREAL. “My dear boy, no
woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say,
but they say it charmingly,” says Lord Henry in all APPARENT seriousness to Dorian
Gray. Wilde makes these glaringly sexist remarks throughout his novel, usually
through the mouth of Lord Henry. In addition to SUCH SPEECHES,CHARACTER
DEVELOPMENT AND PLOT STRUCTURE IN The Picture of Dorian Gray ALSO
emphasizes women’s inferiority. FirSt, the three primary characters are male, albeit
oftentimes very feminine men, but with dominating intellects that overpower,
CHARM, AND astonish their female peers. The one character who really MIGHT
have been given GREATER STATURE is Lord Henry’s wife, who appears to Dorian
and the reader as a skittish woman with far less intellectual scope or charisma than
POSSESSED BY HER HUSBAND.
Ultimately, we are presented with Sibyl Vane, the “childlike, open-eyed”
actress with whom Dorian has chosen to experiment. “I shudder at the thought of
being free,” Sibyl Vane replies to her brother, who is afraid that Dorian is trying,
literally and figuratively, TO enslave her. Wilde treats Vane as a dependent object,
like MERE housewife, OR MAYBE A trophy wife. Dorian wishes to exploit her for her
artistic talent, turning her into a star, into the object of his fancy, into a VIRTUAL
slave who is eternally indebted to him for her success and profit. HE MAY
acknowledge that she is “unconscious of her own power,” PERHAPS AS Dorian
HIMSELF was before he met Lord HenrYY, BUT NONETHELESS elects to destroy her.
Sibyl is one-dimensional. She is used and discarded. Not for A MOMENT
COULD ANYBODY DREAM OF Oscar Wilde comparING himself to Sibyl Vane, as he
did with Lord Henry, Basil, or Dorian Gray. TENNYSON’S Lady IS CONCEIVED AS HIS
VERY OWN female counterpart. Tortured, isolated, cursed, SHE IS THE
TORMENTED artist TENNYSON BELIEVED HIMSELF TO BE. She IS ORIGINAL, NOT
MERELY AN IMITATOR, LIKE WILDE’S SIBYL. SHE MAY, after pursuing Sir
Lancelot, die a gruesome death and SHE MAY BE unappreciated by the knight, who
caSUALLY remarks, “She has a lovely face,” BUT SHE CAN BE SEEN TO BE
TENNYSON’S MARTYR TO THE objectification of women THAT WAS RAMPANT IN
HIS AND WILDE’S—AND OUR OWN?—TIMES.