OSCAR WILDE (1854 - 1900) "MY LIFE IS A WORK OF ART"
Dublin - cultured, rich family - school years: anticonformist: against any form of mannerism in art and literature - brilliant talker - wonderful
entertainer - Ruskin and PATER: teachings brought to extremes - recognized leader of AESTHETICISM - 1878: the conquest of London - épater
les bourgeois = shock (the hypocritical Victorians) + fascinate (bigoted disapproval / bewildered admiration) - principle: draw attention on
himself, on his self-created image ("My life is a work of art" - DANDY): 1) eccentricities (extremely gorgeous clothes / extravagant and
provocative poses…) 2) WIT (instrument of survival + secret of his fame as a drawing -room personality), brilliant conversation (aphorisms) +
sweetness of temper 3) perfect freedom to explore the beauty of a life meant for pleasure – RESULT: visible symbol of the Aesthetic Movement 1881: "Poems": more a great entertainer than a great writer - 1882: constant need of money: lecture-tour in the USA - 1883: the conquest of Paris
(Degas, Flaubert, Huysmans, Louys, Zola…) - 1884: marriage (2 children) - 1885-1895: fame as a writer (The Canterville Ghost, Lord Arthur
Savile's Crime, The Happy Prince and Other Tales and the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (*) + successful PLAYS: Lady Windermere's Fan, A
Woman of No Importance, The Importance of Being Earnest, tragedy in French Salome (*) - (*) damaged the writer's reputation: immorality more-than-close friendship with 20-year-old Lord Alfred Douglas - boy's father, the Marquess of Queensbury, forced a public trial - playing a
dangerous game: carry on the play of his life to its melodramatic conclusions - the trial was his last stage: sent to prison for homosexual offences a much larger campaign for human liberty was condemned with him - any sort of humiliation – 1897: released: broken man - public opinion against
him - deserted by his friends and admirers - books + plays withdrawn - 1900: he dies in Paris in poverty and alone
HOMOEROTIC MALE RELATIONSHIPS – LIFE & ART
Basil's painting depends upon his adoration of Dorian's beauty - Lord Henry is overcome with the desire to seduce Dorian - message: homosexuality is not a sordid vice but rather a
sign of refined culture: DORIAN - appreciation of youth and beauty: fundamental to classical culture - attempt to justify Wilde’s own lifestyle
AESTHETICISM - IDEA OF BEAUTY - part 3 WILDE and the Aesthetes
reaction against the Victorian philistines (mediocrity / false moral restrictions…) – ARTIST: Romantic attitudes brought to its extreme consequences
(escapism in aestheticism, excessive attention to the SELF …) - HEDONISTIC ATTITUDE: life meant for pleasure: pursuit of beauty and fulfilment - symbol
of the superiority of his spirit: beautiful clothes, talks, boys etc. – DANDYSM: extravagance and unconventionality - shock in order to exist (social
theatricality - importance of idleness – fashion - derision of existing social conventions: the anti-Priest, the Devil of Art ...) (≠ Snob / bohémien) - the Dandy
opposes the false mask of the Victorians (Dr Jekyll vs. Mr Hyde) the true creation of his "mask as a work of art" (ideal union between art and life) (see “art vs
life” and “defiance of superficiality”) - DECADENT MOVEMENT - malaise fin-de-Siècle - extreme Hedonism - perversity in subject matter - slow
degeneration - refinement becomes absurd, futile, distasteful - artistic exploration of vice and corruption (Baudelaire's "Le Fleurs Du Mal" - Huysmans's "A
Rebours")
ART vs. LIFE
Art: beauty and form - real life: ugliness and shapelessness – we must treat life as if it were a work of art - no moral positions on art, no moral
positions on life - It would mean taking life more seriously than art – purpose of life: contemplate beauty, a new Hedonism - desire is life itself any restrictions on desire in the name of morality is a denial of life - experience life fully: 1) detached: as if you might appreciate a great painting
(it enables him to avoid the pangs of his own conscience) 2) sensual gratification (exotic perfumes / musical instruments / p recious stones …) not
drawing back from anything - blurring the line between life and art: Dorian takes refuge in the art that Sibyl creates: she lives as though she is
constantly on stage - she ceases to show an interest in art, Dorian ceases to be interested in her - Dorian himself consciously bases his life on a
work of art: the yellow book
THE SUPERFICIAL NATURE OF SOCIETY
Society that prizes beauty above all else is a society founded on a love of surfaces - little (if any) distinction between ethics and aesthetic / appearance: “you
are made to be good - you look so good” (Dorian) – PARADOX: defy the Victorian superficial optimism, hypocritical moralism and shallowness - denounce
the duplicity of one's public and private selves: “Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde” / The Picture AND Dorian Gray – HOW: 1) emphasizing superficiality - the
protagonist's damnation is due to the superficial faith in the ultimate value of youth and beauty - 2) emphasizing the fascination of evil - RESULT: moralistic
tale warning against the dangers of neglecting one's conscience
THE PURPOSE OF ART
VICTORIANS: art used as a tool for social education and moral enlightenment - AESTHETES: contempt for bourgeois morality (Lord Henry: shock their
ethical certainties) - free art from this responsibility: purpose of Art is to have no purpose but being beautiful (see life vs. art + defiance of superficiality) – 2
works of art dominate the novel: 1) Basil's painting: the dark side of Dorian’s personality: To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. - It is the
spectator...that art really mirrors: the painting reveals the dark side of the work of art that is Dorian the Dandy, the physical burdens of age and sin - myth of
Narcissus: he values his physical appearance more than the state of his soul and his own image will ultimately destroy him – 2) The Yellow Book: single goal:
achieving pleasure - road map towards infamy - homoerotic male relationships…
O. WILDE "THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY" PLOT
Basil Hallward’s studio - portrait of Dorian Gray - young man of extraordinary beauty - Lord Henry Wotton meets him - Lord Henry talks to
Dorian Gray of his philosophy of life: importance of beauty and youth and their brevity - the finished portrait: Dorian wishes that he could change
places with the painting, that it could grow old and he could stay the same: the build ing of the Dandy starts - run-down theatre: Dorian says he has
fallen in love with a young actress named Sibyl Vane - She is deliriously happy over her romance with “Prince Charming” - Sibyl’s brother James,
a sailor, hates the idea of a rich man using and then leaving his sister - Before he leaves for Australia, he vows to kill the man if he ever hurts
Sibyl. - Dorian goes to the theatre with Basil and Lord Henry - Sibyl’s horrible acting: she can no longer act because now she knows what real love
is. - He tells her he only fell in love with her because of her artful acting. – (later) he feels remorse: he will beg her forgiveness – he looks at the
portrait: to his horror it has changed: it looks cruel and scornful - (following morning) Lord Henry tells him Sibyl Vane committed suicide the
previous evening: death elevates her “into the sphere of art.” – Dorian starts living his life in search of beauty: no limits on the kinds of pleasures
he allows himself (The Yellow Book) - One night Dorian meets Basil Hallward who is planning to leave London for Paris - He has heard horrible
rumours of Dorian - He wonders if he knows Dorian at all and wishes he were able to see the man’s soul. - Dorian decides to show Basil the
portrait - Basil is horrified and urges Dorian to reform immediately - Dorian can’t stand it and stabs him - Dorian asks Alan Campbell, a young
scientist and former friend, to destroy Basil’s body – Threatened, Alan disposes of the body - That evening Dorian goes to an opium den - When
he’s leaving a prostitute calls out to him the name Prince Charming - James Vane, Sibyl’s brother, who has been tracking Dorian for years in hopes
of avenging Sibyl’s death, leaps to his feet and catches him - Dorian tells James he was too young to have been his sister’s lover - James releases
Dorian but he then discovers from the prostitute that Prince Charming made a pact with the devil years ago to retain his you th - (One week later)
Dorian has a party at his country house. - During a hunt a man in the bushes is shot: it is James Vane - Relieved, Dorian tells Lord Henry he has
decided to reform - He passed up an opportunity to seduce and ruin an innocent country girl’s reputation - Lord Henry tells Dorian he did this only
for a new sensation of pleasure - Confess? - He hopes his decision to amend his life will have changed the painting - Dorian goes to the locked
room to look at his portrait: there is no change except that “in the mouth there was the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite.” - He stabs the painting His servants hear his cry out in pain - Break into the room - portrait of a beautiful young Dorian Gray hanging on the wall - old, ugly man lying on
the floor with a knife plunged into his heart: they identify him as Dorian Gray.