Edma

Lyndon Simmons M. Edma Test Assignment 1 February 2011

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Reflections of Oscar Wildes Personality The Picture of Dorian Gray can be depicted as a figurative image between two conflicting sides of the personality of Oscar Wilde. Dorian is a classic reflection by which both sides of Wildes personality are personified. This shows that Dorians behavior signifies the oblivious thoughts of Wilde. Dorian is illustrated by his elusiveness and his passion with works of art. For instance, when Basil appears to comfort him regarding the death of Sibyl, Dorian is averse to talk about the affair. He is not willing to acknowledge the likelihood that his behavior was imprudent. Dorian conveys this message: If one doesnt talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression, as Harry says, that gives reality to things (Murray 107). After Dorian murdered Basil, he yet again tries to evade admitting what he has done. Dorian felt that the secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation (Murray 159). Dorian has been bestowed with the ways to fully enjoy life. Yet, strangely enough, he is fearful of life. As a result, he seeks sanctuary in an aesthetic fancy. For Example, when Dorian shows the lifeless body of Basil to Alan Campbell, all of a sudden he is fearful that he will be confronted with the consequence of his deed there he stopped, feeling afraid to turn round, and his eyes fixed themselves on the intricacies of the pattern before him (Murray 174). The ensuing obsession for works of art is Dorians uncomplicated way by which he could escape, for a season, from the fear that

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seemed to him at times to be almost too great to be borne (Murray 140). He is frightened of that aspect of his own character for which he is unprepared to recognize responsibility. Dorian personifies Wilde par excellence. It is noteworthy that Wilde expressed Dorians character in his letters as what I would like to be (Hart-Davis 352). Dorian reflects a contradiction between the Apollonian aspect and Dionysian element that is especially appealing to Wilde. Dorian has an ardor for the color, the beauty, the joy of life (Murray 40), yet shuns to become entangled with any experience dreading it would cause him pain. Wildes fascination with Dorian whose elusiveness and fancy for the arts reflect Wildes own ignored fears. Conversely, Basil and Lord Henry portray two distinctive sides of Wildes character. Basils attraction with Dorian portends Wildes passion with Lord Alfred Douglas. For instance, Basil expresses how absolutely necessary Dorian is to him (Murray 9) and my life as an artist depends on him (Murray 14). Further, Basil says that Dorian became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream (Murray 114). Wildes letter to Lord Alfred paralleled Basils when he wrote: I cant live without you. You are the atmosphere of beauty through which I see life. You are the incarnation of all lovely things (Hart-Davis 358, 363). Basil admits his adulation towards Dorian (Murray 114). In the same manner, Wilde confesses in a letter to Lord Alfred: I shall be eternally grateful to you for having always inspired me with adoration and love (Hart-Davis 397). The reality that fiction occurs earlier than life signifies that the subconscious senses beyond consciousness. In the same way, Lord Henry on no account expresses

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a moral idea, and on no account does a wrong thing (Murray 4). Lord Henry exists only through his discourse. He is overly mindful with the advancement of his own notions to be able to answer to those of anyone else. Lord Henrys marriage ends up in divorce a parallel incident happening in Wildes marriage. Moreover, Lord Henry personifies the flamboyance and wit of Wilde. Basil is artistic whose masterpiece springs from a fascination for young Dorian whom he describes as a Prince of Life. On the other hand, Lord Henry is a conversationalist who carves life to bits with his witticism (Murray 97). Jung contended that the self is an independent symbolic image, which represents something to which the individual is struggling. A selfs experience thus symbolizes an indication of a meaning which the individuals character has not yet integrated. The mission of the individual is to assimilate the meaning embedded in his distinct experience, but not to associate with it, for this would be a sign of psychological inflation (Read 283). Wilde was an exceptional writer who made use of his homosexuality as the foundation to convey his novel to a higher degree. Good authors do this by abstracting something within them and utilize it to provide meaning to their works. Wildes fear of revealing himself compelled him to seek other channels to express his homosexuality and he opted for his writing. Wilde was beyond his time in the sense that he dared the society of this period to confront areas of their lives that they were loathed to reveal. His was a tragic life for he was hounded for making known his true life and living it for what he believed was right. The Victorian age was unrelenting in shaming him for the way he was born, restraining him to conceal who he really was, when in fact he was an

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extraordinary person who paved a way for others to follow, to accept who they are and live the life the way they wanted. Wilde should not be personified as the depraved Lord Henry but as the tormented artist Basil.

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Works Cited Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Isobel Murray. London: Oxford UP, 1974. Wilde, Oscar. The Letters of Oscar Wilde. Ed. Rupert Hart-Davis. London: Hart-Davis, 1962. Jung, C.G. The Collected Works. Ed. Sir Herbert Read. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953-1976. Vol.9, 283.