The first edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray appeared in 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. However, it was not well received by Victorian society, who criticized it as scandalous and immoral. Wilde, disappointed by his novel’s failure, decided to revise it and publish a second edition in 1891. One of the changes he included was the addition of a preface. Read and analyse “The Preface” in The Picture of Dorian Gray and answer the following questions justifying your answers with quotes from the text:
a) What is the purpose of the Preface?
b) What does it tell us about Wilde’s beliefs in Aestheticism?
c) What does it tell us about the nineteenth century Victorian society?
d) What does Oscar Wilde caution us against?
e) Do you think that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a form of “useless art” or does it serve a purpose?
2) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Psychoanalytic Criticism
The reinterpretation of The Picture of Dorian Gray in the light of Psychoanalytic Criticism gives us a valuable insight into the novel. Freud highlights three parts of the Unconscious, the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id is what influences our desires, our libido, the force that drives us to seek pleasure; the Ego deals with reality, it strives to balance the Id and the Superego and, last but not least, the Superego is the area of the Unconscious which houses judgment (of ourselves and others).
Besides, Jaques Lacan developed the idea of the "mirror stage", stating that infants of about 6 months old recognize themselves in a mirror or other symbolic element which induces apperception (turning of oneself into an object that can be viewed by the child from outside). By the early 1950s, thi idea evolved from infancy into adulthood, as representing a permanent structure of subjectivity, or as the paradigm of "Imaginary order".
Taking the theory into account, discuss:
a) Are there specific characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray who represent the three areas of the Unconscious? Which ones? Justify providing quotes from the text.
b) Which area of the Unconscious dominates Dorian Gray’s life? How? Provide quotes from the text to justify your answers.
c) What does Dorian Gray’s picture represent? What does it remind Dorian of? Provide quotes from the text to justify your answers.
d) Which event marks the beginning of Dorian’s downfall? Does he manage to suppress his Superego by performing this act? Justify providing quotes from the text.
e) Is Dorian able to find a balance between finding pleasure and doing the right thing? Provide quotes from the text to justify your answers.
f) How can you relate the "mirror stage" with Dorian's own relationhip with the portrait?
3) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Gender Studies
Gender Studies explore issues of sexuality, power and marginalized populations (women, as well as others, such as homosexuals, bisexuals, etc.). Let us examine the manner in which gender and sexuality are represented in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
a) How is the institution of marriage portrayed in The Picture of Dorian Gray? Provide quotes.
b) Do women play a significant role in the novel? What is Lord Henry’s view on women? Provide quotes.
c) Are there any homoerotic bonds between men in the novel? Which one(s)?
d) Does Dorian Gray have a happy sexual life all along the novel? Provide quotes to justify your answer.
e) Can we associate Dorian Gray to the mythological character of Narcissus, always longing to possess the person he sees reflected in the water? How? Provide examples from the text.
f) In chapter two, pages 25, 26 (Penguin Popular Classics) Lord Henry claims:
"I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream -- I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal -- to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful."
Explain this quote considering Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic values, his own sexual preferences and the context of Victorian England.
4) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through the Gothic tradition.
The Picture of Dorian Gray can be analysed as a nineteenth century Gothic novel, as we can find many of the elements that characterize this genre. For example, we can find the presence of:
3) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Gender Studies
Gender Studies explore issues of sexuality, power and marginalized populations (women, as well as others, such as homosexuals, bisexuals, etc.). Let us examine the manner in which gender and sexuality are represented in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
a) How is the institution of marriage portrayed in The Picture of Dorian Gray? Provide quotes.
b) Do women play a significant role in the novel? What is Lord Henry’s view on women? Provide quotes.
c) Are there any homoerotic bonds between men in the novel? Which one(s)?
d) Does Dorian Gray have a happy sexual life all along the novel? Provide quotes to justify your answer.
e) Can we associate Dorian Gray to the mythological character of Narcissus, always longing to possess the person he sees reflected in the water? How? Provide examples from the text.
f) In chapter two, pages 25, 26 (Penguin Popular Classics) Lord Henry claims:
"I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream -- I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal -- to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful."
Explain this quote considering Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic values, his own sexual preferences and the context of Victorian England.
4) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through the Gothic tradition.
The Picture of Dorian Gray can be analysed as a nineteenth century Gothic novel, as we can find many of the elements that characterize this genre. For example, we can find the presence of:
- The scary atmosphere (setting and characters that contribute to XIX century gothic)
- The Crossing of the Threshold
- The bargain with the devil
- The Supernatural
- The Uncanny
- The feeling of entrapment
- Haunting
- The Doppelgänger motif
- The sudden break-out of violence
- “Sinister” science
- Magical objects
- Abjection
Provide examples of these elements along the novel, quoting from the text whenever it is appropriate.
5) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Postcolonial Studies
Postcolonial studies examines the global impact of the European colonialism, from its begginings in the fifteenth century up to the present. The book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was published originally in 1891, a time when Queen Victoria was still the leading monarch in Britain and a time when people were still extremely patriotic. Besides, Britain was the leading empire in the world, owning 25% of the landmass of the world.
Even though Wilde was a colonial author, colonial hints may be collected in his novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray expands on the idea of negative and destructive consequences that are brought about after the influence from/on people, which can be defined in terms of the colonizer and the colonized.
a) To what an extend do Lord Henry's colonialist actions and behaviour represent the powerful force of the western civilization?
b) Is Dorian Gray the symbol and representation of the colonized, with its final annihilation?
c) Can Dorian represent the colonizer later on in the novel, leading to the colonization and destruction of other characters?
d) To what an extend do Dorian's actions and behaviour correspond to his devotion to hedonism, beauty and search for pleasure? How can colonial discourse account for this answer?
e) Pay special attention to Lord Henry's (colonial)discourse. Can you find instances of eurocentrism in the text?
Provide examples, quoting from the text whenever it is appropriate.
5) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Postcolonial Studies
Postcolonial studies examines the global impact of the European colonialism, from its begginings in the fifteenth century up to the present. The book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was published originally in 1891, a time when Queen Victoria was still the leading monarch in Britain and a time when people were still extremely patriotic. Besides, Britain was the leading empire in the world, owning 25% of the landmass of the world.
Even though Wilde was a colonial author, colonial hints may be collected in his novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray expands on the idea of negative and destructive consequences that are brought about after the influence from/on people, which can be defined in terms of the colonizer and the colonized.
a) To what an extend do Lord Henry's colonialist actions and behaviour represent the powerful force of the western civilization?
b) Is Dorian Gray the symbol and representation of the colonized, with its final annihilation?
c) Can Dorian represent the colonizer later on in the novel, leading to the colonization and destruction of other characters?
d) To what an extend do Dorian's actions and behaviour correspond to his devotion to hedonism, beauty and search for pleasure? How can colonial discourse account for this answer?
e) Pay special attention to Lord Henry's (colonial)discourse. Can you find instances of eurocentrism in the text?
Provide examples, quoting from the text whenever it is appropriate.
Reintrerpreting “ The Picture of Dorian Grey through Gender Studies
ReplyDeletec) Are there any homoerotic bonds between men in the novel? Which ones? Provide quotes.
"Don't speak. Wait till you hear what I have to say. Dorian, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I was dominated, soul, brain, and power, by you. You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream. I worshipped you. I grew jealous of every one to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you. When you were away from me, you were still present in my art.... Of course, I never let you know anything about this. It would have been impossible. You would not have understood it. I hardly understood it myself. I only knew that I had seen perfection face to face, and that the world bad become wonderful to my eyes -- too wonderful, perhaps, for in such mad worships there is peril, the peril of losing them, no less than the peril of keeping them…" (chapter 9.page 132, Penguin Popular Classics)
Basil's obsessive idolatry of Dorian has the desperate quality of unrequited love – his jealousy, "worship," and adoration all speak of feelings that extend beyond mere friendship.
How much that strange confession explained to him! The painter's absurd fits of jealousy, his wild devotion, his extravagant panegyrics, his curious reticences -- he understood them all now, and he felt sorry. There seemed to him to be something tragic in a friendship so coloured by romance. (chapter 9.page 132, Penguin Popular Classics)
We have to feel for poor Basil here – it's obvious that his passionate love/friendship will always go unreciprocated by Dorian. While the younger man does feel fond of the painter, he certainly doesn't feel anything approaching the same degree of idolatry; what's implicitly tragic about this friendship is that it can't ever blossom into actual "romance."
Great choice of quotes to exemplify this homoerotic relationship.
ReplyDeleteAnd there seems to develop a love triangle with Lord Henry too. He also shows certain devotion towards Dorian Gray.