Gina Vasquez
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) is a novel wrapped in controversy and debate. Oscar Wilde wrote the novel during England’s Victorian era, and the book faced immense criticism due its society’s strict moral code. At the time, many believed that art should reflect socio-political values. However, Wilde, a pioneer of the Aestheticism movement, believed in “art for art’s sake.”1 While Christopher Marlowe uses the Faustian legend to make Doctor Faustus (1604) a morality play, in The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde repurposes the Faustian legend to express his aesthetic ideals and demonstrate the consequences of pursuing a hedonistic lifestyle.
Influence is central to the Faust legend. In Doctor Faustus, Faustus’s newfound obsession is the practice of magic. Faustus states,
Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts. […]
Philosophy is odious and obscure;
Both law and physic are for petty wits; […]
‘Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me. (1.1.100-02; 106-07; 110)
The great influence of magic over Faustus is indicated by the term “ravished,” a sexually charged word associated with force. Also, unlike science, which has been studied for centuries, magic is forbidden, unknown, and therefore exciting to Faustus. However, Faustus’s desire for magic becomes his downfall, demonstrating the consequences of ambition in excess.
Similarly, Dorian in The Picture of Dorian Gray is influenced by the discovery of hedonism, the “doctrine or theory of ethics in which pleasure is regarded as the chief good, or the proper end of action.”2 The yellow book given to Dorian by Lord Henry, presumably based on Joris-Karl Huysmans’ À Rebours (1884), exposes him to the hedonistic perspective of decadence, a movement associated with extravagance, excess, artificiality, and transgressive sexuality.3 Dorian sees himself reflected in this book that will be very detrimental to him. Wilde writes, “One hardly knew at times whether one was reading the spiritual ecstasies of some mediaeval saint or the morbid confessions of a modern sinner. It was a poisonous book. The heavy odour of incense seemed to cling about its pages and to trouble the brain” (104). The “poison” of the book, so impactful that it leads to the ruin of others and, ultimately, Dorian’s own death, demonstrates the consequences of pursuing a hedonistic lifestyle.
The selling of one’s soul to the devil is at the heart of the Faustian legend. In Doctor Faustus, Marlowe uses the “Faustian bargain” as a moral lesson for the audience. Faustus abandons all moral integrity in order to acquire knowledge by selling his soul, and consequently he is damned to hell for being too ambitious. Similarly, Dorian “sells” his soul for eternal youth. The novel symbolically depicts the “bargaining” between Dorian and the devil when Dorian desperately states, “If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grown old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!” (26). Dorian is oblivious to the consequences that will arise through his arrogance and narcissism, yet Dorian receives his wish and pays the price. Dagmar Magnadóttir notes that Wilde “used the famous theme of selling one’s soul to the devil as a way to split the novel into thematic layers. On one hand, Dorian is beautiful to exemplify the way the aesthetic movement looked at life and art. On the other hand, the picture grows more grotesque with Dorian’s every sin” (22). By projecting Dorian’s soul through the painting, the audience can visualize how each of Dorian’s sins strips away his beauty. Dorian may retain his physical beauty, but his humanity and integrity suffer. Wilde uses the Faustian bargain to show how pursuing hedonistic pleasure poisons the soul.
Furthermore, there are parallels between Mephistopheles’ influence on Faustus and Lord Henry’s influence on Dorian. Mephistopheles, while serving Faustus with his magic powers, desires to damn Faustus to hell by enticing him with vague powers and ideals. Mephistopheles states, “Why, Faustus, think’st thou heaven is such a glorious thing? / I tell thee, ‘tis not half so fair as thou, / Or any man that breathes on earth” (2.3.5-7). He attempts to dissuade Faustus from saving his soul for Heaven when it is no greater of a place than earth. Similarly, Lord Henry’s influence is foreshadowed when early in the novel he states paradoxically, “There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral—immoral from the scientific point of view” (19). Furthermore, Lord Henry introduces Dorian to hedonism, making him conscious of the shortness of life:
Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing. (23)
He tempts Dorian, instilling in him the fear of old age and wasting one’s life, but Lord Henry’s position is more ideological; because he does not commit the atrocities he tempts Dorian with, he is free of any consequences. Sheldon W. Liebman writes, “Henry turns to Dorian Gray, who offers him both the opportunity to analyze a complex personality and the chance to create a new and beautiful self. Furthermore, Dorian also represents a new life of sensation, emotion, and thought that Henry can experience vicariously and therefore safely” (447). Lord Henry views Dorian as an outlet. He gets pleasure from watching Dorian suffer in the same way that Mephistopheles receives satisfaction from the damnable actions of Faustus. Lord Henry does not appear to care what happens to Dorian. Additionally, as Magnadóttir writes,
Lord Henry’s power over Dorian is not a good influence. Dorian’s self-knowledge is poisoned by Lord Henry, and therefore he becomes corrupted by hedonistic ideas which end up negatively shaping his future. Mephistopheles has the same effect upon Faust. Mephistopheles and Lord Henry are the malign characters who focus more on their own ideologies than on Faust’s and Dorian’s well-being. (20)
Mephistopheles and Lord Henry, the antagonists responsible for the corruption, lead these characters down irreversible paths.
While Marlowe’s Mephistopheles more closely resembles the character in the original Faustian legend, Wilde adapts Mephistopheles to his aesthetic ideals. Julian Hawthorne writes, “He may be taken as an imaginative type of all that is most evil and most refined in modern civilization—a charming, gentle, witty, euphemistic Mephistopheles, who depreciates the vulgarity of goodness” (376) Lord Henry is a modernized Mephistopheles, appealing to Dorian through his charm and wit. Rather than being the devil’s assistant, Lord Henry represents the hedonistic pursuit of aesthetic beauty while conveying to the audience the dangers of pursuing the instant gratification that results in moral corruption.
Additionally, in both works Christianity defines the moral boundaries of the characters. In Doctor Faustus, the Good Angel and Bad Angel clearly distinguish Faustus’s desire to repent and desire to sin, making the audience aware of what is morally right and wrong. In Dorian Gray, Wilde alludes to the Faustian bargain:
“There goes the devil’s bargain!” she hiccoughed, in a hoarse voice.
“Curse you!” he answered, “don’t call me that.”
She snapped her fingers. “Prince Charming is what you like to be called, ain’t it?”
she yelled after him. (158)
The negative religious associations of the phrase “devil’s bargain” reinforce the malignancy and sin of Dorian’s selling his soul to the devil for youth, a foul and corrupt bargain.
While some may argue that The Picture of Dorian Gray is purely an aesthetic novel, Wilde uses the Faustian legend to demonstrate how morality relates to aestheticism. In the preface to the novel, Wilde argues that aestheticism and morality are separate: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all” (3). He explains that art does not set out to have morals, that art does not determine good from evil. Art is meant to be beautiful but not to edify. After Dorian’s corruption is removed from the painting, the portrait is simply beautiful without any moral significance. Michael Patrick Gillespie notes, “The Picture of Dorian Gray does not and should not bring us to a new ethical position or reinforce our old one. Rather, through the actions of its characters its discourse establishes within us a sense of the wide-ranging aesthetic force that ethics exerts upon a work of art.” The novel need not be seen as one that attempts to change readers’ view of morality.
However, the painting works as a symbol of the relationship between morality and aesthetics and a reflection of Dorian’s soul. After Dorian has pushed Sybil to suicide, murdered Basil, and blackmailed Alan, the painting becomes horrifying. Furthermore, Dorian’s narcissism ruins himself as well as the people around him. His sins and unspeakable acts lead him to destroy the painting and in turn kill himself. Therefore, the novel concerns morality, teaching us that such actions lead to damnation: he sins, breaking the moral code, and must pay the consequences.
Ultimately, Oscar Wilde repurposes the Faustian legend to express his aesthetic ideals, as well as the consequences of pursing a hedonistic lifestyle. While Christopher Marlowe uses the Faustian legend as a morality play, Wilde juxtaposes the pursuit of pleasure and aestheticism to show the wicked effect of hedonism on the individual.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carroll, Joseph. “Aestheticism, Homoeroticism, and Christian Guilt in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Philosophy and Literature, vol. 29, no. 2, Oct. 2005, pp. 286-304. Literature Resouce Center, https://link-gale-com.ccc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/H1420110026/LitRC?u=chic13716&sid=LitRC&xid=9fc1cb86.
Ellman. Richard. Oscar Wilde. Vintage, 1987.
Gillespie, Michael Patrick. “Ethics and Aesthetics in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Rediscovering Oscar Wilde, edited by C. George Sandulescu, Colin Smythe, 1994, pp. 137-155. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.ccc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/H1420110025/LitRC?u=chic13716&sid=LitRC&xid=79aecd5d.
—, ed. The Picture of Dorian Gray. by Oscar Wilde. Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed., Norton, 2019.
Hawthorne, Julian. “The Romance of the Impossible.” Gillespie, ed., pp. 374-378.
Kastan, David Scott, ed. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 2007.
Magnadóttir, Dagmar. “Oscar Wilde’s Use of the Faustian Bargain, Victorian Narrative Traditions and Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Skemman, 20 Jan. 2015, skemman.is/handle/1946/20396.
Quintus, John Allen. “Christ, Christianity, and Oscar Wilde.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 33, no. 4, 1991, pp. 514–527. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40754965.
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[1] For Wilde’s discussion of “art for art’s sake,” see “The Preface” of The Picture of Dorian Gray, pp. 3-4. Oxford English Dictionary defines “aestheticism” as, “The quality of being aesthetic; the pursuit of, or devotion to, what is beautiful or attractive to the senses, esp. as opposed to an ethically or rationally based outlook; spec. adherence to the Aesthetic Movement.” For the beginnings of the Aesthetic Movement in the nineteenth century, see Ellmann, pp. 88-90.
[2] Oxford English Dictionary, “hedonism.”
[3] For the relationship of À Rebours to Wilde’s work. see Ellmann, pp.252-53. For the influence of decadence, see Ellmann pp. 225-31.