2016 Reading Challenge - A book that was banned

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Banned for being homoerotic and suggestive. The book was feared to have "corruptive influences" Oscar Wilde himself was persecuted for immoral acts (homosexual relations)

“Life has been your art” (1)

So Henry tells Dorian, because he believes Dorian has lived his life to the fullest, that he has fulfilled his every whim and passion, not holding back like most mortals do.  But lived, as they say, life to the fullest, and has no regrets.  

One regret Dorian Gray may have - is that he literally has no regrets.  

When I finished this book, it was dog-eared and had pages of passages penciled off for me to remember later.   I am a sucker for a good line.  Always.  I will never write the kind of lines that I highlight from books.  This I am okay with.  That’s not the kind of writer I am.  I am fluff and flimsy, cotton candy.  The Picture of Dorian Grey is Beef Wellington.  (Granted, I come from the time where there are culinary competition shows one of which touts Beef Wellington.  I’ve tasted it; it is the best meat I have ever tasted, wrapped in flaky delightful dough, cooked rare.  There are mushrooms, shallots and peppercorns, and even dare I eat it, a layer of prosciutto between the dough and the beef itself.  It is royalty, it is both a delicacy and yet palatable to the uncultured taste buds.  Nay, it, itself, mutates uncultured taste bud into delicacy addicted connoisseurs.  Yes it is that good.)  And so is Picture of Dorian Gray.  And it is as layered with such delightful ingredients as this Wellington recipe, that our taste buds are rejuvenated with each chapter.

I described it as a modern horror story, written with a 1890s voice.  The horror:  Dorian Gray decides that the only thing in life that is interesting or worth living for is beauty.  Beauty, and the admiration of beauty, therefore sensualism, and pleasure.  With this he realizes that his pursuit of only things beautiful, he will have to sacrifice morals and piousness.  This sacrifice will not only age him, but make he himself ugly.  Exactly the opposite of the things in life he wants to surround himself with.  Hence, he makes a wish.  He wishes to never age.  Dorian wishes that his very own portrait absorb his age, and the weight of any of his sins.  Leaving him forever young, full of life, and never weighed down by morals or guilt.  He is free to live however he likes, doing whatever he likes.  He takes lovers.  He is rude.  He is callous.  He murders one of his best friends, and blackmails another friend, a chemist to get rid of the body.  And yet, he is beautiful and young, and his portrait ages and mutates with the evil that has been transferred upon it from his actions.  

He thinks this is a weight upon him.  This horrid portrait.  He attempts to do good things, to be a good person.  Only to find that the portrait has not gotten any better, in fact it might be even worse than it was before.  His epiphany is that his goodness was not for the sake of being good; it was with malicious intent, for vanity.  He was only trying to be a good person so as to be proud of himself, to be vain and to be able to say that he was good.  We all know people like this don’t we?  People who volunteer at shelters, who donate money, who support causes, just to have that bumper sticker on their car, or that tweet that everyone can see.  See how good I am!  See what I have done!  This, Dorian Gray, and therefore Oscar Wilde, decides this is not goodness.  This is vanity. And you shall get no relief from this.  Your soul will still be heavy.  

So this is the horror bit.  Dorian is doing nasty stuff; the portrait is changing, reflecting his sins.  In the end (spoilers) he decides he must do something about this damn portrait that haunts him.  The face that he sees when he looks at it is the true face of his marled vile soul, and he cannot take it. He thinks, “His beauty had been to him but a mask.” (2)

That is the meat of the story.   The Beef of the Beef Wellington. The language.  The 1890 verbiage and vocabulary; the gothic themes, the high society social standards and the Victorian setting are the dough that it is lovingly wrapped in.

The spices, the mushrooms, the shallots, and that secret taste of the forbidden meat, the prosciutto - that is the theory of art and beauty.  Between the words and the poetry and the literal meat of the novel is the underlying discourse about art, the meaning of art, the purpose of art, even the definition of art itself.  The author’s own Preface is a soliloquy on the sin of judging art as either moral or immoral. “Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming” (3)  And “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.” (4)  True - this was a direct reaction to this story - first being censored when it was initially published, and even still after being censored, critics thought that Wilde should be persecuted for violating public morality laws.  Not to mention, there is definitely a sexual chemistry between Dorian and Henry.  And Basil absolutely has a huge crush on Dorian.  Those things were just written about publicly in the 1890s.

Throughout the novel, there is an ongoing discussion and debate between Sir Henry and Dorian, and including the artist who created the Portrait itself, Basil.  Sir Henry Wooten is a decadent sensualist, touting that only what matters is the pursuit of pleasure.  Henry speaks with Wilde’s voice in that art need only to be beautiful to be art.   Art should be free of responsibility.  To be free of any moral standard.  Free to just be art.  And Beauty free to just be beautiful.  He preaches to Dorian about beauty in life, and gives him a French novel that supports his views. Dorian becomes obsessed with this book, and his choices become more and more debaucherous.  

At first it is hard to determine, is this a cautionary tale?  Is Wilde trying to warn us that loving and living life without a conscious will still in essence drive you insane, and you will regret living this way?  That this path in life will end in misery any way?  But yet, Wilde says we shouldn’t judge his book on being moral or immoral.  That art cannot be moral or immoral, is can only be art. Wilde was persecuted for having homosexual relations; to which he argued were not lurid or sordid, but rather affection between men should be celebrated as refined in nature.  Sexual relationships and attraction to younger men was a testament to his affection and was fundamental in his appreciation of all things beautiful.  Wilde was told not only that his writing, his art was morally offensive, but also, his love was just as offensive.   He does not want you to judge his art or his love, let beauty be beautiful.

We want to sympathize with Dorian.  But he keeps doing things that are just so ‘wrong’.  But what is wrong?  And should we judge him as moral or immoral, as he himself is beauty, he is art.  Does that give him the right to be immoral?  To hurt, to kill?  Henry praises the life that Dorian has led as “exquisite” (5)  The pursuit of beauty, of pleasure, being above all.

“Life has been your art.” (1)

Life should be our art.  We make choices.  We make mistakes.  Moral or immoral.  Right or wrong.  Those choices and those mistakes become part of our paint, or canvas, our stanzas, or our symphonies.  The only thing art can be is art.  

all quote citations:

Wilde, Oscar, The Picture of Dorian Gray (first published in 1890, this edition 2003), London, England, CRW Publishing Limited, Collector's Library imprint