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,i.>i~ .;..!., Oscar Wilde

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Life and works Oscar Wilde, the son of a surgeon and of I an ambitious literarv woman, was born in Dublin in 1854. Aft~r attending Trinity I College (Dublin), he was sent to Oxford where he gained a first class degree in Classics and distinguished himseIf for his eccentricity. He became a disciple of WaIter Pater, the theorist of Aesthericism in England (@ 9.9) accepring the theory

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Caricature
Wilde.

~ Ma><Beerbohm. of Oscar 189'1.

of'Art for Art's Sake'.After graduating, he left Oxford and settled in London where he soon became a celebrity for his extraordinary wit and his dress as a 'dandy'. In 1881 Wilde edited, at his own expense, Poems, and was engaged for a tour in the United States where he gave some lectures about the Pre-Raphaelites and the Aesthetes. On his arrivai in New York he told reporters that Aestheticism was a search for the beautiful, a science through which men looked for the reIarionship between painting, sculpture and poetry, which were simply different forms of the same truth. The tour was a great success for Wilde, who became famous for his irony, his attitudes and his poses. On coming back to Europe in 1883, h. married Constance Uoyd who bore him two children. At this point in his career h was most notOOas a great talker: his presence became a sodal event and his remarks appeared in the most fashionab: London magazines. In the late 1880s Wilde's literary taler was reveaIed by a series of short stories, The Canterville Ghost, Lord Arthur Savill Crime, The Happy Prince and Other Tale written for his children and the noveI T. Picture oJDorian Gray (1891). After his first and only noveI he developed an interest in drama and revived the come. of manners (@ 5.5). In the late 1890s b produced a series of plays which were successful on the London stage: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman oJ. Importance (1893), and his masterpiece The Impartance aJ Being Earnest (1895) However, both the novel and Salom (1893), a tragedy written in French, damaged the writer's reputarion, since former was considered immoraI, and t latter was banned from the London st, for obscenity. In 1891 he met the young and

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beautiful Lord Alfred Douglas, whose nickname was Bosie, and with whom Wilde had a homosexual affair. The boy's father, the Marquess of Queensbury, forced a public trial and Wilde was convicted of homosexual practices and sentenced to two-years of hard labour. While in prison he wrote De Profundis, a long letter to Bosie published posthumously in 1905. v'lhen he was released, he was a broken man; his wife refused to see him, and he went into exile in France, where he lived his last years in poverty. The Ballad oJReading GaoI (1898), originaJly published under his prison identity, G.3.3., was his last work. He died of meningitis in Paris in 1900. The rebel and tbe dandy Wilde adopted 'the aesthetic ideaI', as he affirmed in one of his famous conversations: "My life is like a work of art". He lived in the double role of rebel and dandy. The dandy must be distinguished from the bohemian: while the bohemian allies himself to the rural or urban proletariat, the dandy is a bourgeois artist, who, in spite of his blatant unconventionality, remains a member of his class. The Wildean dandy is an aristocrat whose elegance is a symbol of the superiority of his spirit; he uses his wit to shock, and is an individualist who demands abso]ute freedom. Since life was meant for pleasure, and pleasure was an indulgence in the beautiful, Wilde's interest in beauty

clothes, words or bovs

had no moral

stance. He affirmed in' the Preface (@ t111) of his novel "There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are weH written or badly written. That is ali". In this way he rejected the didacticism that had characterised the Victorian novel in the first half of the century.

Art for Art's Sake The concept of"Art for Art's Sake" was to him a moral imperative and not merely an aesthetic one. He believed that only "Art as the cult of Beauty" couId prevent the murder of the souI. Wilde perceived the artist as an alien in a materialistic worId, he wrate onIy to please himself and was not concerned in communicating his theories to bis fellow-beings. His pursuit of beauty and fulfment was tfie tragic act of a superior being inevitably turned into an outcast.

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OscarWilde and his

lover, the English author. poet and translator Lord AIf..."d Douglas. in the 1890s.

Aut1iors

and texts

Sense perception, wholeness, and the souI

CA."IILLE CA~TI The Picture oJ Dorian Gray, Barnes and Noble Books, NE\\' YORK, 1995.

Gustave Flaubert and \\'alter Pater concern themselves with "wholeness" of being; both believe strongly that the object must be studied in its entirety, or else it is not the object that is being considered, but a fragment that has no meaningful relationship with the whole. To use the example that Oscar \'\illde paints in The Picture oJDorian Gray, the exterior beauty of a man conceals inner moral decrepitude to those who do not contemplate in earnest. Much of this comes from the Greek philosopher Epicurus (342 B.C.-270 B.c.), who states simply that "There exists nothing in addition to
the totality." [. -.J

. POS1erronhe film Wilde directed by Brian G!ibert (UK. 1997),

/1) TltePictureoJDorian Gray depicts the hard lesson of < ::i' a gentleman who finds that a handsome aspect does o -, p;' not consti tute a beautiful creature, and that the ~ unhealthy soul of a man who cannot regard his entire guided J: -" self does not really prospero Tormented by study In spiritual blindness, Dorian never approaches E113 1. After reading this passage the Epicurean goal of being free from do the following activities. disturbance; rather, he is continually troubled. 1. Highlightthe main idea To Basi! Hallward, the ideaI Epicurean, "death expres:ed in the text. is nothing"; although martyred, bis body is 2. Orde the terms reduced to purity by the Dorian's blackmailed referring to Epicurus's scientist. Rejected by Wotton and Gray in life ideas. because he understood them too deeply, he dies relatively naturalIy, humanly, 3. Answer the following and cleanly in a symbolic gesture indicative of the purity of bis calm, cultivated, questions. and observant soul. In opposition, Gray becomes hideous in death (@ t114):

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Lying on the fioor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome oJ 1,;sage.It Wa5 not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was...

a. What do Flaubert and Pater believe? b. What does The

Picture or Dorian Gray

Gray's failure to develop bis soul reaches its pinnacle when he destroys the on1y extension of himself that exemplifies good sense-perception: the painting, which alone responds to the body and souI as a ",ho le. Destroying it, he deprives himself of hope for recovery of bis soul- he has eliminated his last grasp on sense-perception; the painting was the onIy way in which he could possibly have regarded himself as a complete person possessing souI in addition
to face. The dead man's knife points to the heart to identify him by

depict? c. What is the difference between BasilHallward's death and Gray's one? d. What does the painting exemplify? e. Why does Dorian Gray deprive himself of hope for the recovery of his soul by destroying the painting?

traditionally

the dwelling of

the soul- revealing the source of his destruction, and aHthat remains for others

- all he has ever

been identified by

are his rings, the

superficial and misleading accoutrements of the souI. A harsh end, perhaps, for one who does not take a philosopher seriously enough, but it is indicative of the importance that Epicurus held for Aesthetes like \V"llde- and illuminating in the confounding world of Dorian Gray.

A.Uiliorsana texts
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The Picture ofDorian Gray

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Piot The novei is set in THEATRE. London at the end of the 19th century. The protagonist is Dorian LOII-1UlGEI'S SEASOI Gray, a young man THE PIOTURE OF whose beauty fascinates a painter, DORIAN GRAY BasiI Hallward, who OSOAR WILDE paints his portrait (@ t112). While the young man's desires are satisfied, including that of eternaI youth, the signs of age, e).."perience c '" 'c and \'ice appear on the o t) portrait. Dorian lives ;> only for pleasure I(@ t113). making use of everybody and E112 Ietting peopie die because of his insensitivity. W'hen the 4. Theatreprogramme painter sees the corrupted image of the
VAUDEVIL.LE
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Narrative technique This stor)' is toid by an unobtrusive thirdperson narratori the perspective adopted is internaI which allo\\'s a process of identification between the reader and the character. The settings are vividly described \\ith words appeaIing to the senses (@ t112), the characters reveal themseives through what they say or what other people say of them, according to a rechnique which is typicai of drama. Allegorica! meaning This story is profoundly allegoricaI; it is a 19th-century version of the myth of Faust the stor)' of a man who sells his souI to the deviI so that alI his desires might be satisfied. This soul becomes the picture, which records the signs of experience, the corruption, the horror and the sins conceaIed under the mask of Dorian's timeless beauty. Wilde pIays on the Renaissance idea of the correspondence between the physicai and spirituai realms: beautifui peopie are moraI peopIe; ugIy people are immorai people. His variation on this theme is in his use of the magical portrait. The picture is not an autonomous seIf:it stands for the dark side of Dorian's personaIity, his double, which he tries to forget by locking it in a reom. The morai of this noveI is that every e..\."cess must be punished and reaIity cannot be escaped; when Dorian destroys the picture, he cannot avoid the punishment for all his sins, that is, death. The horrible, corrupting picture could be seen as a symboi of the immorality and bad conscience of the Victorian middle class, while Dorian and his pure, innocent appearance are symbois ofbourgeois hypocrisy. FinaII)' the picture, restored to its originaI beauty, illustrates Wilde's theories of art: art survives people, art is eterna!.

for a performance

or 1he
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Picture orDorion Gray, Vaudeville Theatre, 20 August 1913,

portrait Dorian kilis him. Later Dorian '. . wants to free himself of the portralt, witness to his spirituaI corruption, and

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stabs it, but he mysteriously kilIs himself. At the very moment of death the picture returns to its originaI purity, and Dorian's face becomes "withered, wrinkled, and Ioathsome" (@ t114).

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What What Who What What Who

Answer the following questions about Oscar Wilde and his novel
The Picture or Dorian Gray.

ideai did Oscar \N'ce adopt l:",roughOL;t 'lis ./e? s the differerce Detv/eer: the darc)! 2'd D1ebohe''1i2n? is the Wiice2' c2ncy? does he rejec: :,... lne Preface d' hs nove,? is art 2ccordirg te Oscar \Ni:ce? isthe an:,sc? 7. Where and wr.er coe5 T~e;::ic:~re c" Oonc,n Grcytake DI2ce: 8. Who is Dona,., Gray? 9. What does tre plcture symbe:ise? 10. What isthe f""Or'al o'-the "'leve!? 11. What narrative techique;5 e;""':DiO)'ec?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

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(1837-1901)

Literarycontext
TheAesthetic Movement inliterature
The line of developmenr of the Aesmetic Movemem can be rraced back IOthe Renaissance poet Edmund Spenser. But cenainly irs moSI significanr forerunner was the romantic poer John Ke'dts. wirh his cult of beauty and the awareness of the contrast art-Iife. In the middle of the 19th century John Ruskin prorested against the indifference of me marerialisric Victorian socierv IO an and rhe beautiful. Ruskin worshipped beauty. bUt also insisred on the idea that a wock:of art is an expression of the spirit, hence the imponance of the virrues of rhe man who creares il, ,-irrues Iike a religious purpose and creari'-e jo)'. Ruskin supporred the Pfe-Raphaelites, a group of anists and men of letters who rejected academic arr in favour of the spontanei!)- and spiritualit)- of Italian painters before RaphaeI. They adopted sentimemal archaisms and a tone of evangelical mysticism. bUt soon feH imo sensuousness and the cult of derail. The "mediaevar poems of John Kears became imponam sources of inspiration for rhem. A.C. Swinbume, who was not one of the group bUt ~vasinfluenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, "glorified the beaUtiful with a reckless and bJasphemous ardouc". He openly spoke of. or even exaIred, the "unmemionable1-. rhus shocking bourgeois moraHsm. and offered many hints IO Gabriele D'Annunzio. Swinbume was greatly influenced by French writers like GaUtier and Baudelaire. Thophile Gaurier (1811-18-2) firsr supponed rhe Romamic ~lovemem, and then comributed to rransform ir imo aesrhericism. He advocated -.\rt for .\rt's sake-. disregarded moraliry. and believed in rhe sovereigmy of beaury, Charles Baudelaire 0821-186-). author of the famous Les Fleurs du .1Ial. creared analogies ber\\'een colours. sounds and perfumes, so thar the Symbolist ;\lovement found irs source in him, Baudelaire also translated and admired Edgar A]]an Poe. \\'hom he found spiritualIy and anistically akin. 244

.. Portraitof JohnRuskin byJohn EverettMillais

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Walter Pater is regarded as the high priest of the Aesrheric Movemem. The conclusion of his Studies in tbe HistOtJ' of tbe Renaissance is thar the secret of happiness is the absorption of beauty, so as 1:0 bum always with a hard, gem-like flame, to maimain ecstasy". He also proclaimed the idea of rreating life itself "in the spirit of arr", This cuIr of deep and noble emotions in a Iife meant as a work of art rendered him a soft of ascetic hedonist2. Pater was an historical relativist, and rejected alI established doctlines or rheories, in the conviction that life is fleeting and elusive. The onl)' reali)'is that of impressions and sensations, so no ponion of experience should be sacrificed in this passionate search after sensations. The fmest sensations afe to be found in art. He maintained thar in art, as in music, form and matter afe indistinguishable. Both Pater and Swinbume asserted the aUtonomy of art against those who valued a poem, a painting or a sculpture simply by the moral quality of the sentiments it expressed. The reasons \\'hy the aesthetic trend spread so largely are not difficult IO detect. The craving for excess. the fondness of irresponsibility and the interest in exoticism represented the reaction to the repression of the instincts imposed by the' VicIOrian mentaIit},. The principle that art has no moral implications was the re"olt against rhe heavy moraI standards which were only ~

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literary context
exterior observances. The individuaI rebeJIed against the tyranny of an m'erpo\\'ering public opinion and demanded to assert himself unrestrainedly. induIging in every capri ce of imagination. Moreover. the aesthetes poured contempt on the obruse bourgeoisie bent on work, money and procreation. and were proud of their difference from the average mano It is also true that the increased prosperi!)' and leisure had refmed and improved !asre; peo,,( ple felt the limits of insulari!)' and were fond of the exotic, the rare, the strange. In England the Aesthetic Movemem reached irs height in rhe 1890s. Oscar Wilde was
':.undoubredly rhe

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mO$!famous personaIit),of rhe

Aesthetic Movement, bur rhe leader was rhe artfj; ist Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), whose st)'1ised. "siouous. somewhat morbid and pen'erse ".drawiogs gave expression to rhe -decadent .,.mood-. The Aesrheres pubIished a re\'ie\\'. Ybe
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Yellow Book (1894-189"":"). illusrrared by Beardsle~'.

,. Aubrey Vincent Beardsley. La Dame aux Camelias. 1894. ink and watercofor on paper

;~jr reflected "decadent" tastes and irs daring $ubjects often made a sensarion. The scandal in which Oscar Wilde was involved crushed aIso rhe Aesrheric Jlm'ement which 5000 losr populari!)' aod carne to an end. However, decadence and symbolism were des. t:iined to mark the 20th centu1J' search for new j!;i'torms of expression known as .Nlodemism.
!;!.

l. unmentionable: J

i.e. eroIicism: Ihe pursuir of pleasure,

paganism. and wharever challenged \"iaorian pruderie, hedonism: doarine rhar rhe chief good of man is pleasure. In che novellI Piacere Gabriele D'Annunzio echoes Parer. 'Bisogna faI<' la propria \ira, come si fa un 'opera d'me-o

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Stop and check

fomplete the statements in column A by choosing the appropriate items in column 8.

A -1A significant forerunner of the Aesthetic Movement

was John Keats. He

8 a. that the only reality is that of ;mpress;ons and sensat;ons.

b. of "Art for Art's sake".

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,,2 Thedoctrine was.

<,.,$ Frenchpoets and novelists like Gautier. iIii. Baudelaire and Huysmans
-4The cult of

c. beauty was one of the main features of the

Aesthetic movement. d. that art must be didactic to people. e. were read and admired by Pater and Wilde. f. constantly pursued beauty and keenly felt the contrast arHife,but never asserted the superiorityof art over fife. g. bom in France, and spread ali over Europe. h. the contrast art - life.

.of:iTheAestheteswerefascinatedby~ F:
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~Theyrejected established doctrines or

\1C theories, andthought-'
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They challenged the idea

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and advocated the principle.

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(183"'-1901)

The cult of beaut:' !n Wilde,Huysmans !'\' ;~ A"" unzIV and J,/

"I pllt alt my genius i11tO111)' tife; I put 011/)'my tale11t i11tOmy works." Theleading personality oftheAesthetie Movement, Oscar Wildeinsisted on thesovereignty ofbeauty andconsidered aesthetic values superiorto moral or socialissues. Healsochallenged theconventions of histimewithhis extravagant lifestyle, intheideathatanartistmustconstantly search after sensation. Hispopularity extended beyond England, andhefoundaffinities between himself andtheexponents ofthedecadent movements. Twonovelsare otten assoeiated with The Picture of Dorian Gray. One is A Rebours (Controcorrente), writtenin 1884 bythe French novelist lK. Huysmans (1848-1907);the other is Il Piacere, written in 1889bythe ltalianpoet, novelist anddramatist Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938). 80thHuysmans and D'Annunzio, likeWilde,sawart andbeautyasthe highest ideaIto
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pursue andtheultimate aimoflite.Lite itself was viewed asawork ofart

whichstoodabove everything else,including morals.

Theheroof A Rebours, DesEsseintes, eomestrom a riehnoble family.Heis disgusted bythesocietyof his time andchooses to live alonein anisolatedhouseandsurrounds himselfwithvarious objectswhichrepresent to him Inthe end,the life he haschosenleadshimto neurosis, and the best that art hasereated. the onlysolutionfor himis to retumto theverysocietythat he hadrejected.
Quesra volta si propose di perdersi in un sorprendente e mutevole paesaggio; ed esord con una frase sonora, che gli dischiu:se di colpo una immensa lontananza di campagne, Grazie ai suoi vaporizza tori, sprigion nella camera essenza d'ambrosia, di lavanda di :\Iitcham. di pisello odoroso fusi insieme: una essenza che. ove sia stata distillata da un arrista, non usurpa il nome che le vien dato di ,essenza di prato in fior~; poi. in quel prato. insinu un bel riuscito accordo di tuberosa, di fior d'arancio e di mandorla e. d'incanto, fittizi lill fiorirono, mentre tigli stomlivano al vento. impregnando il suolo dei loro tenui effluvi, simulati dall'estratto di UNa londinese. In questo sfondo tracciato a grandi linee, fuggente a perdita d'occhio sotto le sue palpebre chiuse. insuffI una spruzzatura di sentori umani e quasi felini: evocanti la donna, annunzianti la femmina incipriata e rruccata: lo stefanoris. l'ayapana, l'opoponax, il cipro, lo sciampaca, il sarcanto. sO\Tappose ad essi un accenno di siringa, per introdurre nel mondo fittizio

e rruccato che essi creavano, un sentore naturale di esulranze accaldate. '"

di gioia che si disfrena in pieno sole. Poscia. con l'ausilio di un ventilatore, lasc! che si disperdessero queste onde odorose: e serb solo la campagna che rinnov, costringendola a tornare nel suo poema come ritornello, [from].K. Huysmans, Cont/'Ocol7r!nte, Gemile, 1944]

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Il Piacere also presents a youngaristocrat, AndreaSperelli,whobaseshis life on his own aesthetic creed.Hisextreme hedonism leadshimto physicalandmoralcorruption. andthe conclusion of the novelhighlights thefailureof the heroandof hisaesthetic lifestyle. Andrea Sperelli aspettava nelle sue stanze un'amante. Tutte le cose a tomo rivelavano infatti una special cura d'amore, Il legno di ginepro ardeva nel caminetto e la piccola ta\'ola del t era pronta, con tazze e sottocoppe in maiolica di Castel Durante ornate d'istoriette mitologiche da Luzio Dolci, antiche forme di inimitabile grazia, ove sotto le figure erano scritti in carattere corsivo a zffara nera esametri d'Ovidio. La luce entrava temperata dalle tende di brQCcatello rosso a melagrane d'argento riccio, a foglie e a motti. Come il sole pomeridiano feri\'a i vetri, la trama fiorita delle tendine di pizzo si disegnava sul tappeto. L'orologio della Trinit de' ~Ionti suon le tre e mezzo. Mancava mezz'ora, Andrea Sperelli si lev dal divano dov'era disteso e and ad aprire una delle finestre; poi diede alcuni passi nell'appartamento; poi apr un libro, ne lesse qualche riga, lo richiuse; poi cerc intorno qualche cosa, con lo sguardo dubitante. L'ansia dell'aspettazione lo pungeva cos acutamente ch'egli aveva bisogno di muO\-ersi, di operare, di distrarre la pena interna con un atto materiale. Si chin verso il caminetto, prese le molle per ranivare il fuoco, mise sul mucchio ardente un nuovo pezzo di ginepro, Il mucchio croll; i carboni sfavillando rotolarono fin su la lamina di metallo che proteggeva il tappeto; la fiamma si divise in tante piccole lingue azzurrognole che sparivano e riap-parivano; i tizzi fumigarono. [from G, D'Annunzio, Il Piacere, Mondadori,1965]

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Task
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Consider what youhave learnedtrom youranalyses of Wilde'sworksand thesetwo passages. Whatanalogies

can you find?

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