Please read
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Chapters X-XII (pp. 86-112). Review the four tenets of
The Decay of Lying (see brief list below - visit previous
Aestheticism post for full details) and apply it to the first 12 chapters of the novel. I look forward to your responses.
1) Art never expresses anything but itself.
2) All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.
3) Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.
4) Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.
Dorian finally loses it “There was a horrible fascination in them all. He saw them at night, and they troubled his imagination in the day. The Renaissance knew of strange manners of poisoning -- poisoning by a helmet and a lighted torch, by an embroidered glove and a jewelled fan, by a gilded pomander and by an amber chain. Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful” in chapter 11. Dorian finally accepts evil as a part of his own character. He also starts to connect beauty from being good to connecting it to evil. He also realizes that art doesn’t really represent anything good, but he also realizes that art doesn’t really represent anything evil either. He’d probably be rated as a chaotic neutral character by most people because he isn’t fully corrupted yet, however he can go either way and he probably doesn’t care for anything other than art. Oscar Wilde also expresses the other 3 tenants of aestheticism by mentioning cliches and how they are different in life than in fiction.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how Dorian descends, caring about nothing but his art as time goes on, though one perhaps wonders if there is more guilt over Sybil than he realizes and that is propelling him further to bury himself in art. Maybe it’s a subconscious attempt to compensate for the loss of beauty in his portrait by surrounding himself with further beauty. The life imitates art aspect is clear towards the end of chapter eleven, as Dorian describes how he’s been influenced by the book Lord Henry has sent him, and other great figures of art. “He felt that he had known them all, those strange terrible figures that had passed across the stage of the world and made sin so marvelous, and evil so full of subtlety. It seemed to him that in some mysterious way their lives had been his own.”
ReplyDeleteAs for The Decay of Lying, there’s an aspect of the first tenet in how Basil views his own artwork in the first few chapters, saying that there’s “too much of [himself] in it” and how others can’t see it. The art expresses itself, and to Basil part of it is in its history, the effort and emotions he poured into it. But for others who can’t see that, the art still express itself- just whatever they see in it, unknowing of what went in.
Evidently, Dorian's beauty does not reflect who he truly is. Only in the painting does his true form seem to be captured; ugly, withered, and repulsive. It can then be said that the progression of Dorian's portrait from beautiful-to-grotesque relates to the first tenet of The Decay of Lying. Here, it is stated that "art never expresses anything but itself". This statement corresponds with Dorian's portrait in the later chapters as it then is able to fully "express" its object. The object of the painting, of course, is Dorian, and his ugliness in it is reflective of his sins and evil. Dorian is even aware of this, realizing how "his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas. They would mar its beauty and eat away its grace". Before Lord Henry tainted his mind, the portrait was also expressive of how Dorian was then: pure and attractive.
ReplyDeleteAfter the death of Sibyl Vane, the fourth tenet becomes more clear. This tenet illustrates how "lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art". Lying, or neglect, is used by Dorian (specifically in Chapter 10) to erase the death of Sibyl. Here, he chooses to ignore her death due to "how ugly it all was! And how horribly real ugliness made things!". Clearly, Dorian is also lying to himself as he constantly reassures that he did not kill her (though he did indirectly). His disregard for Sibyl's death could be due to the fact that he wants to stay sinless and golden. Or, as the tenet states, he still wants to be perceived as "art" and not something horrible.
Also relating to Sibyl is the third tenet, which states that "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life". Life imitating art is shown when Sibyl, after falling in love with Dorian, begins to recognize the difference between true emotions and acting. She discovers that art does not imitate life as she "'became conscious that the Romeo was hideous...and that the words I had to speak were unreal, were not my words'". However, this realization, of course, ultimately led to her death.
-Jill Schuck
There certainly is a connection between the first tenant of the Decay of Lying and Dorian's painting, but there also seems to be correlation between tenant four and Dorian himself. Four states that lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art. Dorian's youth and beauty certainly lie, hiding his true self from onlookers, and we know that Basil sees him more as art than person. This contrasts greatly with his painting. The portrait of Dorian tells only the truth about its subject, and is grotesque because of this. One could also argue Wilde is making a connection to the third tenant, for he believes Life should imitate Art, and in the novel when it is the other way around the product is quite horrible.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Sibyl's character could be used to argue any of Wilde's four tenants. As Jill points out, she learns art often does not imitate life when her Romeo abandons her, but she also expresses a lot of tenant one and two. Before Dorian came into her life, her art was only ever expressing itself. She was the role she played; she never had life experience that would come out while acting. After she falls in love we see tenant two come into play. Now she had life to draw on, an ideal of love, and because her art would never live up to this it was awful. Even four comes into play with her performances, which originally were lies for her. Once she fell in love and felt true emotions, the roles she played no longer felt genuine. As Sibyl herself said, "I might mimic a passion that I do not feel, but I cannot mimic one that burns me like a fire." She could no longer play at being in love, and so her art was ugly.
In Chapter 10 of The Picture of Dorian Gray has really interested me on the portrait of himself that is changing. Dorian covers the portrait with an ornate satin coverlet, reflecting that the sins he commits will mar its beauty just a worms mar the body of a corpse. When Dorian as the Frame workers to take the painting to the schoolroom so the painting will be safe from prying eyes and no one can actually see his deterioration. I makes me feel like that he is embarrassed for others to see his painting that is getting worse and that other people might see him differently. Meanwhile as we keep reading on Dorian character begins to change. Most people cannot help but dismiss these stories, since Dorian’s face retains an unblemished look of “purity” and “innocence”. Dorian also reflects on his reaction of human experience has been sacrificed to “asceticism” and pledges to live life devoted to discovering “the true nature of the senses”. But going into chapter 12 it shocks me that Dorian is losing most of his friends. One boy committed suicide, and others had their career and reputations ruined. I feel like Dorian is getting creepy and scary. I wonder what will happen in chapter 13???
ReplyDeleteSince meeting Lord Henry, Dorian has treated art as his standard for living, making tenet 3, that life imitates art far more than art imitates life, true in this tale. Dorian lets himself be influenced by a book lent to him by Lord Henry, and suddenly his whole perspective is altered, so that he tries to imitate the main character’s lifestyle. As he did so, to others “he seemed to be of the company of those whom Dante describes as having sought ‘to make themselves perfect by the worship of beauty.’” As Dorian believed art was beauty, he was letting art lead his life by following after its ideal.
ReplyDeleteAs Jill was saying, tenet 1 is evident in Dorian’s portrait, which shows the true Dorian. At first, the perfect painting showed the pure Dorian, but as time has gone on and the sins Dorian has committed become more and more detestable, the painting has been the only thing that’s depicted the truth.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tenants of The Decay of Lying all directly apply to Basil Hallward’s painting of Dorian. As the painting is of Dorian, it is literally of “Life” making it “bad art.” Not only that, but the fact that begins to look uglier and more awful with everything he does also factors into to making it “bad art.” In a semi-literal way, the painting imitates life in becoming worse looking with Dorian’s actions. Dorian on the other hand, does not change and imitates the original painting (Life imitating Art). As for the fourth tenant, the painting begins as a beautiful untrue statement, but as Dorian begins to succumb to Henry’s influence and his own thoughts, the paints becomes an ugly true statement of what Dorian has become.
ReplyDelete-Matthew Hebert
In chapters 10-12 Dorian Gray seems to have lost it. Throughout these chapters, it appears that all he has become concerned about is maintaining his beauty and to hide any sign of ugliness in his life, for example, his portrait, and Sibyl Vane's death. Chapter 10's main focus is on hiding the portrait from others and how the portrait reflects Dorian's ugly soul. In chapter 11 Wilde writes, "Often, on returning home from one of those mysterious and prolonged absences that gave rise to such strange conjecture among those who were his friends, or thought that they were so, he himself would creep upstairs to the locked room, open the door with the key that never left him now, and stand, with a mirror, in front of the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him, looking now at the evil and aging face on the canvas, and now at the fair young face that laughed back at him from the polished glass." This quote reflects the first and second and third tenets of aestheticism, as the art, reflects nothing but itself, and comes from returning life, which is Dorian’s ugly, poisoned soul. Dorian’s soul imitates this art, as the portrait portrays him as ugly, which is what his soul is imitating. The 4th tenant of truth has been portrayed throughout the entire book as everyone seems to be focused around the beauty of people and how in chapter 11, Dorian Gray just blows off Sibyl Vane’s death. “He frowned, and tearing the paper in two, went across the room and flung the pieces away. How ugly it all was! And how horribly real ugliness made things!” This quote shows how fake everybody’s beauty is in this novel and how Dorian hides Sibyl’s death that he indirectly caused, just because it is “ugly”.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between the idea and the practice of living life according Lord Henry’s philosophy. In theory, he who devotes his life to the pursuit of sensations will be fulfilled. By defaulting to our most base nature, the our soul, as well as our temptations, will be satisfied. This is what Lord Henry believes, yet he does not live it himself. It is Dorian, aided with his supernatural affliction, that is able to carry out this lavish, self destructive lifestyle, and instead of giving his spiritual fulfillment, it has caused him great shame. When he encounters Basil, he states that “there was the madness of pride in every word he uttered. He stamped his foot upon the ground in his boyish insolent manner. He felt a terrible joy at the thought that some one else was to share his secret, and that the man who had painted the portrait that was the origin of all his shame was to be burdened for the rest of his life with the hideous memory of what he had done”. Dorian is aware of the moral decay that he has gone through; he knows that the painting, his soul, is hideous, and even so continues to commit evil. He does feel shame, though, and shame is a close friend of fear. So, in Defending Your Life, where they judge one’s worth on their absence of fear, Dorian would be found to be wanting. So, one has to ask, do all who live in this morally corrupt, selfish way feel the shame of what they have done, and thus live their lives with fear, or are there those commit evil deeds and, because is it in their nature, feel no shame, no fear? And would those people pass on to “unite with the universe”, even though they were evil? Is the secret to living without fear living without a conscience?
ReplyDeletethe second chapter was hard to read for me. The attempt to make every thing descriptive and beautiful made it boring long winded and hard to read. "And, certainly, to him life itself was the first, the greatest, of the arts, and for it all the other arts seemed to be but a preparation. " I might be reading this wrong but it seems to contradict that life imitates art. he does later mention fashion which is a part of life which makes me think life and art both imitates each other.
ReplyDelete-Ayla Ohlenbusch
As for the four tenets of art, the first twelve chapter are a corruption of it. This is still a novel in support of aestheticism. The philosophy of Dorian and Henry are aestheticism with a selfish twist.
ReplyDelete1) Art never expresses anything but itself: Dorian's portrait is not allowed to exist purely as a beautiful piece of art, for it instead represents his soul. He cannot find joy in it for it is a measurement of how far he has descended from humanity.
2)All bad tings come from returning to life and nature and elevating them into ideals: Lord Henry and Dorian are elevating human nature and sensations ideals. As a result, Dorian leads a selfish, morally corrupt, self destructing life.
3) Life imitates art far more than art imitates life: it is the opposite in the novel. Dorian's portrait imitates his evil lifestyle, and as a result has become horribly transformed.
4) Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of art: Dorian's portrait tells the truth of Dorian's condition, for it reveals his nature to himself, and is thus a horrible piece of art.
The transition from Dorian caring about other things other than art to caring only about art is interesting. He has completely mirrored Lord Henry in the sense that art is the only thing that seems important to him. As for the Decay Of Lying, I feel like the fourth tenant reflects on what is happening to Dorian. The fourth tenant states that "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art." As Dorian comes to Henry's ideals, the paintings that he says becomes what Dorian has become.
ReplyDeleteThrough the novel we have seen beautiful representations of aestheticism and art, however, in the same way, we have seen those same things reflected in the characters presented. Largely Dorian Grey is a character derived from art, beauty being his primary and practically inhuman quality. From the beginning he seems to personify this untouched thing, without influence. However upon the arrival of Lord Henry into his life things go terribly wrong. In this way I think the novel reflect the principles of “The Decay of Lying” and develops them well. As we see in the novel, Lord Henry understands the danger of influence, proclaiming it the giving of one’s soul to another. I think this is an important theme as we get into the decay of the painting and, in turn, Dorian’s soul. It parallels the idea that art, being Dorian, only expresses itself, except when influenced by life, being Henry, which corrupts the purity of art. In the beginning, Dorian sees the world very idealistically and with little experience, leading to him to speak untruthfully but beautifully, making people love him and want to imitate and associate with him. This to reflects “The Decay of Lying,” proving that though he is untouched by the world he is beautiful because he is untainted and untruthful. Altogether I think it’s safe to claim that Dorian is the embodiment of art and it’s slow decline through influence.
ReplyDelete-eileen
In these chapters we see the full transition to Lord Henry's ideas for Dorian. I am so far liking the concept of this book, it doesn't seem cliche in any way and is very original even for our time. Dorian remains young and handsome while the painting bears the burden of age and ugliness. I am also curious as to how the negative rumors of Dorian came to be. "Yet these whispered scandals only increased in the eyes of many his strange and dangerous charm." It seems like he is completely normal on the outside but gossip seems to be going around about him. Could people have found out about the painting or are they just cynics? I disagree with Basil when he says “writes itself across a man’s face.” because if I saw a serial killer in a normal public setting I don't think I could tell he was a serial killer.
ReplyDeleteI've chosen to reflect upon the tenet, life imitates Art far more than Art imitates life. When I first started reading this novel I was a little confused about this tenet. To me it seemed that Wilde was trying to send an opposite message, one that said that art imitates life. This is because initially, and we see this after the Death of Sybil Vane, Dorian's portrait just reflects his soul. To me, that showed a piece of art modeling life. When Dorian was still pure the portrait was beautiful but as he became more and more tainted the portrait became uglier and uglier to reflect his change. However, now that we've read a few more chapters of the book I'm starting to see, or at least I think I am, that Dorian is really modelling his life after the changes he sees in his picture. He clearly has some sort of almost fascination with watching his decaying image. I could be wrong here but I feel like this is one of the ways that Wilde is actually displaying his idea of life modeling art. Although Dorian's picture is a representation of his soul, I think that he is modeling the his downward life trend after the similar downward trend his picture is taking.
ReplyDelete-Ellie Yates
it was in this section of the book where the larger concepts Wilde is conveying through his novel, we also see the visualization of such concepts. in the question of weather life imitates art or vice versa, i would have to go with the former. so many decisions were made in the story solely because that what would happen in the particular works of art exhibited in the story (ie;the painting and the play)
ReplyDeletethen again...
we find people making similar decisions for similar reasons in real life, and if we consider this novel as a work of art than is it not imitating life?
what came first; the chicken or the egg?
The first 12 chapters of The Picture of Dorian Grey are, through Lord Henry’s philosophy, a corruption of aestheticism. I agree with Morgan in saying Sybil’s character is makes a great supporting argument of the four tenants. By being with Sybil, Dorian is going against the influence of Lord Henry, but when he discovers he was only ever in love with her acting, he is consumed by it. As Jill mentioned, Sybil discovers it is not enjoyable for her to act anymore once she has fallen in love with Dorian and experiences the true feeling of love. She sees her acting as ingenuine, and therefore her art became terrible and ugly. Dorian however, loved Sybil for her acting, just as Lord Henry and Basil love Dorian for his beauty.
ReplyDeleteHe becomes obsessed with hiding the ugliness in his life, as he does with the portrait and his processing of Sybil’s death. He represses the guilt of Sybil’s suicide, as he views it as that in a character in a book or movies, now that he is following Lord Henry’s philosophy. Once influenced by the book Lord Henry gave him, his perspective on life changes drastically. As he continues to be influenced by it, the ugliness of the portrait begins to match the ugliness of his soul. While Lord Henry believes it, he is not truly influenced by the philosophy, he does not live it, as Dorian does. As Dorian’s character begins to change, he loses many friends, one of which commits suicide and the others lose their career and reputation, people deny the accusations because he looks so beautiful, pure, and innocent, not truly living with the shame of his actions. His beauty beings to be associated with evil, rather than good.
The portrait of Dorian transforms, as Ethan mentioned, into a measure how how far he strays from humanity and toward evil and ugliness. As his life imitates art, his sins and the ugliness of his soul are captured within the portrait, in which, art imitates life. Dorian’s beauty does not reflect who he truly is, it lies, it is “the telling of beautiful untrue things”. However, the portrait becomes the only thing that depicts the truth, as it goes against “the proper aim of art”, and is therefore terrible art. When art imitates life more than life imitates art, the product is grotesque.