Life as the Greatest of Arts: The Cult of Beauty in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

1. “Life as the Greatest of the Arts” from “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde (1891)

2. SPEAKING • Think back to the Aesthetic Movement and decide which of the following themes might be developed in the passage. More than one choice is possible. • a the utilitarian philosophy; • b the cult of beauty; • c the importance of nature; • d rationalism; • e sensual pleasures; • f life beyond common morality. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Focus on the meaning. • Compare Dorian’s and the portrait’s physical features. • DORIAN • THE PORTRAIT • wonderful beauty (l.1); • unspotted (l.6); • purity of face (l. 8); • innocence (l.9); • charming and graceful (l.10); • fair young face (l.17); • white hand (l.24); • misshapen body (l. 26); • wrinkling forehead (l.22); • heavy sensual mouth (l.23); • failing limbs (l.26); • evil and ageing face (l.17); • coarse bloated hand (l. 25);

3. How do people react to Dorian’s lifestyle? • Rumours about his immoral lifestyle ran through London but people in seeing his beauty and innocent face could not believe anything could dishonour him. • How does Dorian react when he sees himself on the canvas? • He cannot avoid feeling a sense of pleasure which makes him feel more and more enamoured of himself and makes him mock the horrible man in the picture. • How do we know that Dorian leads a double life? Quote from the text. • ”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 (ll. 12-13); • “There were moments , indeed, at nights, when lying sleepless in his own delicately-scented chamber , or in the sordid room of the little ill-famed tavern near the Docks, which, under an assumed name, and in disguise , it was his habit to frequent” (ll.27-30)

4. Being surrounded by beautiful things was one of Wilde’s aesthetic principles and part of the dandy’s philosophy. How does this principle apply to Dorian? Support your answer with appropriate quotations. • Dorian, just as his creator Oscar Wilde, loved to be surrounded by beautiful things, in fact : • “Once or twice every month during the winter , and on each Wednesday evening while the season lasted, he would throw open to the world his beautiful house and have the most celebrated musicians of the day to charm his guests with the wonder of their art. • His little dinners …. were noted as much for the careful selection and placing of those invited as for the exquisite taste shown in the decoration of the table, with its subtle symphonic arrangements of exotic flowers, and embroidered cloths, and antique plate of gold and silver…” (ll. 36-44). • “ … there were many, especially among the very young men, who saw … in Dorian Gray the true realization of a type of which they had dreamed in Eton or Oxford days, a type that was to combine something of the real culture of the scholar with all the grace and distinction and perfect manner of a citizen of the world” (ll. 44-48) • Fashion …. had, of course, its fascination for him. His mode of dressing, and the particular styles that from time to time he affected, had their marked influence on the young exquisites of the Mayfair balls …who copied him in everything that he did, and tried to reproduce the accidental charm of his graceful … fopperies” (ll. 50-55).

5. Focus on the structure. Give a heading to each paragraph: • Paragraph 1: • Paragraph 2 • Paragraph 3 • Paragraph 4 • Dorian’s eternal beauty. • The picture: Dorian’s true self; • Dorian’s double life: sordid adventures and sophisticated experiences. • Life as the greatest of arts. • Write a short summary of the passage. (maximum 110 words). • Despite the passing of time Dorian stays young and beautiful and, even if rumours run through London about his way of life, the people who meet him can see no evil in his physical aspect but only the purity of a face that recalls the memory of innocence. Only his portrait , which he keeps in a locked room, shows the signs of Dorian’s evil conduct and of his lack of morality. Dorian experiments a double life, both sordid and sophisticated, and fulfils all his passions and sensations. Life is for him the greatest of all arts and his sophisticated behaviour becomes an example to be followed. (words 107)

6. WRITING NES • Is the novel consistent with Wilde’s criticism of Victorian society? Do you find it consistent with his assertion that art should have no moral aim? (maximum 80 words). • The ending is intensely moral, and seems to suggest that there is a price to be paid for a life of pleasure. • The portrait may symbolize the immorality of Victorian society hidden behind a mask of purity and respectability represented by Dorian eternal youth and beauty. • By stabbing the portrait and killing himself Dorian brings the portrait back to its original beauty confirming Wilde’s assertion that art is neither moral nor immoral, it is immortal and survives life. (78 words).

7. Writing NES • Why should Tess “pay”? Do you think that her “being punished” is consistent with the Victorian moral code? Explain. (maximum 200 words). • Hardy’s treatment of the theme of the “fallen woman” in his novel “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” clearly shows his criticism of the accepted moral standards. The pressure of conventions and social environment was in fact very strong on women in Victorian England. They were confined to the family world and working for a living exposed them to risk of ruining their reputation, as happens to Tess when she is raped by Alec D’Urberville. • The passage well exemplifies the hypocrisy of Victorian morality in the double code of behaviour designed for men and women. While Tess is ready to accept her husband’s love affair before marriage, the Victorian code of behaviour is so deeply rooted in Angel that he cannot even consider Tess as a victim, but puts all the blame on her: the “fallen woman” has to pay for her ‘sin’ and be ‘punished’ with rejection. • In the novel all the stages of her degradation are described. As women were utterly dependent on men for a living, Angel’s cowardice, and consequent desertion, throws Tess back in the arms of her seducer, and her few moments of happiness, after Angel’s return, will have to be paid for with her death. • (199 words).

8. Writing NES • Comment on the theme of the “fallen woman” also considering how it is dealt with in Hardy’s “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” and Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”. (maximum 150 words). • In Victorian England women had to be pure and morally superior to men; marriage was for life; sex was unmentionable; women’s role in society was irrelevant. Whenever a novel depicted deviation from the accepted moral standards, the appropriate moral lesson had to be firmly underlined, so that in the end the “fallen woman” was seen to be punished. In fact, Victorian society women had to take their “responsibilities” and pay for their “evil” behaviour: Victorian society would not forgive them. • The moral code which is easily recognisable in Victorian England through Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” is also to be found in Puritan New England through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ”The Scarlett Letter”. Both novels exhibit in different ways and different historical periods the prejudice against women of a society that was by no means ready to recognise its own responsibilities. (140 words)