On Characters in“the Picture of Dorian Gray”——An Interpr(2)

Narcissism:

The narcissistic passion as the distinguishing feature in Wilde’s beauty-seeking can be detected in the novel from Dorian Gray the “wonderfully handsome”. Dorian is so indulgent in his own beauty that “in boyish mockery of Narcissus, he had kissed or feigned to kiss those painted lips,… morning after morning he sat before the portrait, wondering at its beauty, almost enamored of it”. To perpetuate his youth and charm, the narcissist even jeopardizes his soul by wishing: “If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow 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!” The fanatical prayer brings to life a youth who succumbs to self idolatry. Sharing with his character the narcissistic complex, Oscar Wilde the creator presents himself to the world as a brilliantly talented writer who thinks much of himself. He takes great delight in adopting a high profile in public and talking in full flow with his fellowmen about his unorthodox thoughts that shock the world. Besides, Wilde is never one to lose the opportunity of recycling those well-turned phrases and remarks invented by himself. In many of his works, words and phrases made by him are found to be copied repeatedly just because he prefers his own used words to others’. This self-plagiarism is, psychologically, a solid proof of his narcissistic inclination as an aesthete.

Hedonism:

Disillusioned with a human nature distorted by capitalization and commercialization pervading in 19th century British society, aesthetes led by Wilde take hedonism as a spiritual refuge in their pursuit of life ideals. The key role hedonism plays in Wilde’s aestheticism could be discerned from his portrayal of Dorian Gray, the epitome of beauty who pursues a life of exquisite or perverse sensation and exhausts passions for a catalogue of sensory disciplines from interior design to exotic cuisine. As Dorian himself told Lord Henry: “I lounged in the park, or strolled down Piccadilly…There was an exquisite poison in the air. I had a passion for sensations…”. Receiving every day “invitations to dinner, tickets for private views, programmes of charity concerts and the like…”, Dorian in his budding life spends his days on nothing but luxurious sensuous enjoyment, leading a lifestyle “morally” intolerable in an industrial and utilitarian society yet welcomed by aesthetes who take superb sensuous pleasure as a form of self-fulfillment. In “the picture of Dorian Gray”, when Dorian gets the information about the death of Sybil Vane his lover, he announces to Basil: “ A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions, I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” The declaration is consistent with Wilde’s publicized epigrams that “ nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul” and “I can resist anything but temptation”. Yet Wilde’s hedonism is not mere idleness, it is, instead, a “new hedonism” which takes sensuous pleasure as the ultimate aim in the creation of art. As a new hedonist to every inch, Wilde himself is always searching for new sensations, which can be observed from his way in writing the novel. He devotes a whole chapter (chapter11) to an exhaustive account of how Dorian abandons himself to such sensuous pleasures as collecting perfume, jewels and embroideries, etc, the details of which points toward an aesthete’s love of opulent decoration and the endeavors he makes in the study of it. But evidently, the hedonism meant for the “redemption of  mankind’s souls” as claimed by aesthetes is in essence escapism that can’t bear fruits in the end. 

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