Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature

Dorian Gray, the Timeless Hero

Diploma Thesis Brno 2014

Supervisor: Mgr. Pavla Buchtová Author: Bc. Veronika Hetmánková

I hereby declare that I have worked on this thesis on my own, and that I used only the sources listed in the bibliography.

I agree that this thesis can be filed in the Library of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University in Brno and made available for academic purposes.

...... Brno 2014 Bc. Veronika Hermánková

Acknowledgment

Most of all I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Pavla Buchtová for her time, help and for her valuable advice which helped to create this thesis. Furthermore, my thanks go to the closest people who helped me during the time of writing and for their willingness to help and give opinion. Abstract

This diploma thesis deals with the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and its main protagonist. It attempts to explore the character of Dorian Gray and the change in the attitude of the society towards him. The thesis investigates the reception of the novel in Victorian society as well as in modern society and implies some explanations as to why this former outcast of Victorian times might actually be received favorably in modern age. The first part of the thesis deals with facts about Oscar Wilde and it offers some important information about the novel as well as about the main protagonist. In the second part, which might be called the practical part, the thesis compares the main differences in reception of the novel and the character and discuses several modern adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray with the intention to prove

Dorian Gray to be a timeless literary character inspiring many today.

Key Words

Oscar Wilde, Dorian Gray, Victorian Era, aestheticism, homosexuality, beauty, youth, vanity morality, John Gray, social values, decadence. Anotace

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá rozborem novely „Obraz Doriana Graye― a zejména pak rozborem osobnosti jejího hlavního protagonisty. Práce se snaží prozkoumat život Doriana, a také změny postojů společnosti k jeho osobě. Dále jsou v práci také zkoumány způsoby přijetí novely v době viktoriánské a v naší moderní době a jsou zde nastíněny možné důvody proč by tato Viktoriánskou dobou odsuzovaná postava mohla být vnímána pozitivně v naší době. První část této práce se zabývá osobností Oscara Wilda a odhaluje důležité informace o novele a jejím hlavním hrdinovi. Druhá část práce se zaměřuje na porovnání hlavních rozdílů ve společenském přijetí hrdiny a poté rozebírá několik moderních adaptací postavy

Doriana Graye s úmyslem dokázat, že Dorian Gray představuje nadčasového hrdinu, který nepřestává inspirovat mnohé i dnes.

Klíčová slova viktoriánská doba, estetismus, homosexualita, krása, mládí, marnivost, etika, John

Gray, společenské hodnoty, dekadence. Table of contents

Introduction ...... - 7 - 1. The Novel ...... - 9 - 1.1. The Irish Rebel ...... - 9 - 1.2. The Art for Art’s sake ...... - 13 - 1.3. The Victorian Era ...... - 18 - 2. The trouble with Dorian Gray ...... - 23 - 2.1. Reception of the novel in Victorian Britain ...... - 23 - 2.1.1. Morality ...... - 25 - 2.1.2. Sexuality ...... - 28 - 2.1.3. Literary inadequacy ...... - 31 - 2.2. Reception of the novel in modern era ...... - 34 - 3. Meet Dorian Gray ...... - 38 - 3.1. The possible Dorian Gray ...... - 38 - 3.2. Dorian Gray from the novel ...... - 40 - 4. Dorian Gray and the contemporary relationship to beauty ...... - 45 - 4.1. Dorian Gray and Dandyism ...... - 45 - 4.2. Dorian Gray and beauty today ...... - 48 - 4.2.1. Vanity ...... - 50 - 4.2.2. Beauty as a mask ...... - 51 - 4.2.3. Living forever ...... - 54 - 5. The present image of Dorian Gray ...... - 56 - 5.1. Modern movie adaptations ...... - 56 - 5.1.1. Dorian Gray 2009 and its weaknesses ...... - 57 - 5.2. Modern theatre adaptations ...... - 60 - 5.2.1. Dorian Descent ...... - 60 - 5.2.2. Selfie ...... - 61 - 5.3. Other modern adaptations ...... - 64 - Conclusion ...... - 67 - Resume ...... - 70 - References ...... - 71 -

Introduction

There have been many famous authors around the world who left behind some wonderful works which we continue to admire and which we still perceive as a bottomless source of inspiration. We can experience their legacy even in the age when they are no longer amongst us. Undoubtedly, Oscar Wilde represents such a person.

Those are not only his works for which we appreciate him but also his life story which has so much to tell us today. Especially as far as the topics of tolerance and equality amongst people is concerned, Oscar Wilde represents a man for whom life had in store many serious life lessons and difficult events to overcome.

Oscar Wilde knew how to entertain his audience and also how to shock his audience. Who could have presumed that after series of successful theatre plays thanks to which he build up his carrier and prestige, he would fall from the distinguished circles of Victorian society into the very depths of prison life being treated as a criminal. In the end it was the forbidden love with Lord Alfred that ―dare not speaks its name‖ and the uncompromising public opinion of Victorians that ensured his downfall. Fortunately, today our minds are more opened and for that reason we are willing to offer him the rightful place amongst other respected authors without condemnation and prejudices.

Basically the same subject is being discussed in this thesis in relation to one of

Wilde's heroes. We might argue that the hero of his only novel The Picture of Dorian

Gray exhibits a very similar faith. Dorian Gray, the leading character of the novel, caused outrage during the time of its publishing and he was almost certain to become a disastrous character in the eyes of people of his time for they were not opened to

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accept his story, moreover, it was impossible for them to admit that he might be actually pointing out the true face of their hypocritical society.

Driven by disgust, upon discovering hidden homoerotic connotations in the novel, the Victorian public called Dorian as well as his creator sick and immoral individuals who had to be expelled from their society.

Many years have passed though and we might start observing changes in reception of the novel and its hero. Today we can find the novel amongst the classics of the literature and we are interested in discovering who the actual Dorian Gray was and what his secrets were. We are captivated by his beauty and we wonder how he made his picture grow old instead of him. There is something mystical about Dorian

Gray that makes us attempt to bring his character to life for instance in the form of a movie characters and by such acts we are actually creating a living picture of him which we can admire.

This thesis believes that the perception of Dorian as a novel character changes as the society’s mindset takes different shapes. It is the main purpose of this thesis to investigate why Dorian Gray is so popular for modern society and prove that our century is the right time for him to exist. Maybe Dorian Gray was simply introduced in the wrong time and therefore the unreadiness of the society did not allow him to be understood in a way we can in the present time.

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1. The Novel

At the very beginning, it is essential to focus on several aspects that surround the novel itself. Although this thesis does not intend to give a summary of the entire novel and its characters, we must understand the basic factors that are presented there and circumstances that are connected to The Picture of Dorian Gray. This chapter provides an insight into the life of the creator of the book, the main stylistic features, the situation of the society of that time and also a shortened recapitulation of the plot.

1.1. The Irish Rebel

“I have put my genius into my life, and have put only my talent into my works”

Oscar Wilde

To understand Dorian Gray properly we must first understand his creator. Very frequently we will have the chance to read about the similarities between Wilde's life and the life of Dorian Gray. There are numerous articles written about Oscar Wilde and claiming that he is actually autobiographical in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Therefore, let us take a look into the life of this Victorian celebrity.

Witty, controversial, rebellious ... It would be possible to continue with other synonyms describing this extraordinary gifted writer and artist. Till today, Oscar

Wilde remains an important persona of the literary world. He became famous not only for his works from the field of literature and theatre but also for his philosophies, interesting lifestyle and art. At first, it is important to point out that although blessed with intelligence and many talents, his life was never simple and he experienced many misfortunes and suffering mainly due to his views and opinions which very often were

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not compatible with the opinions of the society he lived in i.e. Victorian society.

Nevertheless, for the modern society he still fascinates many and his works are considered timeless.

Oscar Fingal O´Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin to Sir William Wilde and Jane Wilde. Both of his parents were well educated and influenced Wilde deeply. Wilde's mother was a writer herself and as a passionate poet she inculcated her love for poems in her son. His father worked as an oto- ophtalmologic surgeon and also produced several writings concerning archeology and peasant folklore.

In 1870s, already recognized as an incredibly intelligent student, Wilde started attending Trinity College, Dublin. University years had a significant impact on Wilde, giving him the opportunity to meet many interesting and intelligent people. University also ignited his passion for Greek, art, philosophy and literature. It was already here at the Trinity College that he started publishing lyrics and poems. Later during his studies he was accepted to Magdalen College at Oxford University. At Oxford

University, he got familiar with the aesthetic and decadent movement. (Bloom, 2008, p. 1-2)

Aesthetic movement is one of the major themes in the life of Oscar Wilde and whenever aestheticism is mentioned; his name is amongst the first ones to come to mind. Celebrating the beauty of art and enjoying the pleasures it gives us could serve as a brief description of aestheticism. Starting at Oxford, Wilde was known for his extravagant way of dressing and style in general and his believes supporting the idea to enjoy (thoroughly) all kinds of pleasures that life has to offer. He was a collector of expensive pieces of art and loved to surround himself by solely beautiful things worth

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admiring. There were several people to play an important role in influencing Wilde in the mater of aestheticism; Walter Peter and John Ruskin. (Raby, 1988, p. 15)

As for his intimate life, Wilde got married to Constance Lloyd with whom he had two sons. Before his marriage, Wilde was said to be quite popular amongst women especially for his outsider-like aura. However, early in his live he started showing attraction and interest in the same sex. Adoration of young and beautiful men and their bodies and so called ―Greek love‖, which was also a part of aesthetic believes, initiated troubles that were not foreseen. It is necessary to highlight that this behavior was unacceptable in the Victorian era and considered―sodomy‖. In the end

Wild paid a high price for his sexual tendencies and became an outcast of his society.

Probably the most significant relationship to discuss was particularly the one with

Lord Alfred Douglas, a young aristocrat who shaped Wilde's life further. It is said that

Wilde was introduced by Douglas into the London’s underground and prostitution. It was because of this particular relationship that in the end Wilde was brought to the court where he was charged for his behavior and ended up in prison. After two years of hard labor, life for Wilde was never the same again. (Harris, 2007, p.86-87)

Although the scandalous side of Wilde's life is very interesting, we cannot leave out his carrier of a writer. At the very start of his carrier, his writings were not highly appreciated and so Wilde had to gain his place of a respected writer. As already mentioned above, he started writing quite early in his life, during his studies at the Trinity College. He started up with journalism, contributing to various journals and sharing his views on art. Later he became the editor of The Lady’s Magazine. During this time he started to develop into a much more skillful writer. From this time on,

Wilde was regularly publishing various stories into different magazines; we can mention The Happy Prince and Other Tales, A House of Pomegranates and others.

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Furthermore, when tired of journalism Wilde wrote several more serious essays concerning his dedication to art and aestheticism e.g. The Decay of Lying or The Critic as Artist.

His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in 1890 in the

Lippincott’s Magazine. The novel fired many opinions, mostly negative though. Since the main protagonist became the theme for this thesis, we shall look at the novel closer in the further chapters. (Turner, 2013, p.272-276)

Later in 1892 Wilde found his way into the world of the theatre. Some of the initial plays were not very popular (e.g. The Duchess of Padua) although later Wilde made success with a tragic play called Salome. Nevertheless, his comedies dealing with society were the most appreciated. We have already discussed Wilde's witty nature and it was here that he used this skill thoroughly. His comedies were full of hidden criticism and allusions towards Victorian ways of thinking and they became extremely popular. Let us mention The Women of No Importance or An Ideal

Husband. His last play and at the same time the one that is noted as a prime masterpiece is The Importance of Being Ernest, once again criticizing Victorian ways of living and shallowness of the people. (Raby, 1997, p.152-159).

Towards the end of his life, we shall speak about the period that was fatal for him. As pointed before, Wilde served his time in prison for his controversial behavior and the charges raised against him were pointing mainly at his sexual behavior. His life in prison caused serious health issues and psychological turmoil. His suffering can be seen in his Ballad of Reading goal that very much sums up his prison experience.

After his release, Wilde left to Paris and struggled to put his life back together.

Interestingly enough, he met Lord Alfred again. His deteriorated health from the time spent in prison gradually worsened and on November 30, 1900 Oscar Wilde dyed of

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cerebral meningitis. He was buried in Cimetiére de Bagneux in Paris. (Raby, 1997 p.

395-396)

Oscar Wilde remains a celebrity and his life story has earned eternity. We might think of him as a rebel of his times when we consider everything that has been stated so far and yet we let him inspire us and till this day we try to find meanings in his words. His life is also an inspiration for people who fight to find their place in the world due to their different sexual orientation. He is an example of a person who suffered greatly and lost everything for these exact reasons and being a famous person, the reminder of his acts have a great influence on the target minority. Apart from that, he has left us work which entertains us as well as makes us wonder and question things which surround us from the outside but also ourselves. He was convicted of being immoral but we know better today, it is only now that the public is ready to understand and acknowledge his morality.

1.2. The Art for Art’s sake

In order to get deeper into the life of Oscar Wilde and later to understand the hero of his only novel we need to take a closer look into aestheticism. Wilde as well as the hero of The Picture of Dorian Gray lived their lives as aesthetes. This particular life philosophy was unique because it allowed a person to become free on many levels.

Something that we only wish for but dare not, yet it is captivating to at least experience such life while reading a novel for instance.

From the French ''l'art pour l'art'', the slogan above is connected to the movement popular in the world of 19th century and in Victorian Britain particularly, promoting the value of art and beauty, called Aestheticism – also known as ―The Cult of Beauty‖. Duggan (2008) explains the core beliefs of aestheticism as follows:

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Real art takes no part in molding the social or moral identities of society, nor

should it. Art should be beautiful and pleasure its observer, but to imply

further-reaching influence, would be a mistake. (p. 61)

In theory, it was not desirable to expect art to give the society any moral meaning or guidance; the esthetes concentrated only on the sensations that came out of simply admiring the art.

Gradually this idea of pleasure and admiration expanded from solely art worshipping to a kind of philosophy of how to live ones life in an aesthetic manner.

Living a life of an aesthete meant living life in whatever manner that brings delight and bliss. This characteristic is linked to the term ―hedonism‖ which basically supported the same idea of living one’s life. (Duggan, 2008)

When we think about the way we live today, the idea of admiration just for the sake of admiration or experiencing things only for the sake of experience might give us a familiar sensation. If we were to look at ourselves it would be only natural that we like to surround ourselves by beautiful things, we buy expensive and meaningless things just to satisfy us for a moment and then we spend on other things which bring pleasure for maybe few more moments. Therefore, this explanation of living ones life as an aesthete might actually remind us of something that we know and experience often. Do we live in the age of aesthetes then?

However, if we come back to aestheticism and its beginnings we certainly must speak about the prominent writers. In connection with these, it is important to mention the term ―decadence‖. In 19th century aestheticism was related to the decadence movement which originated in France. Decadent writers often chose dark and horror- like topics for their novels and used fictive and romantic style.

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There were two prominent aesthetic writers (although there were more) that influenced many young artists including Oscar Wilde. Walter Peters who was a professor at Oxford University, essayist, writer and critic and who strongly focused on the ideals of beauty. The second name to mention is Algernon Charles Swinburne who was a poet, critic and playwright and who also explored and contributed to the aesthetic movement with his literary works, focusing on slightly more delicate topics of sexuality and male beauty which was a taboo back in Victorian England. (Morgan,

1993, p.315)

So far we have discussed the fundamental elements of aesthetic movement and its representatives. Much more interesting though, are the writings themselves. While reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, surely every reader will notice the special kind of ornamented language that aims to describe the beauty of e.g. surroundings, individual objects or people. Right from the beginning of the first chapter of The Picture of

Dorian Gray when the reader is introduced to the environment where the story takes place, exhibits the aesthetic features:

... And now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the

long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window,

producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those

pallid jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is

necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion. (p. 7)

By aesthetic features we mean the soft and vivid language as if in ―fantastic shadows‖ or ―momentary Japanese effect‖ which gives us the pleasure of only imagining such scene. That is the main goal of aestheticism; to let the beauty of things and situations to produce a unique experience for the sake of simply admiration.

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It has been mentioned before, that aesthetes often referred to beauty of a male body. A body that was feminine, youthful and delicate. This was highly appreciated by aesthetes. Dorian Gray possessed particularly these features. Next example from The

Picture of Dorian Gray illustrates what his body resembled to:

Lord Henry looked at him. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with

his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was

something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth

was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. (p. 23)

A person possessing such physical attributes was a perfect match for aesthetes, simply because for them such male beauty with a tint of feminine delicacy was something to be admired. A young body is full of life and is ready to set out for an adventure of exploring life and its experience to the fullest. It is a promise of new aesthetic life; such as the one of Dorian Gray.

Now, we shall move on to The Picture of Dorian Gray. First, we should mention that it is both a decadent and aesthetic work, mainly for its rather dark plot and even darker ending. The Picture of Dorian Gray tells a story of a young man who at the beginning does not recognize his extraordinary gift of beauty. There are two other very important characters in the life of Dorian. They are shaping his character, offering him choices and opinions to live according to. The two characters are a painter; Basil Hallward and a somewhat manipulative aristocrat Lord Henry Wotton.

Basil sees the best of natures in Dorian and always gives him moral advice.

Furthermore, he is the first to admire Dorian incredible beauty and it ignites a spark of renewal in his carrier as a painter.

On the contrary, Lord Henry comes to know the young man later and being immediately fascinated by him, he starts to slowly lure him into his life philosophy of

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living like a hedonist, letting him know about his beauty and how quickly the youth and beauty fade away. Dorian is heavily impacted by Henries’ speech and intelligence and upon the finished portrait of Basil Hallward he recognizes what he has not seen before – his beauty. In despair he utters a kind of a prayer. He wishes the portrait to grow old instead of him so that his looks could be preserved.

From now on, Dorian starts to live a very different lifestyle that we could call a life according to aesthetic rules and hedonism in extreme. Here is an instance (from

The Picture of Dorian Gray) of a piece of advice Dorian was given by Lord Henry on how to live his life:

Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be

always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing ... A new hedonism-

that is what our century wants. (p. 30)

―The wonderful life in you‖ here again, we can notice the reference to Dorian´s youth and what he could achieve through that. By searching for ―New sensations‖ aesthetes refuse to live under rules of society because these are rigid, boring and do not enrich our souls. Lord Henry implies that world needs to get rid of the restrains made by society rules.

Thenceforth, Dorian lives his life dedicated to pleasure and beauty. He goes so far that he becomes a shallow, vain and corrupted person capable of murder and destruction of lives of others. Even his first love Sybil Vane commits a suicide upon his cruel and cold behavior towards her. His looks remain untouched but instead, the portrait becomes a mirror of his soul and horrible deeds. This life cannot continue its way forever and in the end even Dorian, though under the impression of being invincible comes to acknowledge how dreadful his life has been. At the very end he stabs the portrait and as a result he dies himself. When the police arrive they find an

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old and gruesome looking man lying on the floor and the picture of a beautiful young man. (Wilde, 1994)

There are many secrets and mysteries hidden behind this quite simply looking plot. Gradually, critics started to discover hidden meaning and explanations in the novel. The most disturbing for them were homoerotic implications which they thought they discovered but in fact, these were not explicitly stated in the novel. Therefore, the book was not well received and the character of Dorian Gray became an outcast because he did not meet the ideology of Victorian Society.

1.3. The Victorian Era

The story of Dorian Gray takes us into a different historical period. We could call it a period of contrasts. The wealthy and the poor, the pure and the damned, we could continue further. The setting in the book guides its readers through Victorian society and its both bright and dark side. For that reason, let us take a look at some historical facts that might help us understand the situation around the novel and Dorian

Gray.

To begin with, it is important to recognize that Victorian period took over 60 years and the country went through different stages of development. At the very beginning the situation in the Great Britain was not as easy as we could imagine. The very first years were filled with confusion, social and political turmoil mainly due to rapid changes that took place. Most of the people lived in villages or in farms but because of the process of industrialization, by the year 1851 half of the population became urban. At first, these changes brought many problems. People had nowhere to work, not much to eat and the crime rate got higher than at any other time. The

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situation got better with the arrival of railways. It was through the technological revolution that more vacancies appeared. (Mitchell, 1996, p.5)

In this early part of Victorian era some other socially important events took place. For instance, education started to be more supported by the government

(although not yet compulsory) and women’s rights movements started to slowly form.

Women could now choose different education and slightly extend job opportunities, which had been impossible before.

Later on, we can see a great expansion of Great Britain. It was progress on many levels. Families could enjoy more secure lives; education became available to every child, science, architecture, philosophy and literature also advanced. The first world’s fair or The Great Exhibition was established so that people could observe the progress and British supremacy in world markets. All of that was placed into a magnificent work of architecture called The Crystal Palace.

Although one could assume that Victorians had it all, towards the end of

Victoria’s reign the situation in Great Britain started to deteriorate. We could mention few main concerns such as the agricultural depression, various diseases and also there were significantly more women than men. Men started to leave the country and move to colonies in order to find success and new experience. On the other hand, women started to have even more opportunities for themselves. Now they were able to take clerical jobs or work as physicians or teachers. Big change took place also in politics; women could now become part of local governments organizations, settlement houses etc. The situation for women changed rapidly and from being strictly faithful and loyal housewives they could finally earn their own money and become independent human beings. (Mitchel, 1996, p.13-14)

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While so far we have outlined the overall situation of Victorian Britain it is worth pointing out more specific environments such as family life in this epoch. It is interesting that although Victorian era was very much about religious and puritan way of life, the real world behind the closed doors was very different. Many call this period

―the era of hypocrisy‖ particularly for many contradictions in lifestyle. (Moore, 2010)

Let us begin with the basic ideology of women in those times. Apart from those who fought for freedom, many young women strived for a perfect gentleman who would become a good husband and provider with a good portion of masculinity.

Often, young girls from a very early age knew that a good marriage is the ultimate goal of their life. On the contrary, those girls who were not so fortunate and perhaps lacking money and a good name were forced to live knowing they were not the

―perfect match‖. Not only women but also men were searching for the ideal marriage or partner. If men did not live up to women expectations, there was no chance for a marriage. Also, English society of the 19th century was still highly stratified. The working class, meaning the people usually working manually, the middle class which was a diverse class including everyone between working class and elite and lastly the aristocracy. The class stratification played an important role in choosing the most suitable partner. (Appell, 2012)

Once married, the Victorian household must have shown certain qualities. In the first place it was the moral and pure atmosphere. Every husband was faithful to his wife, their children were given the best possible education, the wife was able to manage and order the whole household including its stuff or servants (if there were any). The question remains then, why there were so many sexually transmitted illnesses and prostitution. Many people, men and women died of syphilis, in some cases even children. The issue of sex was strictly inappropriate and any traits of too

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liberal way of life way destined to be erased. Excessive sexuality was considered unhealthy and according to Victorians one could even get sick as a result of this activity. Homosexual love was treated as sodomy and often resulted in severe punishment and expulsion out of the society. Yet interestingly enough, London’s underground was filled with drugs and prostitution, homosexual love and experimenting. (Shaw, 2010).

One of the ways to explore a certain historical period and its society is to take a look into the literature of that time. Victorian England loved poetry which was popular and frequent but it was novel that later became a hit. As it was mentioned previously, change was the highlight of Victorian England and for that reason many authors reflected the change in their works. For some writers, these abrupt changes meant progress and a glimpse of new hope for the future. There were other writers and thinkers though, who were not so fond of this great turnover. They were very much concerned about the negative outcome of things, especially the inequality amongst the society and classes. It was only a matter of time that the writers would start to use these social issues as main themes and topics of their works. Charles Dickens, One of the greatest authors of that time, is one of the instances often addressing social issues and troubles. Furthermore, women writers Emily and Charlotte Bronte who had to literary fight their way to literary world. It is worth mentioning few other prominent authors such as George Eliot, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy etc.

(Rahn, 2011)

Another genre popular amongst the Victorians was the Gothic novel. It is here that all the dark corners of the society were captured and depicted by writers. Stories taking place in London’s underground, revealing horrific crimes and nature of people, drugs and other antisocial activities that we can observe for instance in Bram Stoker’s

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Dracula, Bronte’s Wuthering Heights or Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekill and

Mr. Hyde. People could read similar stories not only in form of novels but also as serial fiction of a lower quality like Penny Dreadful that was especially appreciated by the working class. (Rahn, 2011)

Coming back to Wilde and looking back at what has already been discussed, there is no way that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a science fiction story that came out purely of its author’s imagination. Wilde created a protagonist who challenged the

Victorian society and uncovered the harsh truth that nobody wanted to see. As mentioned previously, there were other Victorian writers who were rather pessimistic about their society and expressed their disapproval but they were very careful not to give themselves away. Moreover, it was important that the writers expressed their moral stand and differentiate between what is good and evil. This Victorians valued about the literature.

Maybe if Wilde were to appear in contemporary society he would be accepted differently. Although there are still quarrels in the matter of sexuality, race or rights equality, at least we can notice some changes coming our way. The contemporary social values are also very different from those in Victorian era. The contemporary society is an open, plural and rationalized society and human beings are now able and allowed to control their own life, which in theory means that people may decide various possible models of social life. Unlike Victorian society which was driven only by strict moral values which were compulsory for everyone. On the other hand, the traditional values were clearly defined and people had no other choice than either good or evil, which might not sound right for us today but it might have solved the conflicts of values and morality which we face in contemporary society. (Chang, 1988)

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2. The trouble with Dorian Gray

2.1. Reception of the novel in Victorian Britain

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own

shame.”

From The Picture of Dorian Gray

In this chapter we are going to focus on the position of the troublesome novel and its hero in its epoch and its gradual change towards our modern age. It will take us into the age when the novel was rejected and it will bring us to the point when we consider it a masterpiece. Although many might have thought of the novel only as a poisonous book and of its hero only as a villain who eventually paid for his wrong choices, we shall take a closer look at this conclusion as it might not be as simple. Of course that this would be the perfect Victorian ending of the novel, containing true and moral lesson that contributes to the society and maybe gives young people a cautionary tale but what if the old man lying in the attic in front of the picture of a young Adonis did not ―really‖ die the way we perceive death of a character. What if the character remains young and popular and continues traveling throughout other century and still keeps his freshness? Later we will be able to observe how much truthful his picture actually is and we shall reveal that Dorian does not grow old after all. Before we get to the main point, it would be wise to start with books which were once prohibited for the novel we are talking about went through the same process.

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Let us begin with the idea of book banishment. For the past few years, several literary associations and organization has got together under the patronage of

American Library Association and has held an annual event called ―Banned Book

Week‖ that is celebrated throughout September 21-27. Its purpose is very straight forward. It aims to give readers absolute freedom as far as books and reading are concerned. As we know, every book goes through a kind of evaluation and later is given a ―label‖ that basically rates its content. Nowadays, the range of books that we are allowed to read is quite wide. We have a free hand to choose from many texts and publications. We are even aware of the works which carry ―dicey content‖ waiting for customers on their bookshelves. For instance let’s consider the famous Fifty Shades of

Gray. We must acknowledge one fact, That is, we like to read books which are mysterious, immoral, decadent and dark with topics such as drugs, sexuality, crime and basically everything that is somehow forbidden in our society. It is a paradox though, that by banning the book we actually increase the interest of readers.

(American Library Association, 2013)

With this in mind, we shall move forward to explore The Picture of Dorian

Gray which struggled greatly due to censorship and criticism. It is interesting though, that when we take a look at the novel now, the majority of readers will show excitement and favor towards it. Nowadays, we even consider the novel a classic and we have it as a literary example in our classrooms. What were the reasons for such a negative response and to interpret why it was so previously, we must look back into

Victorian era.

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2.1.1. Morality

When we consider the previously described situation in Victorian Era earlier in the thesis, we shall come to the conclusion that because of the overall rigidity amongst

Victorians it was probably not easy for the writers of that time to publish works which would speak openly about controversial topics. Once again, we have to bear in mind that it was very important for Victorians to produce books that carried moral lessons or content that would have explained people how to distinguish between good and evil according to what was generally believed and what supported their traditional values.

We can now acknowledge that Victorian era was probably not the best period to publish The Picture of Dorian Gray, although Oscar Wilde might have thought otherwise. The Novel did not look quite as we know it today. It appeared in 1890 in

Lippincott's Monthly Magazine as a serial story and it was already altered and censured by Lippincott’s editor JM Stoddart due to its questionable content. As a matter of fact, Stoddart was horrified by what he had received on his desk. Wilde was not there to judge or approve of the ―cut outs‖ of the novel and if he had wanted to present his work to the public he simply had to conform. The main passages that were altered or omitted were those showing mainly homoerotic undertones between the main characters. (Flood, 2011)

After its publication in Lippincott’s Magazine, there was another adjustment made on the book in order to get it published as a novel in a form of a real book.

Wilde had to reconsider his story and omit or change other possibly dangerous phrases and paragraphs. Wilde put his mind to emend scenes which proposed immoral behavior or simply things which seemed to be crossing the line too much.

Nonetheless, the book was successfully sent to the light of the world in 1891.

Although, we have already discussed two instances that Wilde was forced to remake

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the novel’s content and now one might think that there was nothing but only a ―clean story‖ left that the Victorians could actually accept, was still far fetched. The novel caused outrage and if anything could make Wilde's future reputation worse, it was probably his only novel. Let’s only mention few prominent adjectives that were usually uttered when The Picture of Dorian Gray was mentioned: "vulgar", "unclean",

"poisonous" and "discreditable" and the row could continue further. (Allen & Barnes,

2011) In the onward examples we shall discover some of the first opinions of the critiques on the newie.

The following paragraph from Daily Chronicle (as cited in Thomas, 2009, p.

186) provides an example of a reaction to the Picture of Dorian Gray:

Dullness and dirt are the chief features of Lippincott’s this month. The element

in it that is unclean, though undeniably amusing, is furnished by Mr. Oscar

Wilde's story of The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is a tale spawned from the

leprous literature of the French decadents – a poisonous book, the atmosphere

of which is heavy with the mephitis odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction -

a gloating study of the mental and physical corruption of a fresh, fair and

golden youth, which might be horrible and fascinating but for its effeminate

frivolity, its studied insincerity, its theatrical cynicism, its tawdry mysticism, its

flippant philosophisings, and the contaminating trail of garish vulgarity which

is over all Mr. Wilde's elaborate Wardour Streer aestheticism and obtrusively

cheap scholarship.

In this extract, first of all, it would be only natural to ask a question why it is, that even after a previous alternation of the work there is such a negative and sharp- tongued comment. This question would only take us further into this complicated plot.

We can now get a perfect image of how this piece of literature was perceived. The

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extract tells us how horrible and sick the novel is and indicates that it is not even worth reading since it is ―a poisonous book‖.

In addition, we can also sense a kind of anxiety that comes from this piece of text. Anxiety expressed by words such as ―effeminate frivolity‖, moral and spiritual putrefaction etc. Victorian society expected art to act as a medium that would

―improve‖ all men, women and children; it was supposed to promote moral things and good intentions and also success which were waiting for Victorians after periods of struggle. But that obviously did not take place in this case as we might have understood. (Matsuoka, 2003, p. 82)

In connection to what was cited above, we have mentioned the word

―effeminate‖ which is also quite important. The novel is narrated in a rather

―effeminate‖ way. It was only Later that people started to connect effeminacy in males with homoeroticism. Which only lead to further concerns and antipathy. (Muriqui,

2007, p. 17) In the next example from The Picture of Dorian Gray we can notice a very light and sweet language which seems effeminate:

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer

wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door

the heavy scent of lilac, or the more delicate perfume of pink-flowering thorn.

(7).

Very sweet and vivid at the same time indeed, for this tender language such as

―pink flowering thorn‖ or delicate perfume‖ it was merely inevitable that the readers would connect it more likely with a female writer not male. However, coming back to the reviews of the novel, here is another instance of a negative response from Daily

Telegraph (as cited in Douglas, 2008, p. 264) which shows similar antipathy:

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There is not a single good and holy impulse of human nature, scarcely a fine

feeling or instinct that civilisation, art, and religion have developed throughout

the ages as part of the barriers between Humanity and Animalism that is not

held up to ridicule and contempt in Dorian Gray, if, indeed, such strong words

can be fitly applied to the actual effect of Mr Wilde's airy levity and fluent

impudence.

This piece of text seems to perceive Wilde as a violent writer whose primary intention is to ridicule what the society had developed throughout the age and he insults and demeans society’s values. He represented a person of low qualities who engages in immoral activities and his new character from his novel possesses exactly the same attributes.

2.1.2. Sexuality

Wilde's immorality has been mentioned many times in the reviews. Usually,

―immoral‖ in connection with Wilde, evokes homosexuality. Back then people would probably think of many things like excessive sexual activity, sodomy, which meant intercourse with the same sex or prostitution. Before making any conclusions about

Wilde being a homosexual we have to once more consider the whole situation in

Victorian Britain. The main point would be that many privileged young man with a good deal of money were engaging in sexual activities that were outside their family environment and some were also engaging in activities which were supposed to stay within the dark London’s underground for good. If we take a close look at the background of Oscar Wilde, we shall understand that he was exactly that man who could afford this lifestyle. (Barlett, 1988, p. 31-34)

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Barlett (1988) states something interesting :

It is commonplace to observe that "beneath" Wilde's charming exterior lay the

night life, the lurid Victoriana of nineteenth-century London (the brothel in a

respectable street, the expensive gift making its way into the wrong class of

pocket). But what if "beneath" the heavily lidded eyes of the sex criminal lay

not the excitement of a life that dares to challenge and evade, every boy's

dream of an escape into the darker streets, but merely the overweight cynical

ease with which an economically privileged man can and does lead a

homosexual life in London without having to pay more than money for it.

(p.33)

Upon this statement we might speculate that it was probably true that Wilde had a passion for ―alternative lifestyle‖ but we can also conclude that this kind of lifestyle was evidently available and so ―an economically privileged man‖ could simply afford this. In other words this simply signifies that he was probably not the only person to visit such places as brothels and indulge in such activities. Therefore, this merely confirms the hypocrisy that ruled in those times. Yet so many people felt offended and horrified by what was written in his book.

Moreover, in Victorian Era, homosexuality was not treated as we treat it today.

Back then, people believed that only heterosexuality exists. Therefore homosexual behavior was seen as a sign of a sick mind and later even treated as an illness. (Van

Cauwenberge, 1995)

Due to the fact that Victorians did not believe in sexuality different from heterosexual, they wanted to make the acts of ―sodomy‖ (as these activities were called) illegal.

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Schowalter (1990) explains the situation as follows:

The effort to create boundaries around male homosexuality was also carried

out in the legal sphere. The burgeoning homosexual subculture that had begun

to develop in England in the 1870s and early 1880s was both identified and

outlawed by the Labouchère Amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment of

1885, which made all male, homosexual acts, private or public, illegal. (p. 14)

This basically allowed the public to condemn Wilde and send him to prison in the end. The novel itself as it is known from history was used against him in connection to his acts and immoral behavior that was suggested by Marquess of

Queensberry. It is said that at the Wilde trials in 1895, certain opposing attorneys read aloud passages from the novel and denounced it ―a sodomitical book‖. Dorian Gray became somehow a chief exhibit of his shamelessness. (Ross, 2011).

The Picture of Dorian Gray was in the end said to be a semi-autobiographical book for its homosexual connotations that were in the novel (especially those between the three leading characters) and because of what Wilde was charged for at court.

Whether it was so or not was never actually explicitly stated. Every opinion that was made about the novel was strictly an opinion of an individual but Wilde has never given an answer or explanation.

As hard as this lesson must have been for Mr. Wilde, there are always two sides of a situation to consider. On the bright side, it is only now that we can acknowledge Mr. Wilde appropriately. From his trials society started to understand what homosexuality actually is. He became a martyr for the homosexual community and his works became increasingly popular towards the last quarter of 20th century.

(Corbett, 2014)

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To this day the name Oscar Wilde rings a bell to almost everyone and he

remains a timeless celebrity with his 1dandy style and effortless charms whenever we

catch a glimpse of his photograph. Together with Dorian they contributed to the

homosexual emancipation because they dared to challenge Victorian social

conventions and prejudices. (Van Cauwenberge, 1995)

2.1.3. Literary inadequacy

There was also a purely literary reason why The Picture of Dorian Gray was so

unpopular. Victorians had a certain idea about how the literature should be written and

what it should reflect. Wilde however, did not usually meet these conditions. The

conventional literary criticism of that time generally believed that literature should

reflect authentic reality and it also expected the authors to attach their moral message.

Vyvyan Holland, who is Wilde's second son, stated that the reason why the press and

critics attacked the novel so brutally was because Wilde described all the social

depravity. But the thing that made the public act even more angrily was because there

were no moralizing comments on the hypocrisy. This was Wilde's moral ambiguity.

(Van Cauwenberge, 1995)

At this point we are getting probably to the very essence of the hatred amongst

the people. Coming back to the beginning where we stated that Oscar Wilde was an

incredibly gifted speaker and a witty man, we shall also sadly admit that this was the

stumbling block as far as The Picture of Dorian Gray is concerned. Wilde challenged

his readers in a way that he refused to give a reader any moral advice, no hint of his

own idea about what is or what is not right to think or imagine while reading. He left

1 Dandy was a name for a male who is excessively concerned about his clothes and appearance

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everything completely opened to the imagination of his readers. Let’s consider what

Oscar Wilde stated (as cited in Hyde, 1962, p.136):

To keep this atmosphere vague and indeterminate and wonderful was the aim

of the artist who wrote the story. I claim, sir, that he has succeeded. Each man

sees his own sin in Dorian Gray. What Dorian Gray's sins are no one

knows. He who finds them has brought them.

The statement supports what we have been dealing with so far. Wilde claims that everything about his book is basically art and done for artistic purposes as of course it is every esthete’s intention. What is more interesting though, is the second part of his statement because he highlights that it is the reader who sees the sins in

Dorian, but he himself does not imply anything. This way it might seem that he actually transforms the blame he was given and turns it onto the audience. This action could have then triggered anger and disgust in Victorians because they had no other way to justify the fact that in real life people are good and bad at the same time and they have lusts and secret urges which is not understood but suppressed by the strict society’s rules and their truths.

In this example from The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry demonstrates how temptation works in people and passes his true on Dorian:

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul

grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for

what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. (p.26)

This claim also represents decadent thinking. Meaning that decadent writers and artists or decadents in general preferred to yield to even things that were sure to turn out disastrous but still be able to make this choice voluntarily and for the art’s sake. Moreover, it again gives readers a choice to make their own conclusions about

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this ―truth‖. The readers are in the same position as Dorian, they are given a stimulus but the selection of path is their own business. Basically we can say that Wilde is playing his ―little game of words‖ with people around him.

Gagnier (1986) presents an instance of a different reaction on the novel where although with several sharp comments, they actually acknowledge Wilde's cleverness:

Mr. Oscar Wilde has again been writing stuff that were better unwritten; and

while The Picture of Dorian Gray, which he contributes to Lippincott, is

ingenious, interesting, full of cleverness, and plainly the work of a man of

letters, it is false art- for its interest in medico-legal; it is false to human nature-

for its hero is a devil; it is false to morality- for is not made sufficiently clear

that the writer does not prefer a course of unnatural iniquity to a life of

cleanliness, health, and sanity. (p.59)

It also proves that the moral attitude that he never showed was a fatal mistake and the reason that his work was never appreciated enough or more likely, misunderstood.

When talking about understanding or misunderstanding books, Stanley Fish

(1980) represents an interesting theory of The Authority of Interpretive Communities where he claims that literature is an open category defined by simply what we decide to put into it. It is the reader who makes literature and we can recognize this once we realize that the reader is not a free agent making literature in any old way but when we recognize him as a member of a community whose assumptions about literature set s particular kind of attention he pays and the kind of literature he makes. Therefore, according to this theory, we might conclude that it depends on the community and what is its actual belief about literature that determines the outcomes of reader’s assumptions. Surely, in Victorian Era the community interpreted literature differently

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than in modern days for their beliefs and situation in their society was also very different. (Fish, 1980, p. 11)

2.2. Reception of the novel in modern era

People change and society also changes. As we have discussed earlier, society is growing as a body and now, at least 120 years later after the Victorian age we are more opened to things in general and more willing to understand our own society. At this point we came to an important shift in our analysis of the reception of Dorian

Gray in Victorian society and we shall now begin to look at the changing perception of

Dorian in our modern society.

In 2011 there was a big anticipation in the air amongst the passionate readers, scholars and favourers of Oscar Wilde. Rumor had it, that there was an opportunity to actually read the uncensored version of the novel for the very first time. It has been made available by Harvard’s Belknap Press in a richly annotated and illustrated volume edited by Nicholas Frankel. But it leaves one thinking why such a fuss over a condemned book that was dirty and immoral? The eminent scholars who had the opportunity to recollect the pieces of the book which were cut out by JM Stoddart were thrilled by giving the public the unique opportunity to finally read all the

―immoral‖ scenes depicting the moral decline of Dorian or the sensual conversations between Basil and Dorian about their forbidden love. (Allen, 2011)

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In one of the many articles which were done by press in 2011, Thompson in his article for The Escapist Magazine, called ―120 Years Later: Uncensored Dorian

Gray Finally Published“ wrote as an introduction:

Good news, everyone! Now you can corrupt your mind with Oscar Wilde's

uncensored, filthy, and sexy version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

(Thompson, 2011)

It would be interesting to pause and think about whether this short paragraph could be found in a Victorian magazine. Probably we would search a long time for such an introduction for an article. It is now that the picture starts to take a slightly different shape and we can notice the shift of expectations about this novel and actually compare the two.

In the uncensored version of the novel by Frankel (2011) we can find many instances which were omitted or toned down:

"It is quite true I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a

man should ever give to a friend. Somehow I have never loved a woman,"

Hallward tells Dorian, in one passage which was changed. The censored

version is: "From the moment I met you, your personality had the most

extraordinary influence over me". (p.11)

We can observe that the interference was quite serious and obviously all the explicit words were substituted by a very acceptable utterance that actually does not give the same message. There is another instance about Sybil Vane who was Dorian’s love for some time. In the original passage there was a question asked: "Is Sybil Vane your mistress?" which was later altered to "What are your relations with Sibyl Vane?" It was the reference to Dorian's ―mistresses‖ that was not acceptable. (Frankel, 2011, p.

95)

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These were just brief demonstrations but the uncensored version claims to have more such illustrations in store. Frankel suggested in one of interviews that "the time is ripe for the publication of Wilde's novel in its uncensored form … It is the version of the novel that Wilde, I believe, would want us to be reading in the 21st century …

I'm bringing it out of the closet a little more."(Thompson, 2011)

This statement is probably a very individual opinion and we can not speak for the author himself but only the idea that ―he would want us to read this version‖ might try to imply that the modern society seems to be now ready to absorb the novel in its

―naked‖ version.

When we come back to Wilde's reasoning that ―the readers are those who see sins in Dorian‖ we might be dragged by an idea that maybe today people understand and accept Dorian more than before and do not perceive him in such a dark light.

Perhaps because some of his vices became quite common amongst us, not necessarily moral but our society simply tolerates them. But why could be so? Most likely we will not be able to trace an evidence that Victorian society was less corrupted than ours or that there were less desire or tendencies to immoral behavior than nowadays or more generally that Victorian society was ―better‖ than the modern era, but it would be interesting to pause here and consider the following piece of text by Rebeca Arnold

(2001):

In the past, public opinion formed around Christian morality and was

subservient to it. Today, public opinion is largely but not exclusively wedded

to the growth of technology and its promises. This form of morality is en

expression of the instinctual power of desire. (intro. xiii)

It is true that strict rules of Christianity made people in Victorian era create opinions which were also very strict and they expected their society to follow such rules.

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Nowadays the values change and the promises of media and technology make us create our own new values we want to follow but which are very different from those in the past. The power of desire is rising in contemporary society. We might take this as another reason why the novel remains popular today. Moreover, According to The

Guardian Magazine the novel reached 27th place in ―The 100 Best Novels series‖.

(McCrum, 2014) Therefore, this fact serves us as a proof that The Picture of Dorian

Gray does fascinate the public, no matter what the previous opinion was.

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3. Meet Dorian Gray

So much has been written and discussed about the history of The Picture of

Dorian Gray. We have discussed its weaknesses, we know about the faith and downfall of the protagonist, but so far we have been dealing with the writer and the negatives about the novel as such, more than with Dorian Gray himself. Although the connection between Mr. Wilde and Mr. Gray is very tight and very intimate, we should dedicate some time to get to know Mr. Gray better. There is an interesting quote by Oscar Wilde (as cited in Raby, 1988, p. 79) where he makes a comment on his relationship with the novel, it goes: ―Basil Hallward is what I think I am, Lord

Henry what the world thinks of me, Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.‖

Here again, we are confronting a tiny little reference to future (―other ages perhaps‖) as if Mr. Wilde's brilliance was so far reaching that he could have actually predicted that later generation could be a little bit more understanding or tolerant towards his novel. Whether it would be better of today, we can not state so far but for that reason we are going to continue in our research.

3.1. The possible Dorian Gray

Our concern now will be, what information we are actually able to trace about

Dorian Gray. As far as his social and family background or personality is concerned, perhaps the best starting point would be Oscar Wilde again. As we could have observed on the above stated quote by Wilde, one could come to a conclusion that

Dorian Gray might honestly mirror Oscar Wilde or at least his wishes and therefore it could have been quite easy for Victorians to think that Wilde was writing his

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autobiography. That would be a partial truth though. But since we know that Wilde put some of his personal stuff into his character but we have never proved it is actually him, we shall raise the question, whether there was another person who could have been a potential inspiration for Wilde's character. The answer would be: YES. It is argued that there was a person who probably played a big role in influencing Wilde and who also contributed to the creation of the character of Dorian Gray.

For this reason, let’s begin with uncovering the truth about John Gray who was said to be Dorian Gray in flesh. The most important period of John Gray’s life that we actually need to investigate is when Gray was about twenty five years old and was regularly visiting London’s bars and visiting places where poets and writers used to gather. When Gray and Wilde met, they became immediately interested in each other.

Wilde was immensely captivated by this young and good looking lad. Gray himself was a poet but not very prominent. He belonged to a group of poets called Uranians.

This particular genre celebrated love between men and ―friendship‖ of older males and young boys. (Conway, 2009)

The friendship between Wilde and Gray was considered romantic and everybody around them knew that something more is going on between them. Ellmann

(1988) also argues that to give his character the name Gray was a way of courtship from Wilde; he wanted to flatter Gray by identifying him with Dorian. It is also said that Gray noticed that gesture and from that time on if he replayed to Wilde's letters, it was with the signature of Dorian Gray. (p.308)

Nevertheless, whether John Gray was truly the inspiration for Dorian or not is not known and it has not been proved sufficiently. It is truth that these two writers met and they were believed having an affair but Gray himself later refused to admit that he would be ―the real Dorian‖.(Conway, 2009)

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3.2. Dorian Gray from the novel

Whatever was the initial inspiration for the character, we shall come back to

¨the ―novel version Dorian‖. If we were to ask one single person to give us some

information about this young man, it would be no one else but the omniscient narrator

(Oscar Wilde)! For that reason we shall investigate the novel The Picture of Dorian

Gray itself and for the beginning we shall use this example:

But tell me, what did she say about Mr. Dorian Gray? Oh, something like,

―charming boy- poor dear mother and I absolutely inseparable. Quite forget

what he does – afraid he – doesn't do anything – oh yes, he plays the piano or is

it the violin, dear Mr. Gray? Neither of us could help laughing, and we became

friends at once. (p.14)

If we think about this piece of text which is located at the very beginning of the novel,

we can see that it does not tell us much about Dorian. We could conclude then, that he

was probably a very insignificant young man who happened to play a musical

instrument and maybe tried to make his way further into ―better circles‖.

If we descend few chapters further we will learn that Mr Gray did not have a

very happy childhood and his life circumstances were quite harsh. Dorian was an

orphan. As the story continues, it will uncover that his mother came from a prominent

Kelso family, and she was a very beautiful woman who could have had any man she

would point her finger at. Nevertheless, she run away and got married to a young and

penniless man who unfortunately died shortly after their marriage. The reason for his

dead was a kind of conspiracy made by her father:

The poor chap was killed in a duel at Spa, a few months after the marriage.

There was an ugly story about it. They Said 2Kelso got some rascally

2 Kelso – Dorian´s grandfather and the father of his Mother Margaret Devereux

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adventurer, some Belgian brute, to insult his son-in-low in public, paid him, sir,

to do it, paid him and that the fellow spitted his man as if he had been a pigeon.

The thing was hushed up, but egad...... he brought his daughter back with him

I was told, and she never spoke to him again. Oh, yes it was a bad business.

The girl died too, within a year. (p. 42)

As we can understand, because Dorian’s mother came from a rich family there must have been quite a fortune waiting for him and therefore the life of a gentleman as well.

He should have a pot of money waiting for him if Kelso did the right thing by

him. His mother had money too. (p. 42)

It seems that Dorian has it all. Bright future ahead, money and his pure beauty, he is the whole package. What could possibly go wrong? Perhaps an unwise choice of people he would let in his life. What we have here is a young spirit, a kind man who yet has probably no idea what to do with his life. Definitely, we would not guess that in the end the hero would turn out to be so dark.

As far as we know Dorian is a close friend of a painter named Basil Hallward.

Basil values the kind spirit of Dorian and also his beauty which is inspirational. Dorian also treasures their friendship and enjoys coming to Hallward's studio to stand for him as a model. There is something interesting and maybe deeper about their friendship than we would expect. This is an example of how Basil describes his first meeting with Mr. Gray at a crush at Lady Brandon's:

Well, after I had been in the room about ten minutes, talking to huge,

overdressed dowagers and tedious Academicians, I suddenly became conscious

that someone was looking at me. I turned halfway round, and saw Dorian Gray

looking at me for the first time. When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing

pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew I had come face to

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face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if allowed

it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.

(p.12)

It almost makes one wonder, how it is possible that someone could be so charming.

There seems to be something mystical about this encounter. Nevertheless, if we try to imagine for a moment that it is not a man who is actually describing a male encounter, it would be quite easy to put a female into the role. This might imply that there is an erotic undertone and that these two characters share a bit too much for being males.

Dorian told me so afterwards. He, too, felt that we were destined to know each

other. (p.14)

When talking about Dorian’s circle of friends. We have to mention Lord Henry

Wotton. We could call him a ―teacher‖ because he turns out to be a teacher of hedonism to Dorian. He makes him discover things about himself and most importantly he enlightens his ―potential‖ to him. There is a certain point when Dorian changes completely thanks to the tempting theories which were offered to him by Lord

Henry.

Realize your youth while you have it. Don't squander the gold of your days,

listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away

your life to the ignorant, the common and the vulgar. These are sickly aims, the

false ideals of our age. (p. 30)

The youth is everything; it’s a doorway to the most promising life of excitement. Who could resist this? Lord Henry is trying to express his opinion that the rules and ideals of society are rigid ways to keep everything under control and oppress the men’s souls.

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Regarding other people surrounding Dorian, there are many other well off characters that enjoy his company. Especially, after he becomes a person who is constantly a topic for discussion. With his looks and now his new personality and changed views on life he can have any woman. So it happens that one day he meets an actress Sybil Vane. She is a young, romantic and innocent woman who falls in love with Dorian and he repays her feelings. She impressed him by her performance as an actress. But, we have to remember that Dorian changed into a pleasure seeking creature. Therefore, once his artistic admiration is interrupted by her demanding of him and once she fails as an actress during one of her performances which Dorian attends, the love story is over for him.

Oh, I can't bear to think of it! I wish I had never laid eyes upon you! You have

spoiled the romance of my life. How little you can know of love, if you say it

mars your art! Without your art you are nothing. (p.102)

It is here that her aesthetic side is over for Dorian. Although Sybil was doing wrong simply because she was so deeply in love with Dorian and she got nervous, he takes it as a bedrail. We can observe how Dorian has changed. He might be perceived as a young man who transformed from delicate and unspoiled into a heartless, cold being.

She crouched on the floor like a wounded thing, and Dorian Gray with his

beautiful eyes, looked down at her, and his chiselled lips curled in exquisite

disclain. There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people

whom one has ceased to love. Sybil Vane seemed to him to be absurdly

melodramatic. Her tears and sobs annoyed him. (p. 103)

What would any reader probably think about Dorian now? Cruel? Possibly. But its only Sybil’s dead that ends the romance. She committed a suicide because she could not stand her life without him. Despite this fact, Dorian gets over her death very

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quickly and continues his life untouched, with one tiny little hatch though. His picture remembers all the ugly acts he committed.

Dorian ruins a reputation of many others and becomes responsible for many misfortunes of people around him. Basil Hallward asks Dorian about his fatal friendships with others:

Why is your friendship so fatal to young men? There was that wretched boy in

Guard who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry

Ashton, who had to leave England, with a tarnished name. You and he were

inseparable. What about Ashton Singleton and his dreadful end? What about

Lord Kent's only son, and his career? I met his father yesterday in St. James

Street. He seemed broken with shame and sorrow. What about the young Duke

of Perth? What sort of life has he got now? What gentleman would associate

with him? (173)

For sure, there is something significant in this quotation. It is the fact that Basil asks mainly about the friendships with young man which leaves the reader suspicious.

Moreover, it implies that the business these men were dealing with was probably not moral in the eyes of Victorians.

It is quite clear that the mask of a perfect and beautiful gentleman is very powerful and also misleading. Dorian might have seemed as a trustworthy person but as we have illustrated earlier, people who got close to him, in the end regretted it. He might have even seemed as a perfect match for Victorian women but as the readers would get to know later the women in his life were also robbed of their reputation. In conclusion, Dorian was like a sweet candy, way too tempting but dangerous. He was the perfect explanation of the hypocrisy which ruled amongst the Victorians.

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4. Dorian Gray and the contemporary relationship to beauty

“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Beying Earnest

In this part of the work we shall focus on Dorian Gray and his connection to

Dandyism which is closely linked to aestheticism. With this in mind we shall later look at the main aspects and values of this movement. Since beauty and style are very important in dandyism and for the character of Dorian Gray as well, we shall attempt to investigate the contemporary world and its attitude towards these as well. By this we might come closer to prove that Dorian is relevant to the contemporary society.

4.1. Dorian Gray and Dandyism

If we want to move forward and explore why Dorian is a timeless hero and focus on the word ―timeless‖ we should start analysing ―looks‖ and ―beauty‖ a bit more thoroughly and therefore we shall look at Dandyism.

In a short description, we call dandy a person who is excessively concerned about their looks. If we think about Dorian in connection to dandyism, we might agree that this brief explanation would fit his profile. Let us take a look at a quote from the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray to demonstrate Dorian’s concerns about his looks:

How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible and dreadful. But this picture will

remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June....If

it were only the other way. If it were I who was to be always young, and the

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picture to grow old! I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole

world I would not give! I would give my soul for that. (p.34)

Dorian was so afraid that his good looks would eventually fade away that he would give anything to make the situation different. We could picture Dorian in his beautiful clothes, daily examining his beauty and his picture. But the reality surrounding this

―movement‖ is not that simple. We have to know that a personality of a dandy is a complex life style so to speak. Nowadays we no longer use the term dandy but we use a more familiar expression, that is, ―celebrity‖.

Celebrities play quite an important role in our lives. We see them daily on TV, we sometimes take them as role models and we admire their personalities. But what we do not think about is the image which is very often only a pose. The media cult personality is a mass produced charismatic figure whose photograph can be found on

TV, in supermarkets or they can be owners of their own copy in a form of a Barbie doll. (Garelick, 1988, p. 1-5)

It is actually quite curious that our celebrities have their historical roots back in France and Britain. Long before the modern icons ―the dandy‖ was an art form of commodifying personality. Garelick (1998) states that:

Dandyism is itself a performance, the performance of a highly stylized,

painstakingly constructed self, a solipsistic social icon. Both the early social

dandyism of England and the later, more philosophical French incarnations of

the movement announced and glorified a self-created, carefully controlled man

whose goal was to create an effect, bring about an event, or provoke reaction in

others through the suppression of the natural. (p.3)

Would we be able to find any connections to Dorian Gray? We must conclude that it seems so. ―A constructed self‖ is quite an interesting point. We have discussed

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it in previous chapter that Dorian was not always a dandy. At the very beginning he was a simply looking ―nobody‖ who became popular amongst other people mainly thanks to Lord Henry who introduced him around. Furthermore, the phrase ―to create an effect‖ which might bring to mind an idea of Dorian’s new self and his ―mask‖ which eventually saves him from being revealed in his true colours.

Moreover, Garelick also argues that personality of a dandy is so self consuming that they actually believed they are irreplaceable and, which is more interesting, they were refusing women as being of any importance for them.

The dandy is never reducible to a sum of money, nor is he posed in

counterbalance with a woman. In a world of universal equivalence, he is

exchangeable with no one, remaining enclosed in a hermetic, autoseductive

circle of narcissism. (p. 5)

We can actually see how artificial dandies were. There is no need for anybody else because of their absolute uniqueness. This is a verification of the fact that dandyism has never been only about the looks but also about a philosophy which is actually hard to imagine that one could live accordingly. Maybe only literary heroes could.

Therefore, the whole image of dandies has always been just a confusion between real and fake for the people observing them. Also, they gained their reputation and prestige by other people talking about them or writing about their lives. That applies also to celebrities today. (Garelick, 1998, p. 1-5)

Could this be the way Dorian reached his status in the society? Thanks to being the person who is always talked about? It was even the major character of Lord Henry

Wotton who stated in The Picture of Dorian Gray: ―There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about‖. (p.8) At first, when we go back to the novel, Dorian’s beauty that never fades away, his charming

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and seductive skills, his charisma or his sins, these are things that people around him always spoke of. In addition, there was a constant hustle about the novel and questioning of the hidden messages at the time of publishing.

Dorian was a good example of a dandy. A man with money, which made him fascinating for women, his incredibly beautiful physical appearance was raising attention and his immoral behaviour eventually made him legendary.

The real dandyism was quite an extreme matter and obviously it did not mean that any nicely dressed gentleman was necessarily a dandy. In connection to this we have to mention what was the desirable image of a man in Victorian era. Masculinity was defined a bit differently. We have briefly discussed before that the right man worthy of a good marriage was a strong character, male with fortune or a good breadwinner. With his wife by his side there were strictly defined roles around the household. Moreover, strength, morals, pride, competitiveness and sporting and religion were all the desirable attributes of a Victorian male. (Davidoff and Hall, 1987)

We could assume then, that probably most of Victorian men who were by the society considered good Victorians were not reading about newest trends in the magazines or what hair cut is a hit of the year. These activities were probably true for the dandies.

Nevertheless, we could also suppose that Dorian Gray was not exactly a Victorian

―macho‖. This fact might have also contributed to his unpopularity in the Victorian period.

4.2. Dorian Gray and beauty today

We shall change the topic for a moment and we shall think about what we value in today’s world and what attracts us in contrast to Victorian times. When we consider males today and what is expected from their ―modern selves‖ it could be

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quite tricky to state in general because our preferences vary, but what is said to be typical for a modern man is a good taste and style and this is defined mainly by pop- culture, sports, cinema and action films. An idealized man is still ―looks great‖ and tough, but will always hold the door open. (Brief, 2012)

It is a reality that nowadays the emphasis on looks, no matter whether we are talking about men or women, is great and sometimes even obsessive. We put a strong emphasis on the outward appearance in our culture. We are influenced by television programs, magazines and advertisement in general. Constantly, we are presented with images of beautiful man and women that creates a constant battle with time, aging and anxiety amongst us. Over the last thirty years the emphasis on man fitness and exercising has rapidly risen and many products are now being sold promising to prevent undesirable aging or help us to perfect our appearance. And what is the crucial reason we do this? (Watson, Rayner, Lysonski & Durvasula, 1999, p. 445-450)

Feingold (as cited in Diener, Wolsic & Fujita, 1995, p. 120) concluded that attractive people are perceived to be "more sociable, dominant, sexually warm, mentally healthy, intelligent, and socially skilled than unattractive people" The reason we make effort to perfect ourselves is probably to achieve these qualities but whether they are a guarantee of happiness we can not be sure.

It might seem that we are suppressing our real selves and constantly battle to live up to somebody else such as somebody from a magazine or a TV commercial.

However, we often forget one important fact which we have mentioned in connection to the dandies, these icons are merely an artificial creation, something unreal, probably as unreal as the character of Dorian Gray. Nevertheless, as we shall now observe, he is perceived as an icon and he is given credit and honor by people from the modern age.

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4.2.1. Vanity

When we decided to call Dorian an ―icon‖, we should try to justify our claiming and for that reason we shall take a look at some sectors for which he represents an icon. When we think about his personality again it will not be very difficult to guess which those are. We have to search for something that represents vanity, glamour and beauty. For that reason we should start with fashion industry.

Apart from steamy affairs and scandals, Dorian Gray and Oscar Wilde were both considered men who had ―style‖. For possessing these qualities, they became an inspiration for several designers and fashion artists. In 2010, the fashion company of

Dolce and Gabbana launched a man’s wear autumn/winter collection which was inspired by who else than the hero himself. Dorian Gray became the central image for creating a high fashioned piece of art. They offered many tops and shirts with a picture of Oscar Wilde on them, calling them ―must-have pieces‖ of the season because the new movie Dorian Gray was about to be released. The collection contained all kinds of accessory pieces, expensive fabric and remarkable colours. The designers claimed they worked with the typical English elegance but updated it for the modern day hedonist.

Moreover, a huge inspiration to them was also the famous Dorian’s quest for beauty.

(Zannoni, 2009)

Undoubtedly, many people around the world must have been drawn by something so expensive and luxury looking and what could be possibly better than feeling like ―the top womanizer‖ in a brand new jacket by Dolce and Gabbana.

Furthermore, it might seem like business men know why to put exactly this character as their hero for collections. Most likely they are aware of the similarities between this particular fellow and their beloved customers.

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If we search again, there is another similar project which took place in 2011 where a certain fashion blog called fashionising.com introduced Tribute to Dorian

Gray. The tribute is in form of fashion photography or ―fashion shoot‖ done by photographer Vincent Alvarez and styled by Marie Revelut. A certain model is captured in the pictures, posing as Dorian Gray, with his legendary picture which shows his inner ugliness, dressed in outstanding clothes made by prominent fashion industry companies such as Chanel or Christian Dior. (Braukamper, 2011)

As we look at the photographs we might argue that if such Dorian existed today, he would not probably hesitate to wear such clothes and neither would Oscar

Wilde. It is also quite interesting that there is a woman model captured in the photograph representing Dorian. Both of these two examples for which Dorian served as an inspiration, we can observe that he represents something glamorous that is pleasant to look at. On the other hand it is clear that such things only people with money can afford, which might remind us that Dorian was a person who could afford the best due to his social status.

4.2.2. Beauty as a mask

There are quite few studies dealing with beauty and our evaluation of individuals according to it. Gross and Crofton (1977) in their research paper What is

Good is Beautiful tried to prove that people tend to judge personality of an individual according to their appearance. They claim that there are often positive associations linked to physical beauty. Therefore, for instance there were smaller punishments observed in legal issues when the defendant was an attractive person or more beautiful women were perceived as more intelligent by others. Basically there have been quite

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few studies carried out to support the idea of the stereotypic thinking that beauty equals good. (Gross and Crofton, 1977, p.86)

If we talk about stereotypes it would mean that this rule has worked for a very long time. It would therefore be relevant for Dorian as well. No one has ever proved though, that beauty really equals good. Our hero would actually demonstrate rather the opposite. We are aware that his painting reflected his true colours and it was not a nice painting to look at. In fact he was desperate to hide it from the eyes of the public. In

The Picture of Dorian Gray we can notice the alternation of the painting after all the horrid things that Dorian did.

He went in quietly, looking at the door behind him, as was his custom, and

dragged the purple hanging from the portrait. A cry of pain and indignation

broke from him. He could see no change, save that in the eyes there was a look

of cunning and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite. The thing was

still loathsome – more loathsome, if possible than before. (p.253)

Even if his physical appearance was still young and beautiful, the portrait could not deny his sins although it could hide them from the outside world. To put it shortly, beauty can work as a mask. Unfortunately, we never know what is hidden behind such mask.

While we are speaking about beauty as a mask there is another phenomenon connected to it. It is the constant struggle to keep our masks fresh and young. If there is one thing true about beauty it is its passing nature. With respect to Dorian Gray, he did not have to worry about his beauty in a way that we do. He had the sinister agreement with his painting.

The following quote from The Picture of Dorian Gray demonstrates that his appearance did not change a bit over many years.

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They say he has sold himself to the devil for a pretty face. It’s nigh on eighteen

years since I me him. He has not changed much since then. (p. 221)

We do not posses such powers but we have miraculous beautifying products and plastic surgery. Yes, plastic surgery has become very popular and the old fact that women are the main seekers of ever lasting beauty is now scattered for good. Men are very often undergoing facial rejuvenation to look and feel younger. According to

AAFPRS, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, there are many facial procedures which can an ordinary modern man afford and undergo e.g. non-surgical treatments like chemical peels or Botox, further, surgical procedures such as hair implants, filler and fat injections to prevent wrinkles and many others.

(American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 2014)

If we once more compare Dorian and our modern society, he somehow embodies quite a big deal of modern desires. It is more interesting when we remember that he was a character from 1890. Yet this desire and the matter of beauty are very much relevant today. It is probably for the reason that the importance of physical attractiveness is given to us by nature. This applies especially to human face. Even infants are able to react either favorably or unfavorably to different faces. A face which is by nature symmetric and ―beautiful‖ evokes trust whereas a face which is for example disfigured evokes fear and negativity. This basically implies that beauty really matters to us and is somehow encoded in everyone. (Landau, 2012). For this reason it is often so easy to get rapt by a beautiful face and presume that the outside beauty mirrors the inner picture.

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4.2.3. Living forever

If we take our path even deeper, we shall get from striving for beauty to even more controversial topic which Dorian also has something to do with. By this we mean the striving for living forever. Although this topic might still seem very futuristic and almost sci-fi like, the fact is that this new phenomenon is not that far away from reality. In the article The Psychological Strain of Living Forever (2006) Leon Kass, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago, points out:

If our species ever does unlock the secrets of aging and learns to live forever,

we might not lose our souls, but, like Dorian, we will no longer be human

either.

It is curious how Kass uses Dorian as an example of such scientific issue. It looks as if the consequences covered in the plot of the novel are inspiring even for this field of study. Moreover, we can again observe the relevance of Dorian’s story with our age, which is more than fascinating. But in reality the question of life extension is very difficult and although it might sound very tempting we need to take a look behind that bliss and bear in mind that people as a human kind might have encoded in their

DNA that life ends somewhere, also life extension is a very sensitive issue as far as morality is concerned. The process of aging is beneficial for us, because we grow wiser and we constantly evolve. Knowing that our life ends at some point makes us engage in everyday life more and it is also a kind of inner motivation to do things which enrich us from the inside. There is a certain degree of anxiety about this particular issue because stopping something as natural as aging might actually cause boredom and depression. (Than, 2006)

For Dorian Gray, the things mentioned above were free to use and experience.

If we want to enclose our selves in a beauty hunt and engage in vain activities which

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we think might make our lives better we are free to do so but that could also mean that we might become blind towards things which carry more beauty than we could possibly imagine and which might satisfy us from the inside rather than outside. In the end even Dorian regretted the vain and shallow things he engaged in. It is not the purpose of this thesis to judge whether Dorian was good or wrong or to judge his actions or moralize him but the truth is that a certain lesson could be useful for some of us today. Possibly, whether this beauty oriented lifestyle makes us actually happy and what be the consequences.

As we could have observed, it is quite extraordinary how recent Dorian Gray appears to be. The main issues from the novel such as beauty, status or non-aging very much resemble our concerns today. Therefore, he might represent a timeless character that carries an important message for all of us. Not everything which seems beautiful on the surface is actually beautiful.

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5. The present image of Dorian Gray

In the very last chapter we are going to take a look at the role of Dorian Gray in the contemporary age. We shall speak about his character depicted mainly in one of the most popular forms of art which is the motion picture, but also modern theatre and other forms of art which basically entertains our society today. The reason we are getting into this branch is very simple. The fact that we keep this character alive must have some connection with the reality that Dorian is our timeless hero who is relevant for our age.

5.1. Modern movie adaptations

Many years have passed since the first time that Dorian Gray appeared as the main protagonist in a novel. We have to realize that readers of Victorian days had nothing but pure text to their disposal and therefore what they saw between the lines was purely their imagination going wild. The point is that nobody put any images into their minds (as we have discussed earlier in connection to Oscar Wilde). However, today, apart from books, we also have a bit different opportunity to experience novels, which basically gives us a premade idea of the plot in form of pictures. If we take a look and search the internet, we can see how many novels have been actually made into movies. The popularity is huge. The greatest novels are now being played in cinemas with famous actors as a bonus. We have already discussed celebrities and their impact on the public; therefore we can only mention that the cast is important in order to make as much money as possible.

Adaptations of classic novels are so popular that we can actually very often find several adaptations of one single novel. We can for instance mention Pride and

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Prejudice by Jane Austen, it has been recreated several times and in each case we can see certain differences. (Geraghty, 2008)

Dorian Gray has made his way from hatred into the world of classic novels as well, and later into the movie industry. His character travelled through the age when the novel was strictly condemned, into the worldwide entertainment industry. And we should point out that particularly the adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray has been made several times. The very first adaptation of this novel came out in 1910 as

Dorian Grays Portræt and it was a silent movie, Danish adaptation of the novel. As we continue towards 20th century we shall mention several more adaptations of greater importance out of at least ten in total. The novel adaptation The Picture of Dorian

Gray from 1945, staring Angela Lansbury as Sybil Vane and Hurt Hatfield as Dorian

Gray or The Picture of Dorian Gray from 1973 with Shane Briant starring as Dorian again. (Mank, 2001)

5.1.1. Dorian Gray 2009 and its weaknesses

The most recent adaptation is from 2009 and it is also the one which is central for us. The prominent actors are Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton and Ben Barnes as

Dorian Gray. The movie was supposed to be a hit but in the end the movie did not get the highest rating. According to some reviews the movie was well done as far as special effects are concerned, especially when introducing the famous picture in the attic and the costumes and the settings of the movie are well rated as well. (Eggert,

2010)

Nevertheless, if we attempt to compare the actual Dorian from the novel and

Dorian from the 21st century movie adaptation, we shall notice several things which do

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not exactly fit. We shall suppose that this movie serves to entertain the modern audience which expects a horror like movie thanks to the novel’s gothic vibe.

While watching the movie we are sure to notice immediately several things which might catch our attention. A very good looking actor, young and innocent just as the novel depicts. The clothing of individual characters resembles the trends of

Victorian era and therefore we could argue that the aesthetic side more or less meets the criteria and we feel as if in Victorian London. On the other hand, if we go back to the book again and compare it with the movie, we must notice some huge differences in Dorian’s behaviour and his ―sins‖ or in the change of his character. It is crucial to explain that there are no obscene or explicit scenes described in the novel in connection to Dorian’s affairs. When we look at the movie however, we shall see many detailed, sexually explicit scenes accompanied by the dialogues from the novel.

In the film review by Brian Eggert, he states that the movie is nothing more than a long way of sexual encounters and for that reason the movie was rated as ―R‖ for sexual content. (Eggert, 2010)

We could stick to this review in deed; the 2009 Dorian Gray movie seems to promote mostly Dorian as a woman hunter who can easily cover everything and who does not seem to show any traces of aging because he owns a painting which ages instead. But we know that the whole novel is not that simple. Moreover, we have dedicated quite a big deal of this thesis to homosexual issues and allusions in the novel but there are mostly women pictured as his conquests, which makes him look as a kind of ―Don Juan‖ character. In connection to sexually explicit scenes there is one major change in the plot. This concerns Dorian’s relationship with Sybil Vane. In the novel we will not be able to find an indication that anything intimate was going on except for a kiss. Whereas in the movie we can see an intimate scene, which was probably a

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necessity giving the fact that we live in 21st century and we tend to go more and more explicit.

It is true; our age is run and very much influenced by mass media. They produce hundreds of music videos, films, TV series etc which we consume daily. Let’s consider how much we are willing to accept to see today. If we turn on the TV our eyes might be invited to see several sexually explicit music videos, vulgar comedies, nude commercials, violent TV series and many others. Without realizing we got accustomed to sexual content to such degree that we do no longer pay attention to it

(Gunter, 2009, p. 231-232)

Coming back to the movie, the main point is that the movie is a reflection of our society’s expectations. It tells us how to perceive the character of Dorian Gray. We have to highlight again what Oscar Wilde stated about his novel, that is: It is the reader who sees Dorian’s sins but Dorian himself does not really provide any explicit illustrations of his acts. Could it be true what the witty writer wanted to prove? Is it the mind of the reader that is actually perverted? When we take a look back at the movie and consider what we are offered to see nowadays as a form of entertainment we might conclude that for us Dorian represents only a kind of sexually addicted person with a good trick in hiding it. Apart from sexual explicit scenes in the movie, which is probably the most visible, there are also explicit scenes of drug abuse.

Could attributes such as drugs and sex also contribute to his popularity today?

That is a difficult question to answer but giving the fact that the modern entertainment industry keeps Dorian occupied by ―offering him‖ participation in various movies and shows we might not be able to think otherwise.

The shift in explicitness amongst the public is tremendous. We can be sure that nothing like this could ever be made public in Victorian Britain. We have to

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understand that scandalous behaviour and sexual affairs have existed since ever and

Victorian England was no exception but the outlook and treating of such matters is very different now than before. In fact Victorian writers had a huge inspiration for their pens and they could write nasty stories in those times but the fear of the punishment would not allow them. (Cohen, 1996)

Therefore Wilde wrote about his Dorian almost as if in codes and maybe for this reason the character is so captivating. Meaning that we have to be imaginative and use our creative minds to actually understand what Dorian’s story was. Nevertheless, nowadays we do not need to hide our imagination because our opinion on matters such as sex and scandal has changed and we are ready to put our however disturbing ideas onto the movie screens. To take our research further, we shall continue to explore other material which will show us several other new adaptations of Dorian Gray.

5.2. Modern theatre adaptations

Apart from the film industry, the world of the theatre has always been very popular. Even in Victorian times. Although, The Picture of Dorian Gray did not occur as a play in theatres in Victorian England, we can definitely see the novel in a form of a play today. We are going to explore how the character is treated in particular form of art.

5.2.1. Dorian's Descent

In 2014, Los Angeles’s Mt theatre presented their new musical Dorian’s descent created by Requiem Media Productions. The musical promises a show that follows the enigmatic life of Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward and his painting and the infamous Henry Wotton with his intelligent talks about the future of the painting.

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Moreover, Dorian’s change of personality and later his heartrending love affairs, seduction, decadence and murder. They also claim that this musical is something not to be missed. (Requiem Media Productions, LLC, 2014)

After reading through the accessible information of the musical, the screenplay might seem pretty similar to the plot of the novel and the idea of a musical undoubtedly sounds quite tempting and refreshing. Nevertheless, it is quite visible again, that the connection between Dorian and sexual affairs is mentioned as a main allurement at the very beginning.

5.2.2. Selfie

Maybe more interesting could be another slightly similar Dorian Gray adaptation which might be closer to our younger generation. This brand new theatre show is called Selfie from 2014. Now, the first thing that needs to be stressed is the very term ―selfie‖ itself. The word actually means ―a self portrait‖ it comes from an

Australian slang and it was awarded international word of the year 2013. As we might know the term is extremely popular amongst teenage population who is thanks to our technology allowed to share numerous self portraits on social networks such as

Instagram or Facebook. (Australian Associated Press, 2013)

However, coming back to Selfie as a theatre performance we might want to mention the basic modern adjustments which have been made in connection with the novel. The national Youth Theatre in London is now introducing their new play based on the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray but claims that it is a radical retelling of the novel and the company also promises to bring literature’s most conceited anti-hero back to contemporary theatrical life. ―This scandalous tale will be like nothing you’ve seen before…but don’t worry, it isn’t about you. Yet.‖ This quotation from the poster

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of Selfie might give us the impression of suggesting that people are actually heading

towards a scandalous life because we could find similarities between what we see on

the stage and what we actually experience everyday. (National Theatre, 2014)

What is important about this particular play is that it actually swops the

Victorian trends and age specifics and our modern age and our modern habits. One of

the most interesting changes is that he becomes she (Dorian is played by a female

actor) which might imply the fact that many things today are ―unisex‖ and we have

often difficulties to recognize men and women looks (which also proves how the

awareness of masculinity as such changed over the years). The beautiful painting of a

young man, originally created by the painter Basil Halward, in this adaptation is

actually replaced by an iPad3 image which was snapped as a profile picture by Basil

Hallward who has been turned into a Photoshop4 editor of images. As the plot

continues, it follows the original story where it is the picture of Dorian which appears

to be perfect without any alternation or adjustments done by photo editing program.

After some time, Dorian transforms into a party boy who is famous for attending ―cool

parties‖ and being interested only in taking party selfies.

This new version of the novel is quite a funny and smart way to express how

consumer our society really is but it still remains just an attempt. One of the reviewers

of this play argues that basically while trying to depict the shallow and vacuous world,

it actually falls into becoming shallow and vacuous play itself. Instead of dissecting

our culture’s obsession with celebrity, looks and posh kids, it in fact showcases this

unlovely world of peacocks. (Gardner, 2014)

It seems as a good move to show the reality of modern youths and their

addiction to consume so many things that our trade offers. Also it attempts to express

3 iPad – an electronic device by Apple Inc. 4 Photoshop – photography editing device by Adobe

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that it is a very shallow way of spending time. But we can not be sure whether the intention of the author of the play was actually a criticizing or rather propaganda.

Whatever case this might be, the truth is that the reviewers were not very happy with the play mostly because of the too posh atmosphere in the play. A London theatre reviewer Mark Shenton states that this play seems to him just a mess that offers a kind of a portrait of ―me‖ generation. (Shenton, 2014)

According to these two reviews we might argue that Selfie probably lacks everything but vanity which is one of the themes in the novel. However, thanks to the popular aspects in the play it could be interesting for young audience but it probably would not teach them about vanity.

There is one thing that we can notice in these new versions and adaptations mentioned so far. In all of the cases the title carries only Dorian’s name. Meaning, each title carries the name but not the whole title of the novel as to acknowledge that it is the novel we are dealing with. Instead, It might seem that we are kind of separating him from the context and as a result the producers do not need to concentrate so much on the whole message hidden in the novel but they can only ―borrow‖ the necessary,

―catchy‖ aspects of the novel, which is usually the sexual aspect and beauty which is easy to sell. As we have discussed earlier in the new 2009 movie, the title is Dorian

Gray, we can agree that the highlight of the movie are Dorian’s affairs and beauty,

Dorian’s Descent uses again his beauty and affairs and Selfie also focuses on the beauty and vain attributes. These are very visible attributes of the novel; everybody knows them, but what about the deep understanding and intelligence of the author which is rooted in the novel such as understanding the aestheticism or the hypocrisy of

Victorian society or society as such. This is unfortunately moved to the background.

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5.3. Other modern adaptations

Speaking of ―borrowing‖ the character of Dorian Gray, we might present other instances where Dorian functions merely as ―a person taken from a novel‖. The first case would be a movie called The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from 2003 directed by Stephen Norrington. What is interesting about this movie is the fact that

Dorian Gray is a member of a league of men who are other literary characters such as

Dr. Jackill and Hide, Captain Nemo or Mina Harker. Together with them he is fighting in a secret mission attempting to safe the world. Dorian Gray here represents a fighter whose advantage is the famous immortality shield and therefore it is impossible to kill him. In this particular movie, his beauty somehow steps aside and we are captivated only by a very new skill he possesses, which is fighting and operating guns. If we compare the actual novel, we might not be able to find any connection to this. It is only the name and the fact that he is immortal that served its purpose and therefore we might not probably appreciate anything from Wilde in this film. (IMDB, 2014)

Next example of such case is a new British-American, horror like TV series called Penny Dreadful. This TV series is directed by John Logan and the first episode hit TV in 2014. We might describe it as a series of episodes which deal with rather scary events from Victorian England which are uncovered by famous literary characters. We might find here Dr. Frankenstein, Count Dracula, Van Helsing and other interesting characters from gothic novels around England. One of these characters is also Dorian Gray. These Victorian favorites are played by famous actors; we could mention for instance Eva Green, Timothy Dalton and Josh Heartnet. Penny dreadful as we have briefly mentioned in the initial chapter of this thesis was a kind of fiction publication which was popular amongst working class people in Victorian times. It contained stories with a very cheep fictive horror-like taste. This TV series

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adopted this title probably for the reason that all the episodes are full of frightening and ghostly scenes. (Holland, 2014)

To sum up the atmosphere in this show, it is obvious that it takes place in

Victorian England, it suggests the year 1890 and we can admire the horribly foggy

London environment, full of factories, black carriages and horses, Victorian dresses and prostitutes wondering around the dark corners of the streets of London. The very setting might pretty much depict the life of Victorians as we have discussed earlier.

Moreover, the previously mentioned social problems of Victorian times are also present here such as prostitution, crime and others. (Jodelka, 2014)

The very first time we can catch a glimpse of Dorian Gray is when he is seated in a beautiful armchair in his huge mansion with this wondering stare. It is a young man of an extraordinary beauty and style. His eyes show an interest in everything that looks like a woman and every step he takes ends up in a rather explicit sex scene.

Dorian Gray does not really occupy any important role here but he serves as a spicy character that does all kinds of things that we would call perverted. Apart from the use of a very inappropriate language, sexual activities and taboo words, there is not really much to expect from Dorian Gray. The actor actually playing Dorian, Reeve Carney claims that Dorian is an omnisexual who is opened to anything and absolutely everything. (Hundley, 2014)

If we attempt to examine what it is that these modern adaptations of Dorian

Gray have actually in common we shall state that most visibly it is the picturing of

Dorian Gray as a kind of a sex symbol. The emphasis of his attractiveness and sexual appetite are quite important together with the beauty and vain behavior. Once more,

Victorians were reluctant to have anything to do with sexuality on the surface, but modern age does not seem to be chocked or surprised by such scenes.

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In the case of Penny Dreadful, it is quite interesting to what extend are the scenes sexually explicit, giving us a clear picture of what this character actually is and what he does. But such explicitness can not be true and has nothing to do with the novel simply because the author has never written anything as such in the novel.

There is no doubt that Dorian Gray has always been assumed by many to be a character which is dark, pleasure seeking and vain. That must be a result of our recognition of good and evil. But what people further imagined behind the lines written about Dorian Gray has always been mostly only their assumption. It seems now that this adopted perception of Dorian being an immoral person which started in

Victorian era (no matter what we imagine behind this word) has lingered over a century but it is now that our society got a different outlook on maters and in the end we let him arrive to 21st century where he won his timeless place amongst the public.

We have to admit that there are clear messages but also hidden messages concerning Dorian in the novel and we might only argue what Oscar Wilde would tell us about real Dorian if he was still amongst us. Maybe the fact that nobody actually and truly knows who he was keeps us interested in him and because we are living in the age when anything is possible we try to bring him back to life and figure out what is hidden behind that beautiful and enigmatic mask of Dorian Gray.

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Conclusion

The main purpose of the thesis was to attempt to prove that Dorian Gray is a timeless hero who for his timeless attributes has transformed from the outcast into a popular character of contemporary world. For this reason we had to explore the situation in Victorian Britain which was the time when this character was created. We have found out that the Victorian society was extremely hypocritical, in the sense that their rigid beliefs and narrow-mindedness created a kind of a mask to hide all sorts of social issues which were taking place there. Victorian England was a period of time when the whole nation was going through a great social and industrial change. As a result of this change there were many negative consequences such as hunger, increase in crime rate, drugs and prostitution. However, Victorian society chose to close their eyes and instead they worked hard to cover all of the imperfections so that the surface would stay clean.

In connection to this, The Picture of Dorian Gray represented a work which demonstrated such hypocrisy on a young man who transformed into a person with the ability to deceive people around him thanks to his illusive beauty. He showed that it is even possible to commit a murder and go around untouched. Dorian became vain and cruel and he engaged in many activities which were by Victorians denied. For this reason, when the novel appeared in 1891 it was highly unappreciated by the critics and the public. Moreover, upon the discovery of homoerotic messages it earned even worse reception. In the eyes of the public, The Picture of Dorian Gray became a work of the devil himself and the hero got the label of an outcast. We also explained the theme of homosexuality in Victorian era and found out that it was treated as a kind of illness of mind and it was perceived as an illegal act.

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Later in the thesis we started dealing with the contemporary society and we tried to analyze the reception of the novel once more. During this analysis we came across the new uncensored and unabridged version of the novel and which brings back the missing or altered passages which were cut out because of the already mentioned homoeroticism. This way, the readers might now get the clear picture of the actual intentions of the author and which we were not able to encounter till 2011. Moreover, this fact served us as prove that the contemporary society is opened to more explicit version and actually appreciates it. We came to the conclusion that this century is the right time for the real Dorian Gray to enter the world.

The next part of the analysis focused on Dorian Gray as a hero of contemporary society and we dealt with the question of what it is that attracts us on

Dorian Gray. We have discovered that nowadays we put emphasis on values similar to those of Dorian. This would mean beauty, style and ageless bodies. We can agree that

Dorian Gray was considered dandy in his time whose main obsession was his beauty and the image that he presented to the world. In the contemporary world we compared a dandy to a celebrity, which is a phenomenon having a great influence over the public. Moreover, we have encountered instances where fashion industry dedicated their collection to Dorian Gray and we also discussed beauty industry which helps us to achieve the goal of looking absolutely the best, which after all was one of the main concerns of Dorian as well. The fact that Dorian Gray was allowed to basically live forever without any sign of aging was also a topic for examination and it has been outlined in the thesis that there is a certain interest in ―living forever‖ amongst people.

But this topic is very delicate since it is considered unethical.

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In conclusion we have drawn out several similarities between the contemporary values in our society and those of Dorian Gray, as yet another implication that Dorian

Gray is relevant to our society more than in the Victorian times.

In the last chapter, we paid attention to the entertainment industry and the modern adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray, with the objective to show how this character is actually perceived today. We came to conclusion that Dorian Gray represents a sex symbol that made his way to the movie industry as well as the world of the theatre. On several examples we have observed his unique role of a seducer and womanizer, but any deeper connotations of the original character were hard to find. In the end we have compared the sexual content of the actual novel and the sexual content of the media where he appears today and we argued that there is no connection because the original novel simply does not carry any sexually explicit content.

Therefore, the sexual explicitness of Dorian in today’s art of entertainment can be used as the prominent attribute of the contemporary perception of the character.

In connection to the reached results, we might come to the very end and reach a conclusion that we have found possible reasons why the character of Dorian Gray remains timeless. The perception of Dorian Gray changes as the society and its values change. For that reason he might have reached his destination or might continue in his journey of timelessness further, but we could ask that probably again in another age.

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Resume

This diploma thesis dealt with the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and its main protagonist. Its aim was to examine the character of Dorian Gray and the changes in the attitudes of the society towards him which were suggested. We investigated the reception of the novel in Victorian society and later modern society and tried to suggest some explanations as to why this character is received favorably in modern age. To prove that

Dorian Gray remains a timeless hero, we discussed several modern adaptations of The

Picture of Dorian Gray. Moreover, several social contemporary topics such as the attitude towards beauty and aging were discussed and compared with the Victorian era. Upon our research we have come to the conclusion that while in the strict Victorian era Dorian

Gray received a trade mark of an immoral protagonist and the novel was condemned, today the novel is attractive for many readers and the character of Dorian Gray is perceived as a sex symbol and no longer as an immoral character.

Tato diplomová práce se zabývala novelou „Obraz Doriana Graye― a jeho hlavním hrdinou. Jejím cílem bylo prozkoumat osobnost Doriana Graye a také změny v postojích společnosti vůči této postavě. Zabývali jsme se přijetím této novely společností v době viktoriánské a poté v době moderní a pokusili jsme se vyjádřit proč je tato postava dnes naopak přijímaná kladně. Abychom dokázali, že Dorian Gray nadále zůstává nadčasovým hrdinou, zhodnotili jsme několik současných adaptací Obrazu Doriana Graye. několik současných společenských témat jako jsou postoje ke kráse a stárnutí byly zhodnoceny a porovnány s dobou viktoriánskou. Na základě našeho výzkumu jsme přišli k závěru, že zatímco ve viktoriánské Anglii dostal Gray nálepku imorální postavy a novela byla odsuzována, dnes se zdá být pro čtenáře atraktivní a Dorian Gray je vnímán jako sex symbol, nikoli jako imorální osobnost.

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