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The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs the Picture of Dorian Gray*

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The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs the Picture of Dorian Gray* The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of Dorian Gray* CHEN Lu At the beginning of Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of TimothyL. Carens regards this novel as a work that Dorian Gray, Lord Henrycompares Dorian Grayto distinguishes itself from traditional opium den narratives, Adonis, the beautiful youth in Greek mythology. When for Wilde “refuses to supplymatter-of-fact description” the painter Basil Hallward confesses in his art studio that of “detailed” “opium preparation and smoking” he has put much of himself into Dorianʼs portrait, Lord (Carens 71). Carens suggests that Wildeʼs intention “is Henrylaughs out and says,“I reallycan ʼt see any not to expose reality, but to refashion it in ʻfresh formsʼ” resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face (Carens 74). Partlyagreeing with Carens ʼs claims, Phyllis and your coal-black hair, and this young Adonis, who Weliver contends that “opium is a powerful agent that looks as if he was made out of ivoryand rose-leaves” (7; underpins Dorianʼs entire transformation” (Weliver ch.1). Lord Henrythus analogizes Dorian ʼs appearance 338). Weliver puts forward the decisive influence of to that of a legendarybeautyand introduces us to Dorian opium on Dorianʼs life. Curtis Marez further indicates before his appearance in the novel. The painter says he that “Wilde demonizes Dorianʼs drug addiction so as to worships Dorian as his “Hellenic ideal” (19; ch. 2). sanction his own use (or abuse) of non-European Later, Dorian also expresses this idea of himself: “Like ornament” (Marez 279). BarryMilligan, in Pleasures and the gods of the Greeks, he [Dorian] would be strong, and Pains, interprets opium consumption in several works of fleet, and joyous” (89; ch.8). The letters of the names of nineteenth-centuryEnglish literature: these two beautiful men, Dorian and Adonis, are Later examples include Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of anagrammaticallysimilar as well, although it is unclear Dorian Gray and Arthur Conan Doyleʼs Sherlock whether this was a deliberate choice byWilde. Holmes adventure “The Man With the Twisted This paper presents an in-depth discussion of the Lip” (both 1891), which draw into question relationship between Dorian and Adonis. To begin with, divisions between British and Oriental and between I point out that the two share the same source, the the imagined poles of the decadent East End and Orient. Dorianʼs relation to orientalism is presented the morallysound suburbs. (Milligan 111) mainlythrough his association with incense and opium. Milligan tempts to read Wildeʼs opium den as “a veiled To the present time, there have been few critical studies commentaryon British imperialism” (112) and finally about the relationship between Dorian and Adonis. attributes such exposure of opium dens to the Concerning opium and the orientalist perspective, “widespread anxieties about miscegenation and cultural blending” (113). Considering Dorian as a typical * This paper is an expanded and revised version of the paper Western figure, these scholars have tended to link him read at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Chubu Branch of the with the East through the external exotic element of English LiterarySocietyof Japan in October 2014 and myMA opium, and then raise the problem of national and thesis submitted to Graduate School of Letters, Nagoya cultural identity. While I assent to opiumʼs role as a University,in January2015. I would like to express mysincere representative of orientalism, I propose that Dorianʼs gratitude to Prof. Takikawa who provided carefullyconsidered feedback and valuable comments on mypaper. The responsibil- further connection with the East is through himself ityfor the final formulation, and anyerrors that it mayconcern, alone, as the incarnation of Adonis. Bytracing back are entirelymine. Adonisʼs origin to the ancient East, this paper will show [ 21 ] (135) 22 (136) CHEN Lu an orientalist perspective from a distinctive direction, 197). revolving around the similarities between Dorian and Before we are invited to see the furnishings and Adonis. interior decor of the studio, we first smell it. It is the In the first section of this paper, through the smell that brings forth the space of the studio in the introduction of the beginning of Wildeʼs novel, the following paragraph: Eastern origin of Adonis and his regenerative cycle will From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags be discussed. From an orientalist perspective, the on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, discussion clarifies how Dorian and Adonis share the innumerable cigarettes, Lord HenryWotton could same origin and how theyare both related with the East. just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey- In the second section, I will examine the more internal coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous features of the two figures through the hunting scenes, branches seemed hardlyable to bear the burden of a focusing on their homosexual inclinations and physical beautyso flame-like as theirs; and now and then vulnerability.As hunting directlyor indirectlyleading to the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the fatal end of both men, there is an overlap between the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in them. On the basis of this analysis, in section 3 I front of the huge window, producing a kind of interpret how we can understand the Oriental elements momentaryJapanese effect …. The dim roar of in this novel and what the similarities between Dorian London was like the bourdon note of a distant and Adonis tell us from an overall perspective. organ. (5; ch.1) With “the divan of Persian saddle-bags,” “the long tussore-silk curtains,” and the “momentaryJapanese 1 effect” depicted here, the direct visual impression we At the beginning of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the receive of the studio is that it is decorated in an exotic over-rich fragrances of the flowers in Basilʼs studio are manner. The room contains a smell that is distinct from carefullydescribed: the richlyodored garden but is still in harmonywith The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, it̶the smell of the “heavyopium-tainted cigarette” (6; and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the ch. 1) belonging to its owner, Lord Henry. With the trees of the garden there came through the open mentions of Persia, “tussore-silk,” and even the door the heavyscent of the lilac, or the more “Japanese effect,” all related to the East, this novel does delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. (5; not rest its gaze onlyon Victorian London. The ch.1) appearance of the main character is set within this In this scene, there soon appears Dorianʼs life-sized fragrant studio of Eastern style. Dorian undeniably has portrait which, in Lord Henryʼs words, looks like the an affinityfor fragrances and the East. He cultivates “young Adonis” (7; ch.1). John Sutherland suggests in exotic interests, including studying the science of his essay“WhyDoes This Novel Disturb Us?” that in perfumes (105-23; ch.11), and he indulges in opium the tradition of Anglo-Saxon novels, fragrances are dens as well. Opium, in particular, shifts the attention of seldom mentioned: “Smells are something that the this book directlyto the East at the outset. As Barry Anglo-Saxon novel is notablydeficient in and uneasy Milligan suggests in Pleasures and Pains, “Dorianʼs first about…. For most novelists in English̶ particularlyin exposure to the drug is in a London residence rather than the nineteenth century̶ smells are indelicate” (197). an East End den” (111). However, this is not true of The Picture of Dorian Gray. These representations̶fragrance, the East and a From the start we encounter “the rich odour of roses,” beautiful youth̶lead us to trace back their roots to the “the heavyscent of the lilac,” and “the more delicate ancient Oriental world where the mythology of Adonis perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.” The authorʼs has its origin. In manyversions of the Adonis story, intention to show various fragrances at the beginning of Adonisʼs mother, Myrrha, was turned into a myrrh tree the novel is clear, as Sutherland suggests: it indicates that before his birth. So, it is from the trunk of the incense The Picture of Dorian Gray is “nose-first” (Sutherland tree that Adonis is born (Ovid 10.488-516). Therefore, The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of Dorian Gray (137) 23 born of incense, Adonis has a close bond with spice and This is the same period in which the Greek world scents. In The Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek borrowed Adonia from the East. Adonisʼs botanical code Mythology, Marcel Detienne examines the symbols and is much closer to that of aromatic plants such as myrrh semiotic codes of Adonis, noting the geographic origin of and frankincense than to fruits and grains, for farming some precious spices like myrrh and frankincense. and cereal planting were celebrated under the name of According to the thought of the ancient Greeks, Demeter, the god of fertility(100 -22; ch. 5). By “frankincense and myrrh, and cassia and cinnamon all examining the widelyknown activitythat took place grow together in the Arabian peninsula…. Alexanderʼs during the rites of Adonia, we can capture the main traits expedition enriched geographical knowledge and gave it of Adonis and his celebration: a new framework but it did not radicallyalter the One of the best known features of this festival Greekʼs idea of the Land of Spices” (6; ch.1). Thence celebrated bywomen in honour of the lover of the cultivation of plants and crops inevitablyinvolved the Aphrodite is the growing of cereals and vegetables, worship of a god of vegetation, as James Frazer suggests within a few days, in small pots of earth set out in in Adonis, Attis Osiris, a volume in his great work The the open.
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