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The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of *

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 . 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, , was turned into a 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 ( 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 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, , 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 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. (Detienne 101; ch.5) Golden Bough, published contemporaneouslywith The Then, in their pots, the plants “emerge from the ground Picture of Dorian Gray: within onlytwo or three days,onlyto wither away For although men now attributed the annual cycle immediatelyin the veryheat which made their rapid of change primarilyto corresponding changes in growth possible” (Detienne 101; ch. 5). Detienne their deities, theystill thought that byperforming suggests that this process of growth and atrophyshows certain magical rites theycould aid the god, who the cyclical path from birth to death, and theories was the principle of life, in his struggle with the concerning this process “are so stronglytied to the opposing principle of death. Theyimagined that Frazerian ideologyinvolving a god Adonis who theycould recruit his failing energies and even raise alternatelydies and is reborn that theyare not only him from the dead. The ceremonies which they interchangeable but can, without difficulty, be combined observed for this purpose were in substance a together” (101; ch.5). In this cycle, Adonis, a god of dramatic representation of the natural processes vegetation was able to regenerate annually. which theywished to facilitate. (Frazer 4; ch.1) In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorianʼs agelessness Concerning the myth of rebirth that surrounds Adonis, represents, in essence, a vegetational regenerating process. Frazer examined the activities of worship that took place In the odoriferous studio of chapters 1 and 2, at Lord in ancient Eastern regions: “Under the names of Osiris, Henryʼs instigation, Dorian sees his own life-sized Tammuz, Adonis, and Attis, the peoples of Egypt and portrait, and suddenlyrealizes his own beauty:“A look Western Asia represented the yearlydecayandrevival of of joycame into his eyes,as if he had recognized himself life, especiallyof vegetable life, which theypersonified as for the first time…. The sense of his own beautycame on a god who annuallydied and rose again from the dead” him like a revelation. He had never felt it before” (25; (6; ch.1). Adonis, as a god of vegetation, was believed to ch.2). Given a new lease on life, Dorian awakens at this come back to life yearly, just as vegetables did. “The moment. This is also the beginning of his corruption and worship of Adonis was practised bythe Semitic peoples his spiritual journey. From that moment, Dorian starts to of Babylonia and Syria, and the Greeks borrowed it from practice “the great secret of life” taught byLord Henry: them as earlyas the seventh centurybefore Christ” (6; “to cure the soul bymeans of the senses, and the senses ch. 1). Accordingly, the idea of this famous beautiful bymeans of the soul” (21; ch.2). The means he uses, as youth originated from the ancient Eastern land, the depicted in chapter 11, are engaging in mysticism, region of spices and incenses. studying perfumes, enjoying barbaric music and collect- Detienne gives a summaryof the practice of ing jewelry(105 -23; ch.11). The portrait becomes more Adonia̶the rite celebrated in honor of Adonis̶in and more heinous and loathsome to him. However, in Ancient Greece. From approximatelythe seventh exchange for the portraitʼs decay, he is able to maintain century, spices were being used in Greece (37; ch.2). his own ageless, beautiful appearance: “And when 24 (138) CHEN Lu winter came upon it, he would still be standing where of Charles Ricketts (1866‒1931) in London, where spring trembles on the verge of summer…. Like the gods Wilde frequentlyvisited. Charles Ricketts is considered of the Greeks, he would be strong, and fleet, and joyous” as a model for Basil Hallward. Ricketts was an artist and (89; ch. 8). This process results in a kind of cycle of a man of letters, as well as an illustrator, book designer, revival. For he always returns to that odoriferous garden and critic. He gained a reputation in the world of art, byBasil ʼs studio, where he was newborn and set out on particularlyin the 1920s. Wilde ʼs mention of Eastern his spiritual journey. The garden in chapter 1 is no elements maycloselyrelate to Ricketts, for Ricketts longer a geographical site. It is also now a node in time himself had a special interest in Eastern art, including from which Dorian can revive. The original point is Chinese and Japanese painting, sculpture, and architec- always the garden, when “spring trembles on the verge of ture. In his work Pages On Art, there are several essays summer” with flowers, odors, an Oriental atmosphere, about Eastern art such as “Japanese Painting and and the Adonis-like youth. It follows that with these Sculpture at the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition,” “The elements, corresponding to the elements of the myth of Chinese Paintings in the British Museum,” and “Three Adonis, Dorian is able to regenerate himself. Essays on Oriental Painting.” No wonder the “Japanese Furthermore, Basilʼs portrait of Dorian is a perfect effect” (5; ch. 1) is mentioned in the first chapter of copyof his model ʼs image, and it contains another form Wildeʼs novel. We cannot rule out the possibilitythat of regeneration. As Dorian attempts new types of sensual Wilde has “reframed” Rickettsʼs studio. This further pleasure, the portrait bears all the corruptions of his soul implies that the fusion of Eastern elements and Western and becomes more terrible-looking bythe day.At the domestic space is a common cultural and social end of the novel, however, the portrait regains a new life phenomenon in Britain at the end of the nineteenth and returns to what it was like at the beginning of the century. We can see that in chapter 2 there is “a small book: “Theyfound hanging on the wall a splendid Japanese table,” upon which Dorian, Lord Henry, and portrait of their master as theyhad last seen him, in all Basil have their tea (27). In chapter 4, when Dorian the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty” (184; ch. meets LadyHenry,she speaks to him about her opinions 20). Like the people who cultivated plants in small pots toward “picturesque” “foreigners” (42). In the same during the ancient festival of Adonia, the image of chapter when Dorian Graywanders to the shabby Dorian is similarlyfixed within Basil ʼs frame which bears theater, there appears “a hideous Jew” (44) and “a its continuous changes and final revision. Although young Hebrew who sat at a cracked piano” in the theater Adonis is slain, he is regenerated in the small pots in the (45). In chapter 11, it is mentioned that Lord Henry form of aromatic plants. Similarly, instead of Dorian, the assists Dorian with the dinners held in his house, and portrait becomes something that owns eternal youth and there is “exquisite taste shown in the decoration of the immortalityjust like the metaphor of Adonis the table” with “subtle symphonic arrangements of exotic vegetation god. In this way, the odoriferous garden of flowers” (107). In addition, there are “odorous gums Basilʼs studio provides the environment for Dorianʼs from the East,” “barbaric music,” “yellow Chinese awakening and regeneration. At the same time it turns hangings,” and “Japanese Foukousas” (111-16; ch.11). the focus of the novel toward the East. Eastern objects are found in manyscenes in this novel, Dorianʼs affinitywith the East is byno accident. As deeplywoven into Dorian ʼs social and private life, the beginning of the novel shows, Lord Henryʼs “heavy handled with full skill and ease byWilde. opium-tainted cigarette” (6; ch.1) blends harmoniously Further, in chapter 15, there appears in Dorianʼs own with the studio, creating an exotic Oriental atmosphere, librarya “green paste” of opium, which is enclosed in a even though the location of the studio is in the cityof “small Chinese box” hidden in “a large Florentine London. Wildeʼs arrangement of Basilʼs studio̶the cabinet” (152-53; ch.15). Under the overwhelming in- exotic decoration, the Eastern atmosphere, and the odor fluence of this piece of “green paste,” Dorian immedi- of opium̶is not arbitrary. According to a note by atelymakes his wayto the East End opium den: “There Michael Patrick Gillespie concerning this part, the were opium-dens, where one could buyoblivion, dens of furnishings of the studio are based on those of the studio horror where the memoryof old sins could be destroyed The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of Dorian Gray (139) 25 bythe madness of sins that were new” (153; ch.16). 102; ch.5) According to Milligan, the source of this influence Based on the information given here, Adonis has a fragile derives from the combination of opium and the Western and rootless character. In the tenth book of Ovidʼs domestic space (111-12). In both the scenes of Basilʼs Metamorphosis, Adonis almost never speaks and seems garden and Dorianʼs library, the boundary line between hardlymoved byVenus ʼs words (10. 517-739). The the Eastern elements and domestic decorations becomes character of this vegetation god is not explicit. Apart vague. This is the basic environment for the main from his elegant appearance, everything about him, his character. This fusion of East and West becomes a kind personality, spirituality, way of thinking, and other of traction that inspires Dorianʼs actions and accelerates specific details are ambiguous. After he dies, Adonis is his degeneration. Opium, a symbol of orientalism, turned into an odorous in Venusʼs lament: infuses the surroundings of the characters and is intensely Sweet Boy!thydeaths sad image, everyyeare attached to the domestic space and social life of London. Shall in our solemnizʼd Complaints appeare. According to Frazerian theory, the East was the But be thyblood a Flowre. (Ovid 10.724 -26,) essential foundation for the mythical figure of Adonis. As for his birth from incense, and his death in the form Thus, Adonis and Dorian Grayshare the same of a flower, Adonisʼs life has no solid basis into which he origin̶the East. With his abilityto regenerate himself can laydown roots. As Venus ʼs lament shows, the and the reversion of the portrait at the end, Dorian blossom of a tree and the beautiful appearance of a flower undergoes a metamorphosis and turns into a regenerating will remain for but a moment (Ovid 10.729-37). With Adonis-like figure. his extreme beautyand short life, the unstable and rootless traits of Adonis make him like a dream that will promptlydisappear in the wind. 2 This rootless feature of Adonis is given a full In this section, the inherent homosexual attractiveness explanation in his miserable death as described in and physical fragility of Adonis and Dorian will be Metamorphosis: discussed. Such features further corroborate their …The Bore with crooked tooth resemblance and are linked to an occurrence that takes Writhes out the javelin, with his blood imbrude. place while hunting in the forest, which brings each of Who now his safetie-seeking Foe pursude; them to their fatal ending. Sheathing his tushes in his groyne: and threw Let us remember that the small pots of earth used by To earth the dying Boy…. (Ovid 10.712-16) the ancient Greeks in the imitation of Adonisʼs As seen here, Adonis is fatallyhurt in “his groyne.” In continuous renewal are called the “gardens of Adonis.” William Shakespeareʼs Venus and Adonis, the youth is The literal meaning of Greek proverbs concerning the wounded “in his soft flank” (1053) when chasing a boar. gardens of Adonis reveals another basic characteristic of This disabling of his sexual parts suggests Adonisʼs sexual this mythical character: dysfunction. His lack of masculine features is manifested It shows that the plants in these gardens bore no as a refusal of sexual consummation. That is why“love fruits and were fundamentallysterile …. The gardens he laughed to scorn” (4) in Shakespeareʼs description, of Adonis is a proverbial expression used to refer to while all the time being uninterested in Venusʼs wooing. whatever is lightweight (koûphos) and superficial For Dorian, heterosexual love mayonce have existed (epipólaios); it is also used to describe anything that between him and the actress Sibyl Vane. In chapter 6, he is immature (áōros) or what has no roots (mē` talks to Lord Henryand Basil about Sibyl ʼs acting: errhizōménos˛ ). In effect Adonis, the object of “Sibyl was playing Rosalind…. When she came on Aphroditeʼs passion, died before coming of age in her boyʼs clothes she was perfectlywonderful. (proēbēś) and this is whyhis followers who She wore a moss-coloured velvet jerkin with cultivated in claypots these gardens which, being cinnamon sleeves, slim brown cross-gartered hose, a rootless, soon withered away( takhéōs maraínesthai), daintylittle green cap with a hawk ʼs feather caught called them bythe name of Adonis. (Detienne in a jewel, and a hooded cloak lined with dull red. 26 (140) CHEN Lu

She had never seemed to me more exquisite.” (65; chapter 9, Basil makes a long confession to Dorian ch.6) regarding his idolatry. He compares Dorian with Paris Sibylis highlyregarded byDorian for playingRosalind, a and Adonis while confessing to Dorianʼs “extraordinary character who disguises herself as a boyin Shakespeare ʼs influence” over him (95; ch.9). For Basil, Dorian is “the As You Like It. Besides the cross-dressing Sibyl, what visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory fascinated Dorian so much may, in essence, have been haunts” “artists like an exquisite dream (95; ch.9). Basil Rosalindʼs hybrid gender. For when Dorian describes his worships Dorian and is “afraid that others would know first encounter with Sibyl, when she plays Juliet, his of his idolatry” (95; ch.9). What exactly lies behind such appreciation emphasizes first her beautyand then her affection in each case? Concerning Shakespeareʼs Adonis, voice, whereas when she plays Rosalind, he feels that she Bruce R. Smith, in his Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s “never seemed to me more exquisite.” Then Dorian England, indicates that an innocent beautiful youth, like immediately abandons Sibyl after she played Juliet poorly Adonis, embodies, “quite literally, the ambiguities of on stage one night. Sibylʼs death afterward is to him sexual desire in English Renaissance culture and the “simplylike a wonderful ending to a wonderful play” ambivalences of homosexual desire in particular” (136). (84; ch.8). Here we see Dorian distancing himself from In A Thousand Words, Jaime Hoveypoints out that Basil heterosexual love. Either because of his narcissistic love, makes “attractiveness an attribute of Dorian himself” or because of his inclination toward homosexual love, “to denyhis own homoerotic attraction to Dorian” (30). Dorian, apart from the episode with Sibyl, is seldom Both Adonis and Dorian are supposed to have shown in scenes of heterosexual relationships in this homosexual attractiveness. Basilʼs words, however, are novel. Although in chapter 19 there is mention of his not the onlyhomosexual hint in this work. Chapter 11 renunciation of Hetty,a countrygirl, Lord Henrygets mentions Dorian sharing a villa “at Trouville with Lord down to brass tacks bysaying“the noveltyof the Henry” and of “the little white walled-in house at Algiers emotion must have given you [Dorian] a thrill of real where theyhad more than once spent the winter,” as well pleasure” (173; ch.19). Dorian thinks “to leave her as as “his great house in Nottinghamshire” where he was flower-like” (173; ch.19) is doing a good deed. He is “entertaining the fashionable young men of his own rank trying to pursue a sense of self-gratification in his new who were his chief companions” (118; ch.11). Thus, it idea of altering himself. Even including this incident, appears that Dorian prefers staying with his male Dorian is evasive about heterosexuality. Dorianʼs companions. Considering these hints, we can determine abandonment of Sibyl greatly resembles Adonisʼs flight that Dorianʼs social and private life is full of homosexual from Venus for the fun of hunting. In their approach to possibilities and he is also a participant. heterosexuality, Adonis and Dorian Gray each display This inclination in both Dorian and Adonis weakens escapist attitudes. their masculinity, and such weakness determines their In The Portrait of Mr. W.H., Wilde puts forth such an fatal accidents that occur when theyare hunting in the opinion of the young Adonis and his creator woods. Adonis is slain bya boar during a hunting Shakespeare: expedition. Detienne writes that “in mythical tradition,” Yes: the “rose-cheeked Adonis” of the Venus “Adonis is the antithesis of the heroic hunter. In that he poem, the false shepherd of the “Loverʼs is overcome bya boar he is marked out as possessing Complaint” … was none other but a young actor; qualities the opposite of the aggressive warriorʼs strength and as I read through the various descriptions given and virilitythat this animal embodies” (66). It is ironic of him, I saw that the love that Shakespeare bore that, although Adonis loves hunting and dresses like a him was as the love of a musician for some delicate hunter, he does not actuallyresemble a real hunter. His instrument on which he delights to play, as a being killed bya boar suggests that it is more as if Adonis sculptorʼs love for some rare and exquisite material were the one being hunted. The fatal accident occurs that suggests a new form of plastic beauty, a new while he is hunting, and the woods become his tomb. mode of plastic expression. (205-06) Thus, hunting finallydeprives Adonis of his masculinity This affection resembles that of Basil for Dorian. In and of his life. The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of Dorian Gray (141) 27

As for Dorian, a similar rapid turn occurs in chapter scene brings Adonisʼs death to mind. 18. The open landscape in chapter 18 contrasts During the hunt, Dorian inappropriatelyshows dramaticallywith other scenes in the novel. Enveloped in sympathy for a hare that is about to be shot: “Sir the heavyscent of fragrances, most of the other settings Geoffreyput his gun to his shoulder, but there was in the book are interior spaces, such as the painterʼs something in the animalʼs grace of movement that studio, the playhouse, Dorianʼs “delicately-scented strangelycharmed Dorian Gray,and he cried out at chamber” (106; ch. 11), the libraryor attic, and the once, ʻDonʼt shoot it, Geoffrey. Let it liveʼ” (167; ch. opium den. To guarantee a constancyof odor, these 18). Obviously, Dorian here is behaving just the opposite places need to be domestic and self-contained. of a hunter in trying to stop Geoffrey from shooting the Compared with the domestic spaces, the woods are open animal. He thinks of himself as in a similar condition to and vast: “The crisp frost laylike salt upon the grass. The the preybeing followed and hunted. Besides the fact that skywas an inverted cup of blue metal. A thin film of ice he is followed byJames Vane, his uneasiness fundamen- bordered the flat reed-grown lake” (166; ch.18). The tallycomes from his substantial mental oscillation: “I forest is not excluded from olfactoryimagery,as the am too much concentrated on myself. My own forest too is under the domination of fragrances: personalityhas become a burden to me. I want to escape, The keen aromatic air, the brown and red lights to go away, to forget” (169; ch.18). He becomes the that glimmered in the wood…fascinated him, and prey, and the forest becomes a fatal spot for him. The filled him with a sense of delightful freedom. (167; uncertaintyand obscurityof his own fate makes him lose ch.18) his mind: “Life had suddenlybecome too hideous a Despite the fact that the forest is an outdoor space, it is burden for him to bear” (171; ch.18). Bythe time he still an enclosed space, for the skyis like “an inverted decides to destroyhis “conscience” (183; ch.20) ̶the cup” that ensures the closure of the forest and thus the mirror of his soul in the attic̶his inner disorder has “aromatic air” can give full playto its scent. gone too far to be rescued, so the onlypossible ending is In chapters 1 and 2, when Dorian awakens like a death. In this way, even though the hunting excursion reborn Adonis, the season is summer, and in the garden does not directlylead to Dorian ʼs death, the fear of death various kinds of flowers blossom abundantly. By that comes upon him quickens the collapse of his inner contrast, in the scene involving the shooting party, the world, which drives him to death shortlyafterward. season has clearlyshifted to winter. When introducing In this way, the vulnerability of Adonis and Dorian are the festival of Adonia, Detienne mentions that this related to the woods and hunting activity. The woods are celebration was held during the hottest dayof the year, a spot unfit for their inherent features. It is the hunting that is, after the rising of Sirius: the Dog Star. According that directlyor indirectlyresults in their deaths. Dorian ʼs to ancient knowledge of crop production, during this sudden and unexpected turn can be regarded as a period the sunʼs power was at its zenith for the whole reflection of Adonisʼs death. In the woods in the year, and it was at this time that people collected aromatic winter air, Dorian is walking close to his death. aromatic plants, such as frankincense and myrrh. The During this process, the figure of Dorian overlaps with celebration of the cereal harvest was held in autumn, like that of Adonis. the ritual devoted to Demeter in the Greek world, whereas cultivation of the Gardens of Adonis was held in 3 summer (Detienne 6-41). Thus, aromatic plants correspond to the sun and the season of summer. Winter, The hunting episodes in Metamorphosis and The Picture then, is the season that is opposite to Adonisʼs nature. It of Dorian Gray give expression to the homosexual is likewise an unfavorable time for Dorian. The forest attractiveness and physical fragility of Adonis and scene brings an eerie atmosphere to Dorianʼs life and Dorian. With their Oriental origin, as discussed in the indeed to the whole work: “It was an ill-omened place. first section, we see that both Adonis and Dorian are Death walked there in the sunlight. The grass of the characters that straddle West and East. In appearance, forest had been spotted with blood” (171; ch.18). The Dorian is pure and as good-looking as a Greek god, while 28 (142) CHEN Lu he actuallyhas affinitywith opium and the East End seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth dens. Then how can we understand the Eastern elements and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in in this book? Where, exactly, does such resemblance evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was direct us? withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was When examining Wildeʼs opinions of literarywork not till theyhad examined the rings that they and art in his essay“The Decayof Lying,” we find that recognized who it was. (184; ch.20) Orientalism holds a place in Wildeʼs thinking: The last paragraph of the novel depicts the moment What is true about the drama and the novel is no where Dorianʼs secret is revealed to others. It is the less true about those arts that we call the decorative moment when the portrait that bore his soul disappears arts. The whole historyof these arts in Europe is the and the picture that Basil painted for Dorian reappears. record of the struggle between Orientalism, with its Dorianʼs division ceases and his soul unites with his frank rejection of imitation, its love of artistic body. The novel ends at its very climax. Dorianʼs death is convention, its dislike to the actual representation the death of incense as well as the death of Adonis. In of anyobject in Nature, and our own imitative stark contrast to the odoriferous garden in the beginning spirit. (“The Decayof Lying” 30 -31) of the novel, the attic is gloomy, narrow and cold. There Orientalism does not appear all of a sudden; it has been is no depiction of anyodor in the last part, owing to the in a “struggle” with European consciousness for a long destruction of this Adonis-like youth. Both Basilʼs period and is part of the historyof European art. The portrait and Dorianʼs life are the embodiment of the vague boundaryline between the East and the West we Occidentʼs “imitative spirit” that Wilde discusses in have noticed in The Picture of Dorian Gray maynot be “The Decayof Lying.” Basil confesses that Dorian surprising, for it had alreadybeen in existence for ages. represents a kind of Greek spirit and a “Hellenic ideal” As suggested byMilligan, Dorian is not influenced (19; ch.2) to him, and that Dorianʼs face will become his simplybythe odor of opium but is inspired bythe art. As Wilde writes in the preface to the novel: “All art combined power of Western space and opium. His is at once surface and symbol” (3; Preface). To Basil, degeneration is also stimulated bythis combined power. Dorianʼs beautysymbolizesthe ideal form of art. Thus, Further, with his resemblance to Adonis, the affinitywith the perfect portrait burdens the decadent soul of Dorian Eastern elements is an inherent characteristic of himself. as his second self. Lord Henrymakes an appropriate In Milliganʼs discussion, the “flow of Oriental influ- summaryof Dorian ʼs life, saying, “I am so glad that you ence” upon Dorian, whether it is “an extension of an have never done anything, never carved a statue, or episode begun in his [Dorianʼs] home” or a representa- painted a picture, or produced anything outside of tion of the Eastern focus of the East End opium den, it is yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to an external factor acting on our main character. I argue music. Your days are your sonnets” (179; ch. 19). that with his resemblance to Adonis, Dorian himself is Dorian, while maintaining his appearance as an the focus of Hellenic beautyand Eastern interests. From innocent, beautiful Greek youth, is in fact a monster, as his gorgeous debut in Basilʼs fragrant exotic studio, to his he appears in the picture. His life is an imitation of the own “delicately-scented chamber” (106; ch.11), and to young Adonis, which, once withered, can revive again. the East End opium den where he is a frequent caller, the Nonetheless, in this process, a sudden turn for the worse Eastern elements never disappear. The fusion we see in occurs, where just like Adonis, the embodiment of Dorian is byno means a desirable phenomenon, for it incense, Dorian finallyundergoes an unexpected actuallyleads Dorian to the final result of the mythic metamorphosis and takes on a quite different shape in Adonis. the attic. We see that the “imitative spirit” reflected in Compared with his gorgeous debut, Dorianʼs death is this novel is Dorianʼs parodyof the Adonis story.Thus, a miserable spectacle: the Eastern elements in this novel are byno means only When they[the coachman, the footman and Mrs. external factors that endanger British identity, and Leaf] entered, theyfound hanging upon the wall a Dorian is not a figure that is simplyinfluenced bysuch splendid portrait of their master as theyhad last exotic things. Dorian himself is the owner of such an The Metamorphosis of Adonis in Oscar Wildeʼs The Picture of Dorian Gray (143) 29 influence, for the East is part of him, intrinsically. (1997): 257-87. Jstor. Web. July24, 2014. The stories of both Adonis and Dorian show us the Milligan, Barry. Pleasures and Pains: Opium and the Orient in wretched fortunes of men of extreme beauty. In the Nineteenth-Century British Culture. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 1995. Print. development of the plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ovid. Ovid’ s Metamorphosis: Englished, Mythologized, and the figure of Dorian graduallyapproaches that of Adonis, Represented in Figures by George Sandys. Ed. Karl K. from his appearance to his homosexual aspects to his Hulley. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1970. Print. following in Adonisʼs footsteps in the fatal woods. Ricketts, Charles. Pages On Art. London: Constable, 1913. Dorian Grayʼs journeyis a Wildean version of Adonis ʼs Print. fate. In the relationship between the two, the mythical ---. Everything for Art: Selected Writings. Ed. Nicholas Frankel. Adonis is an ideal and a symbol while Dorian, as a blend High Wycombe: Rivendale, 2014. Print. of Western beautyand Eastern interests, imitates such an Shakespeare, William. Venus and Adonis. The Poems. Ed. John Roe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. 78-138. Print. artistic ideal. This imitation is a great success, for he takes Smith, Bruce R. Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England: A himself as the material, and with the reversion of Basilʼs Cultural Poetics. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991. Print portrait, Dorian replicates the revival of the innocent Sutherland, John. “Whydoes this novel disturb us?” Is young Adonis with his own sacrifice at the end. Heathcliff a Murderer?: Great Puzzles in Nineteenth- Century Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 196-201. Works Cited Print. Weliver, Phyllis. “, Music, and the ʻOpium- Carens, TimothyL. “Restylingthe Secret of the Opium Den.” Tainted Cigaretteʼ: Disinterested Dandies and Critical Reading Wilde: Querying Spaces. New York: New York Play.” Journal of Victorian Culture 15.3 (2010): 315-47. UP, 1995. Print. Taylor and Francis Online. Web. 24 July2014. Detienne, Marcel. The Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Michael Patrick Mythology. Trans. Janet Lloyd. Princeton: Princeton UP, Gillespie. New York: Norton, 2007. Print. 1994. Print. ---. “The Decayof Lying.” The Complete Works of Oscar Frazer, James George. Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History Wilde. Introd. Edgar Saltus. Vol. 5. Garden City, NY: of Oriental Religion. Vol. 1. London: Macmillan. 1980. Doubleday, 1923. 7-63. Print. Print. ---. The Portrait of Mr W. H.. 1921. The Riddle of Shakespeareʼs Hovey, Jaime. A Thousand Words: Portraiture, Style, and Queer Sonnets. . New York: Basic. 1962. Modernism. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2006. Print. 163-255. Print. Marez, Curtis. “The Other Addict: Reflections on Colonialism and Oscar Wildeʼs Opium Smoke Screen.” ELH 64. 1