Author: jacksons

         Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, fits perfectly into the themes of the Fin de siècle. The themes of darkness and decay are ever present in the golden boy Dorian’s descent into madness and murder. Through his actions and the narration, it can be determined that Dorian’s murderous tendencies can be attributed to Dorian’s own disconnection to himself and his own will.
          One scene that made it obvious that Dorian is detached from his own self is in the moments leading up to Basil’s murder. It was described as Dorian watching Basil “with that strange expression that one seen on the faces of those who are absorbed in a play when some great artist is acting…there was simply the passion of the spectator” (pg 173). The comparison of Dorian to an absorbed spectator in an amazing play is interesting because it seems as though he’s in a distant world – one opposite to the room that he and Basil are in. This comparison also draws on the idea of art as it entices and entrances those who witness it, in this instance Dorian is the one filled with “the passion of the spectator.” I also read this as Wilde hinting at the idea of supernatural influence on Dorian’s attachment to his body and will because this is one of multiple moments where Dorian is pulled into the unseen. For example, the scene of Dorian’s death because he had transformed from “exquisite youth and beauty” to laying lifeless “withered, wrinkled and loathsome” and unrecognizable. The sudden disappearance of youthful beauty as soon as he died further suggests the idea of the evil supernatural at work as that would be the only reason for such a rapid change in looks. Dorian’s death can be read as confirmation that the same distant force that “absorbed” him in the play of life had also orchestrated his death as the finale to the art piece.

Vernon Lee’s Dionea (1890) draws interesting connections to the more modern novel Beloved by Toni Morrison published in 1987. I believe that texts expose the fascination with the “evil” supernatural appearing as young women that are overly sexual and malicious beyond their physical appearance.

While both are written in different time centuries, the main parallel is drawn when a supernatural force in the form of girl has appeared to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting adults. Throughout the novel Dionea was described in an animalistic way with her “raising her head with that smile like the twist of a young snake” and having lips like “a tiny snake’s curves” (pg 11 & 13). In seeing the comparison between Dionea and a snake it suggests that her humanity isn’t acknowledged in the male narrator’s perspective. It serves as a way to make Dionea seem creepy yet sexual by describing her physical features like a snake’s “curves.” This connects to the description of Beloved in Toni Morrison’s novel who makes home feel “spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom” (Chapter 1). We can see that the narrative of vengeful girls is something that continues from the 1800s well into the 1900s. The same language of comparing them to snakes reveals their slimier motivations that goes beyond the unsuspecting appearance of a young girls.

Dionea and Beloved motivations are made visible in the way that they haunt and terrorize males throughout the novel. Dionea was described as having multiple occurrences of violence towards males. One notable incident was the death of Sor Agostino who was hit by lightning and “was killed on the spot; and opposite, not twenty paces off, drawing water from the well, unhurt and calm, was Dionea” (pg 14). The convenient placing of Dionea in a Sor Agostino’s death paints her out as a murderous girl who appears innocent and “calm” to the unsuspecting eye yet, the narrator is shaken by these constant unnatural actions of Dionea. This evil and unusual girl archetype is present in Beloved when Paul D, who’s Beloved mother’s lover, falls prey to Beloved schemes when she torments him into sleeping in the cellar and commands that he “touch on the inside part and call me my name” (chapter 11). In this instance, while she’s not outrightly violent like Dionea, Beloved fulfills her deeper desires which was to overtake Paul D and drives him into isolation to complete this plot. Similarly, to Dionea killing Sor Agostino in a more secluded area.

Therefore, the connection between these two texts over 100 years apart depicts the popularity of the supernatural semi-sexual young woman horror stories which intrigues the imaginations of readers.

Reading Dracula has surprisingly brought up many questions around religion, race, gender and much more. One article that added interesting context to Dracula was the excerpt from Emily Gerard titled Transylvanian Superstitions. In this article from Emily Gerard, she introduces the concept of the living vampire who is “the illegitimate offspring of two illegitimate persons” and having a “flawless pedigree will not ensure anyone against the intrusion of a vampire into his family vault” because whoever the vampire feeds on is doomed to feed on other innocent people (Gerard, 332). This introduces the basis for how Dracula came to be which is being the “bastard” child of two other “bastards” and how he operates by “intrusion” on the purity of someone’s bloodline through sucking and feeding on his victim.

This context in useful in analyzing one of Dracula’s victims named Lucy. Lucy was killed by Dracula leading to the band of men “exorcising” her but her death and the violence at her grave, portrayed Lucy as contaminated by impurities spiritually and physically. The body of Lucy at the grave was described as a “foul Thing which had taken Lucy’s shape without her soul” and “a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth…the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity” (page 221). Therefore, in this description Lucy’s body is shown as invaded by a “Thing” and became a devil because Dracula has feasted on her. From Gerard’s reading, it is understood that vampires are or become flaws within a bloodline. This description of Lucy upholds the notion of vampires being able to compromise the purity of a person spiritually and physically by reducing a person to a “carnal and unspiritual” entity in need of an exorcism. Ultimately, causing a “mockery” of even the most innocent and/or sweet person by taking complete possession of the body thus disrupting purity on every facet of a victim.

However, there are also undertones of misogyny during Lucy’s transformation and exorcism. Prior to becoming a vampire, Lucy experiences the blood transfusion using the blood multiple men and she also expresses the desire for multiple men. In the Journal of Mina, Lucy’s friend, she talks about the existence of “New Women” in relation to Lucy where women will “won’t condescend in future to accept; she will do the proposing herself” (chapter 8). Mina expresses more modern ideas of marriage and companionship and Lucy’s actions have displayed the existence of the “New Women” that bends gender roles in marriage. While this may seem positive, Lucy’s untimely death which comes in the following chapters suggests the longevity of the “New Women” might not be the best. Meaning that by challenging traditional heterosexual marriage roles by taking charge in acts like proposing or being enticed by multiple men will lead to an “unspiritual” existence since Lucy’s soul was replaced by a vampire’s hunger and will.  In making Lucy the first victim, Stoker makes the “New Woman” comparable to that of a 2^nd generation “bastard” because both are flaws within a bloodline or more accurately a disruption in the order of things.

The decadent poems read in class offered interesting views on life, death and decay along and how that pairs with the scientific and fantastical world. One poem that stuck out was Epitaph by Amy Levy which is centered on a man being on his death bed connecting it to the decadence movement because its actively focusing on death and how the process goes. The opening lines state that “This is the end of him, here he lies: The dust in his throat, the worms in his eyes” (373). The focus of this sentence is the “end” of the man and his resting place, but it’s paired with the more grotesque details of dust and worms being present. Then when placed in context of an Epitaph which is on a common person who died in bed, it places the man’s manner of death in context of his social class too. One line that reveals the influence of social standing in relation to how you die is “Never ask for bread, get a stone instead, Never pretend that the stone is bread” (pg 373). By placing bread and stone in a same sentence as if they’re comparable, this could be perceived as a commentary on social classes because wanting “bread” yet, receiving stone could be perceived as lack of access to what one may want and need. The advice of “never pretend that the stone is bread” shows that one which is lifeless and hard can’t be replaced for the other which is nourishing and supports life. It could also mean don’t settle for the minimum in which you are given especially as a commonplace person because ultimately the time will come in which dust and worms will infiltrate your body and you will decay having missed out on the brighter days passed. This is supported by the following lines which cautions to “Never sway and sway ‘twixt the false and true, weighing and noting the long hours through” (pg 373). This line is similar to the bread versus stone lines as it warns not to take one thing as a place holder for another. In this instance that would mean believing time can be counted as if its endless when its truly finite. This relates to death because there comes a time when a person’s hours are up and the sway of time in noting hours comes to an end. Ultimately this extends to the Ledger and Luckhurst article titled Reading the ‘Fin De Siècle, in which they frame this manner of literature as “a burgeoning secondary literature explaining the ways in which the theory of degeneration moves from biology through to sociology, criminology, psychology and ethics” (pg 23).  Meaning that degradation is expansive to multiple other aspects of human life and study. Therefore, Amy Levy’s Epitaph can be read as equally social, and science focused in terms of death and the process of decay. It serves as stark reminder of how most common people will die regretful and succumb to their return to the dust, worms and more.