Course Blog

In the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the main character Dorian is responsible for the death of his ex-lover, Sibyl. He states, “I loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art,” (Wilde 74). In this scene, Dorian’s anger gets the best of him and foreshadows his own fate. After Dorian says this to Sibyl, she takes her own life. The words he uses surrounding her are things that do not have to do about their relationship, instead, they are just beautiful words to describe someone that he may not have even known very well. By using the word art in this line, it can be taken as a nod to the own art that exists of Dorian, the portrait that hangs in his house. In this way, his fate is sealed.

After Sibyl dies, Dorian states “the birds sing just as happily in my garden” (Wilde, 85). This lack of empathy towards her death shows that Dorian saw her as no more than just his muse and his “one love.” This mirrors the way that Basil views Dorian, as his muse, his only muse. Much like Sibyl, Dorian is no more than a blank canvas where people paint their own ideas onto it. Unfortunately for Dorian, both Lord Henry and Basil painted their ideas on his canvas which turned him into a muse with both good and evil. Ultimately, because he is just a muse to Basil, Basil or himself must die to escape the tragedy of Sibyl’s fate. Luckily for Dorian, he kills Basil, his creator. Muses cannot live without the admiration of their creator; they live off the attention and approval of their artist. They give “substance to the shadows of art.” In this way, Sibyl and Dorian are both very similar and their deaths are equally as tragic. While Sibyl is pure and a beautiful canvas that gets splashed by a paint bucket of hate, Dorian is a canvas that was equally splashed, a fight between good and evil artists.

If Dorian and Sibyl are both just muses of other people, then this makes them character that only exist due to the other characters in the novel. While Dorian is the main character, he would not exist without Henry and Basil. During this time, there were many outside influences, fake protectors like Sherlock, scary stories like Frankenstein, and the soulful horror of Dorian Gray. The novel shows the readers that everyone can be influenced, art influences the reader, and everyone is connected by the way they influence each other, we are all a canvas to be imposed upon. This is important because it shows that Dorian is not a character on his own, “it is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors” (Wilde, Preface).

The passage where Dorian is looking between his portrait and his real self in the mirror brings up the comparison of sin and aging for the second time in the novel. I found it interesting how the novel portrays aging and sin as comparable, both explicitly and in physical descriptions. The comparison becomes especially clear because as Dorian develops a growing fascination with his own beauty, he becomes more concerned about the ugliness of physical aging than his growing physical evil. 

As the portrait physically changes throughout the novel, Dorian identifies the physical alterations of the portrait as signs of aging, but characterized in a negative light. Dorian describes the painting as growing old, depicted by developing cheeks “hollow or flaccid”, “Yellow crow’s feet”, a mouth that would “gape or droop”, a “wrinkled throat”, and “the cold, blue-veined hands…that he remembered in [his] grandfather” (121). The physical descriptions of Dorian’s aging body in the portrait carry a tone of disgust and ugliness that is then contrasted with an eerie tone of Dorian’s admiration for his own beauty and fascination with the corruption of his soul. The language used to describe how Dorian looks at the portrait and himself in the mirror, examining the “hideous wrinkled forehead”, “heavy sensual mouth”, and “coarse bloated hands” carry a tone of horror and at times sexualization, that is symbolic of the perverted adoration Dorian begins to feel for his corruption. 

Dorian also says this explicitly when describing how he stares at himself in the mirror and in the portrait, describing how “the very sharpness of the contrast used to quicken his sense of pleasure” (127). He feels a sense of excitement at the contrasted sight of himself changing for the worse. Additionally, the way he places his hands against the picture and smiles is a chilling image that encapsulates the deterioration of his soul but also shows Dorian facing the internal dilemma of whether to blame his newfound ugliness on the portrait of the aging body or the corruption of his soul. As he looks between the ugly, aging portrait and his youthful, evil face, the creepy scenes of Dorian admiring the evil qualities of his portrait insinuate his decision that the signs of age were far more horrible to him than the signs of sin (127). 

I thought this passage could be saying something about age and innocence in the novel. Taking into account the relationships Dorian shares with Basil and with Lord Henry, the influences of both these older men on Dorian are worthy of note in his transformation. Basil and Dorian have their artist and muse relationship, but it also can be interpreted as a father and son dynamic. Basil takes great admiration and care for Dorian, and in general carries a gentle and nurturing tone. Lord Henry is more negative and selfish, constantly complaining about women, and talking about how marriage is a prison. In this way, Basil and Lord Henry can be seen as “the angel and the devil” on Dorian’s shoulders, influencing the way he views himself and the world around him. This comes to a head later in the novel when Dorian kills “the angel”, Basil, solidifying the almost “aging” of his soul into a descent of corruption when he succumbs to the influence of “the devil” and loses his innocence both the sins of sin and the sins of aging.

Dorian Gray’s decision to show Basil the truth of the portrait is motivated by the same self-serving assurance of acquittal that he has lived throughout the past years of his life. It is spurred on by the way he removes himself from accountability, as established within him when Lord Henry informs him of Sybil’s death. When Basil at last comes to Dorian to confront him about all the rumors, he begs Dorian to deny the truth of them – and says that he himself wouldn’t be able to really claim to know and defend Dorian until he knew the truth of his soul (129).

“There was a madness of pride in every word he uttered. He stamped his foot upon the ground in his boyish insolent manner. He felt a terrible joy at the thought that some one else was to share his secret, and that the man who had painted the portrait that was the origin of all his shame was to be burdened for the rest of his life with the hideous memory of what he had done.

‘Yes,’ he continued, coming closer to him, and looking steadfastly into his stern eyes, ‘I shall show you my soul. You shall see the thing that you fancy only God can see.’” (129)

These lines are representative of the greater themes of the novel – mentioning both shame and the soul – as well as referencing the stagnation of Dorian’s character by describing his actions as “boyish” in unison with the more awful descriptions of his cruelty. His own inner monologue, as he decides to invite Basil into his secret, betrays him – his “terrible joy” at the thought of placing the burden of the “hideous memory” onto the man who painted the “origin of his shame”. These descriptions create an interesting dichotomy of consciousness. It is clear that Dorian is aware that he has things to be shamed for, that to reveal his secrets is to reveal “what he [has] done”. In the same thought he takes none of the responsibility for those actions – there is the “madness of pride” to terrify someone else with the knowledge that haunts him. Dorian says to Basil immediately before revealing the portrait to him: “You have chattered enough about corruption. Now you shall look on it face to face.” His is aware that his soul is corrupted by his choices.

There is also an irony that Dorian thinks Basil will be “burdened for the rest of his life” when he will be dead within minutes by Dorian’s own hand, in turn burdening himself with further corruption (of murder) and freeing Basil, in a sense, from carrying the knowledge of Dorian’s true soul with him. One fascinating thing to notice is the way that both Basil and Dorian mention God in these scenes. Throughout the novel itself there is a curious dismissal of the validity of religious ideology by characters such as Lord Henry and Dorian Gray and others in their circle of influence, while characters like Sibyl – who is considered to be a godlike creature – and Basil reference God freely.

Basil dismisses the idea of being able to see Dorian’s soul at all: “only God can do that”. Dorian scorns that, placing himself, and by association Basil, into a Godlike position, perhaps in yet another indication of Dorian’s arrogance. Yet, it was a prayer that caused the portrait to take on the visage of Dorian’s soul in the first place. “So you think that it is only God who sees the soul, Basil? Draw the curtain back and you will see mine” (131). Here Dorian’s mention of God again places Basil into a position where he assumes the responsibility of divinity: looking upon a soul. This could be another way that Dorian shrugs off accountability; alternatively, Dorian still views Basil as “good”, and places him into the corresponding role.

After the reveal of the painting, Basil begs Dorian to pray for forgiveness, to absolve himself of his sins. He claims that they both are being punished for worshipping Dorian too much (133). Basil also claims that the portrait has “the eyes of the devil”, and immediately after Basil appeals for Dorian to pray with him for forgiveness, Dorian is consumed by “an uncontrollable feeling of hatred [for Basil] … as though it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas, whispered to him by those grinning lips” (133). Dorian is not in any way immune to being influenced – either by his own cruel habits, Lord Henry’s pretty wordplay, or by the devil manifesting in the portrait of his soul. As Dorian says to Basil: “Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him” (132).

As I reread John Gray’s poem “The Vines,” I began to wonder if it is possible that the bramble and the woodbine (or ivy) can be interpreted as a metaphor for John Gray’s relationship with Oscar Wilde. If we were to look at the poem from this lens, the bramble bush would be Gray while the woodbine/ivy would be Wilde. Looking at line 2, the bramble’s relentless pursuit of his “bride” symbolizes his unwavering attachment to his partner; this could be a reflection of John Gray’s deep affection for Oscar Wilde. However, line 4 provides the imagery of the woodbine having “gummy hands.” This imagery may signify Oscar Wilde’s allure or charisma, as if he is a captivating presence that is hard for John Gray to resist. In a different sense, the term “gummy” might also allude to the suffocating nature of the relationship. During this time, Oscar Wilde was flamboyant and a queer symbol; that mere association may have been too much to bear during a time where sexual deviance was frowned upon and feared. This duality of desiring and feeling consumed by the woodbine (Oscar Wilde) could represent John Gray’s mixed feelings towards their relationship.

If we were to take this a step further, I think stanza 4 could be a representation of Gray’s desire to be sexually free with Wilde. The repeated theme of waiting for the day to dawn and for winter’s end could be reflective of his longing for a time when their love could be more openly expressed. The dawn represents not only the literal light of day but also the emergence of a more tolerant and accepting society. The uncertainty and anticipation echo the challenges and secrecy they faced due to the prevailing societal attitudes toward same-sex male relationships. The “half-born tendrils, grasping, gasp” in the last line might be a representation of the fragility and uncertainty of their relationship. The “half-born tendrils” symbolize their love and desires, which are still in the process of finding their place and gaining acceptance. The “gasping” is representative of the struggle and effort required for their love to survive and flourish, much like the tendrils fighting their way through adverse conditions.

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.

From our discussions in class, one topic that stuck with me was exoticism because of how it was used in the Sherlock Holmes stories. An important factor in the relatability and enjoyment of these detective stories for this time period was because of the constant references to actual places in London. Although this is fiction, readers were able to imagine Sherlock Holmes walking the streets and solving these crimes like he was a neighborhood hero. On that same note, the references to foreign countries and people not like the average Londoner also enhanced the story. In “The Adventure of the Empty House”, while presumed dead Sherlock described his journey, “I travelled for two years in Tibet, therefore, and amused myself by visiting Lhassa and spending some days with the head Llama…I then passed through Persia, looked in at Mecca, and paid a short but interesting visit to the Khalifa at Khartoum…Returning to France I spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives…” (Doyle 4). The mention of these new places Sherlock has been to not only piques the interest of the reader to see if they know them, but whether or not they will connect to the mystery at hand. This form of exoticism also creates a more compelling character in Sherlock because you wonder if Sherlock is a natural genius or because he goes to various places to intake knowledge. The purpose of this detective fiction is to see how he will solve mysteries no one else can which showcases the gap between him and the average person. This passage is a perfect example of this as it notes locations that readers during this time may have never heard or won’t travel to during their lifetime.

Looking at this through the lens of the fin de si´ecle, this is a time where many people are choosing to change their lives from the usual factory worker to newfound careers. All while being introduced to modern concepts like New Science and New Woman, even fresh genres like Detective Fiction. Picking up a story where the main character is from where you’re from, lives a life of excitement, and travels the world, could push anyone to want to do the same.

In terms of plot, it’s important to note that two foreign characters, Colonel Moran and The King of Bohemia, drastically propel the story forward in their designated stories. One ends up being the culprit and the other is the one asking for help, but the point is that they come from a different place and have different traits than the average Londoner. Of course, all of Sherlock Holmes stories could have been about pickpockets or arsonists who are from London but this variety of characters creates an intriguing story filled with exoticism. Detective fiction is sensationalized because anything can happen yet you never know what will happen so the use of exoticism brings more twists and turns to the story.

The way Watson describes Sherlock Holmes’ relationship with, and emotions towards Irene Adler is very interesting. Specifically, “It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind.” (Doyle, 1). These lines serve a dual purpose, first this passage reads as Watson attempting to rationalize Sherlock’s relationship with Irene Adler. He takes great lengths to explain that Holmes could not possibly be in love with Irene, and as such leaves the door open for a potential relationship between the two male protagonists.

Second, by stating that Holmes find loving generally “abhorrent” it excuses him from not only heterosexual, but also homosexual love. Thus, the author refutes any potential homosexuality between Watson and Holmes and also reenforces the strict rules in which men are allowed to have relationships with one another.

We might also consider that this description plays into Sherlock’s broader character as generally weird or odd. It is not that Sherlock feels love, or any kind of heterosexual attraction to Irene Adler, but rather that he admires her from a professional perspective. Plainly, he thinks she has game.

Not only does this passage work to reaffirm, and development the character of Sherlock Holmes as an emotionless and odd but brilliant detective. It also strongly insists on maintaining the traditional bonds of male relationships, and friendships. Holmes and Watson cannot be together because Sherlock does not have the capacity for sexual desire. Not, interestingly, because both the male protagonists are heterosexual, but because one of them finds love, and emotions generally, disgusting. This is perhaps the most fascinating way that traditional bonds of homosocial desire have been enforced in our reading thus far. Not, because it is natural order, as Dracula claims, but rather because Holmes is not capable of feeling love.

Vernon Lee’s Dionea tells the tale of Dionea, an exotic child found adrift from sea, through a man’s letters to his higher up. Although the purpose of the letters is to inform the higher up of their protégé, Dionea’s, progress, the letters mostly fixate on unrelated topics, such as Dionea’s exotic beauty and her supernatural powers. Since Dionea brewed love potions and celebrated mysterious deaths in town, the town treats her as a frightening, powerful supernatural. The man’s letters despise Dionea’s exotic beauty and mysterious powers since they do not adhere to the typical religious townswoman’s role.

In addition to beauty, the man emphasizes religion in many of his letters. When the town attempted to baptize Dionea as soon as they adopted her, “she kicked and plunged and yelled like twenty little devils, and positively would not let the holy water touch her” (Lee 5). The man notes that this failed baptism meant that Dionea had already been baptized, but his diction implies the opposite. By comparing Dionea to “twenty little devils” and specifying the water was “holy,” the diction implies that Dionea refused to ever be baptized because she is an unholy devil. Her supernatural powers often harm religious persons, which suggests her powers are unholy too. At one point Sor Agostino dies right in front of Dionea, which she happily terms “an accident from Heaven” (Lee 15).

Dionea strays from the town’s accepted roles for woman as much as she strays from their religious standards. When describing the exotic natural curls of Dionea’s hair, the man writes “I am glad she should be pretty, for she will more easily find a husband…Unfortunately, her character is not so satisfactory; she hates learning, sewing, washing up dishes” (Lee 6). Dionea detests typical chores women are excepted to take care of, like sewing and washing dishes. The man notes that at least Dionea’s beauty will get her a husband, since heterosexual marriage is part of a religious woman’s accepted role in society. Due to the town’s discomfort that a woman has power, they use religion and beauty to fit her back in her place, much like what Lucy experienced in Dracula

As soon as Lucy turned into a vampire, the men that had once loved her knew “had she then to be killed, I could have done it with savage delight” (Stoker 225). Vampires have more power than humans, considering vampires can kill humans by sucking their blood. The men view Lucy as pure when she is human, but unholy when she is a powerful vampire. They called her “callous as a devil” and claimed “her eyes blazed with unholy light” and warded her off with a crucifix, which she “recoiled” from (Stoker 226). Yet the men were still fixated on her beauty, noting her “languorous, voluptuous grace” and “wanton smile” (Stoker 226). Lucy falls into the same situation as Dionea, where they are both women with supernatural powers that humans fear. The men in both books use the women’s beauty to convert her back to the more traditional, powerless woman. For Dionea, the men use her feminine beauty as a reason to make her into a wife. For Lucy, they focus on how her beauty has become unholy as a result of vampirism, and determine she must be killed at once.

Irene Adler is my favorite character in “A Scandal in Bohemia” written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Not only is she the only woman to best Sherlock Holmes, she embodies everything the New Woman aspired to be for the public.

For context, the term “New Woman” emerged as a feminist movement in the late 19th century, and is commonly a theme in many works in writings of la fin de siecle, or the end of the century. The development of independent women inherently shifted and challenged social expectations, bleeding into literature, education, and especially bicycles. Here is where I turn my attention to Irene Adler who, despite “having a face a man might die for” and looking like “the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet,” is the baddest bitch of the 19th century.

Adler exemplifies every quality that a New Woman represented. She is a an independent American woman living in England, retired opera singer, and dates before marriage?? AND choses who she marries and decides when?? She is even described with male attributes multiple times throughout the reading, and blurs the social class ladder. Despite all these qualities, Sherlock assumes that because of her appearance, that she can be easily tricked. Whenever Alder bests him, and leaves a photo of herself in place of the photo Sherlock planned so carefully to obtain, instead of despising her, Sherlock admires her. Adler defeats Holmes by using every skill and talent she possesses including her intelligence, her daring, and her willingness to defy conventional ideas of how she should behave in order to protect herself and secure the life she wants. This platonic appreciation from Sherlock is telling much more of his character than I originally realized. Holmes is shown admiring a different form of woman than the Victorian woman, instead he loves Adler; The New Woman.

This brings me to the first line of text in “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman.” Sherlock never encounters another woman quite like Adler, thus making her THE woman. 

What do you think?

Forever Yours, JAY WALKER