{"id":475,"date":"2016-04-18T16:20:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T16:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=475"},"modified":"2018-09-02T22:05:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T22:05:06","slug":"natural-vs-unnatural-corruption-in-symondss-the-valley-of-vain-desires-and-wildes-the-picture-of-dorian-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2016\/04\/18\/natural-vs-unnatural-corruption-in-symondss-the-valley-of-vain-desires-and-wildes-the-picture-of-dorian-gray\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural vs. Unnatural Corruption in Symonds’s “The Valley of Vain Desires” and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Addington Symonds\u2019s poem \u201cThe Valley of Vain Desires\u201d uses natural imagery and metaphors to describe the process of descending into sin, a condition that is figured as a physical location, the \u201cvalley of vain desires.\u201d When we look at Symonds\u2019s poem through the lens of Oscar Wilde\u2019s novel <\/span>The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/span><\/i>, we see that there is a striking contrast between the way that descent into sin is described. While Dorian is corrupted by the influence of Lord Henry and by the ideas of the book that Lord Henry gives to him, Symonds\u2019s poem depicts temptation and the act of sinning as a natural event. I want to suggest that the two different depictions of descent into sin in <\/span>Dorian Gray <\/span><\/i>versus \u201cThe Valley of Vain Desires\u201d relate to the outcome of each text. In <\/span>Dorian Gray<\/span><\/i>, Dorian\u2019s corruption by human influence manifests itself in a desire to collect material objects and in the harm that he does to others, and he is undone by his own desire to destroy his soul. \u00a0In Symonds\u2019s poem, the speaker and the beautiful youth are drawn down into the valley by the lure of strange fruit and are held captive by its seductive poison, but are then spiritually resurrected. What I think the contrast between the depictions of descent into sin and the outcome of descent suggests is that while being seduced by natural forces, as in Symonds\u2019s poem, is a redeemable offence, falling prey to corruption brought about by other humans and material objects, as in <\/span>Dorian Gray<\/span><\/i>, is not.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are several striking parallels between <\/span>The Picture of Dorian Gray <\/span><\/i>and \u201cThe Valley of Vain Desires.\u201d In both the poem and the novel, a beautiful youth is corrupted, and the two youths are both described as possessing classical beauty. In the first chapter of <\/span>Dorian Gray<\/span><\/i>, Lord Henry likens Dorian to two Greek gods in one sentence. Comparing Dorian to Basil, he says, \u201cI really can\u2019t see any resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face and your coal-black hair, and this young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose-leaves. Why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus\u201d (ch. 1). Symonds\u2019s also likens the beautiful youth of the poem to a figure from Greek mythology. The speaker states, <\/span><\/p>\n

I saw– yea, even now my cheeks are blenched<\/span><\/p>\n

With thinking of the sorrow of that sight–<\/span><\/p>\n

A youth Phoebean, whose fair brows, entrenched<\/span><\/p>\n

With scars untimely, bore the branded blight <\/span><\/p>\n

Of shame \u2018neath withered bay-leaves: his long hair<\/span><\/p>\n

Once crisped in curls that mocked the morning light <\/span><\/p>\n

By calling the youth \u201cPhoebean,\u201d the speaker likens him to Phoebus, also known as Apollo, the god sun, light, and knowledge, among other things. The reference to the \u201cwithered bay-leaves\u201d on the youth\u2019s head solidify the comparison; in ancient Greece, bay leaves were seen as a symbol of glory and achievement. In both Symonds\u2019s poem and Wilde\u2019s novel, beautiful youths are described as possessing classical beauty. <\/span><\/p>\n

Symonds\u2019s description of the effects of the fruit is similar to the descriptions of Dorian\u2019s use of opium in Wilde\u2019s novel. The speaker of Symonds\u2019s poem describes eating the \u201ccorpse-cold clusters\u201d of the fruit as a kind of oblivion: once one eats the \u201cFlesh-parching poison,\u201d one experiences \u201cpain that was pleasure,\u201d a temporary oblivion. Similarly, when Dorian travels to the opium dens, he is driven by a \u201chideous hunger,\u201d and the desire to \u201ccure the soul by means of the senses\u201d (ch. 16). Although the effects of both agents of corruption are similar, however, Symonds\u2019s poem describes temptation as a natural force, while Dorian is driven to consume the opium by an idea that he received from human sources. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Symonds\u2019s poem, the speaker claims that his \u201cfeed were led,\/ Down the slow spirals of those deadly stairs:\/ And I too in my inmost spirit bred\/ Desire of that fell fruit.\u201d The speaker\u2019s claim that he was \u201cled\u201d down into the valley by desire for the \u201cfell fruit\u201d indicates that the force of temptation is natural, not generated by humans. In <\/span>Dorian Gray<\/span><\/i>, by contrast, Dorian is corrupted the ideas in a book that Lord Henry lends him: \u201cThe mere cadence of the sentences, the subtle monotony of their music\u2026 produced in the mind of the lad\u2026 a form of reverie, a malady of dreaming, that made him unconscious of the falling day and the creeping shadows\u201d (ch. 10). Although Dorian also has no control over the effect of the book on his mind, the effect is generated by an object produced by humans, rather than the fruit of mysterious origins in Symonds\u2019s poem. <\/span><\/p>\n

The difference between the sources of corruption in <\/span>Dorian Gray <\/span><\/i>and \u201cThe Valley of Vain Desires\u201d is the reason for the vastly different outcomes of the novel and poem. While Dorian\u2019s belief in his ability to save his soul by awakening his senses eventually drives him to stab the painting of himself, thus killing himself, the speaker and the beautiful youth in Symons\u2019s poem are absolved by a divine force. The final stanza of Symond\u2019s poem suggests that corruption by natural forces is a forgivable transgression: <\/span><\/p>\n

From the first fount of Thy felicity,<\/span><\/p>\n

Through all the ocean where those myriad streams<\/span><\/p>\n

Commingle, \u2018twere an easy task to see<\/span><\/p>\n

Concorde above the discord of our dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

The image of commingled streams suggests that the corrupting fruit springs from the same sources as the divine \u201cfelicity\u201d that has intervened on behalf of the corrupted speaker and youth. The words concorde and discord form a syllabic and aural parallel, emphasizing that the two forces that the words represent (sin and virtue) exist in balance with one another. In the universe that the Symonds poem creates, benevolent divine forces stand by to intervene should one fall prey to corruption by natural forces. In <\/span>Dorian Gray, <\/span><\/i>however, the characters are at the mercy of the corrupting forces of the novel, as they have all been created by themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Addington Symonds\u2019s poem \u201cThe Valley of Vain Desires\u201d uses natural imagery and metaphors to describe the process of descending into sin, a condition that is figured as a physical location, the \u201cvalley of vain desires.\u201d When we look at Symonds\u2019s poem through the lens of Oscar Wilde\u2019s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, we … Continue reading Natural vs. Unnatural Corruption in Symonds’s “The Valley of Vain Desires” and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}