{"id":767,"date":"2018-10-29T12:33:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T16:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=767"},"modified":"2018-10-29T12:33:23","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T16:33:23","slug":"lord-henrys-fascination-with-vivisection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2018\/10\/29\/lord-henrys-fascination-with-vivisection\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord Henry’s Fascination with Vivisection"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em>, the narrator mentions Lord Henry\u2019s fascination with vivisection, as applied to himself and others. Reading The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em> through The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/em> contextualizes this reference to vivisection as alluring in the eyes of Victorians because it was a manner of scientific research, though gruesome, that could possibly answer great questions in the medical field and about our own selves.<\/p>\n

Although both took stake in vivisection, Dr. Moreau and Henry pursued it in different ways and for different purposes. According to Wilde\u2019s narrator, Henry \u201chad been always enthralled by the methods of natural science, but the ordinary subject-matter of that science had seemed to him trivial and of no import. And so he had begun by vivisecting himself, as he had ended by vivisecting others\u201d (Wilde 38). That is, Henry has a sick fascination with vivisection that Moreau shares, but Henry\u2019s seems to stem from a general interest in science for entertainment purposes. Vivisection appears to be a stumbled-upon method that happens to serve Henry\u2019s need to learn about and manipulate himself and others psychologically, not a consciously chosen and pursued path. Moreau, however, consciously dedicates his life to \u201cthe study of the plasticity of living forms\u201d with the original goal of applying his research to medical advancements for humans (Wells 53). Moreau\u2019s focus seemed to shift throughout The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/em>, as his test subjects \u201cwere animals\u2014humanised animals,\u201d \u201canimals carven and wrought into new shapes\u201d in a creation-esque way (Wells 52, 53). Moreau convinces himself that he has a godlike ability to craft these new forms. Henry\u2019s pride in his manipulation of Dorian is akin to that of an experiment-gone-right, which could foreshadow the magnification of Henry\u2019s ego and god complex as his experiment progresses.<\/p>\n

Currently, Henry observes Dorian \u201cwith a subtle sense of pleasure\u201d because he has changed so much from the \u201cshy frightened boy\u201d Henry met in Basil\u2019s studio (Wilde 36). Henry notes that Dorian\u2019s \u201cnature developed like a flower, had borne blossoms of scarlet flame\u201d (Wilde 36). Through the lens of The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/em>, in which Moreau\u2019s experiments \u2018betray him\u2019, this observation of Dorian\u2019s blossoming can be read with a sense of warning. Dorian \u201cdeveloped like a flower,\u201d and is strongly associated with beauty, but his \u201cblossoms of scarlet flame\u201d foretell a dangerousness in this transformation that may come back to harm Henry as Moreau\u2019s vivisected animals caused his downfall.<\/p>\n

Further, Henry describes the \u201ccrucible of pain and pleasure\u201d seen when watching life as \u201ccurious,\u201d which connotates the mixture as merely an entertaining curiosity that he is interested in observing. Henry does, however, go on to note that \u201cpain and pleasure\u201d are infectious, and that \u201cone could not wear over one\u2019s face a mask of glass nor keep the sulphurous fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams\u201d (Wilde 38). By comparing the observation of \u201cpain and pleasure\u201d in life to \u201csulphurous fumes,\u201d Wilde (through Henry) labels it as toxic, a poison that inevitably harms the observer. As we are reading about Henry\u2019s views on vivisection, we can assume that he has been a victim of these \u201csulphurous fumes,\u201d \u201cmonstrous fancies and misshapen dreams,\u201d and yet he continues to experiment with Dorian and watch for Gray\u2019s newfound experiences with pleasure and pain. Moreau takes a more aggressive stance towards these sensations, claiming that \u201cpleasure and pain have nothing to do with heaven and hell. Pleasure and pain\u2014Bah!\u201d To Moreau, \u201c[t]he store men and women set on pleasure and pain\u2026 is the mark of the beast upon them, the mark of the beast from which they came\u201d (Wells 55). Read through this belief, Henry\u2019s vivisection of Dorian, which introduces him to pleasure and pain, brings out the bestial nature within him and within Henry himself, marking them as inferior in the eyes of Moreau.<\/p>\n

Overall, Moreau and Henry practice vivisection in different ways, but both explore the push and pull between humanity and bestiality. The death of Moreau and degradation of Henry by pain and pleasure both lead to the conclusion that messing with humanity results only in the ascension of bestiality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the narrator mentions Lord Henry\u2019s fascination with vivisection, as applied to himself and others. Reading The Picture of Dorian Gray through The Island of Dr. Moreau contextualizes this reference to vivisection as alluring in the eyes of Victorians because it was a manner of scientific research, though gruesome, that … Continue reading Lord Henry’s Fascination with Vivisection<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3613,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767","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\/3613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}