"The Gay Artist as a Tragic Hero in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'"

Reading this week "The Artist as a Tragic Hero in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray" was a bit slow for me. Not due to the work in general, but because I much prefer the weeks where we're discussing the actual novel, rather than the literary analysis. Henry Allen made a lot of references to other dramas/plays/works that mostly I haven’t read, so I did get lost in those areas a few times. I did, however, really enjoy reading so much in depth on the character of Basil Hallward. While reading the novel, I found Basil to be my favorite character and was heartbroken when I learned his fate. Henry Allen offered a lot of insight to this character that interested me.

It was obvious from the text that Basil was completely in love with Dorian and it think it was this never-ending plight of his to save his ‘beloved’ from moral doom that endears him to me. He seemed to be the only voice of reason, and the one who ultimately suffered the most.

I was in agreement with Allen's theory that Oscar Wilde put a lot of his own character into that of Basil Hallward. It's easy to make connections between the two men- both being ‘artists’ in a sense, plagued by desires that they weren’t allowed to have, or “love that dare not speak its name”.

I was intrigued by Wilde’s son Vyvyan Holland’s words at the end of Allen’s work, where he was quoted,

“the tragedy of Oscar Wilde ranks with most other great historical tragedies, which are mainly brought about by the stupidity of pompous and self important people”

And also,

“The worst aspects of Victorian hypocrisy have now disappeared, and today my father would not have been hounded to his death as he was fifty years ago. The self-righteousness of that age was really camouflage to disguise its own hypocrisy, and the people who were loudest in their condemnation of my father were often those whose own lives could least bear investigation. Nothing makes the transgressor so indignant as the transgressions, of a different kind, of his fellow-men; except, perhaps transgressions of the same kind.”

I thought these comments were very powerful, considering the time period when they were given. Granted it was fifty years later, but I still feel like he maybe was being too optimistic when he said “today my father would not have been hounded to his death as he was fifty years ago”. I say this because I honestly don’t feel like that much progress has been made even now towards better acceptance of different lifestyles. The implications he’s suggesting about men judging men will never be abolished. There will never be universal acceptance because there will always be a ‘social norm’ that people will be expected to follow. In the time of Oscar Wilde, his flamboyant lifestyle (although he was married) was not tolerated and ultimately triggered his downfall. While he might not be persecuted so literally in modern times, he would still not be free from judgment.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Wow- where to begin with this story? In past blogs and comments, I’ve written on my opinion that a lot of stories are overanalyzed and pulled apart too much, but The Picture of Dorian Gray is one that I can justify that practice. There’s SO much that can be taken from this text! I really don’t think I will be able to even organize my thoughts as well as I would like to this week- I wish I had a little more time!
First, I want to say that I really enjoyed the novel and all of the social implications it presented. Next, I can’t help but contrast it with last week’s Carmilla. In a way, this novel is similar, yet opposite- in how Carmilla boasted predominately strong female characters with (as many people inferred) homosexual undertones, while The Portrait of Dorian Gray offers the same, just in male characters. In Carmilla I was hesitant to place a “lesbian” label on the relationships, but I feel the homosexual theme is highly present this week. You can’t help but easily see this in the strong attractions that both Basil and Lord Henry had for Dorian (though Basil’s appears to be stronger, as Lord Henry’s attraction seems to be more of curiosity and excitement on his ability to influence such an oddly good looking and seemingly innocent young man) One quote that helps to solidify this idea is in Chapter 5 when Lord Henry is asking Basil how often he sees Dorian, to which he replies, “Every day. I couldn’t be happy if I didn’t see him everyday. He is absolutely necessary to me.” On this subject, I have to connect the presence of homosexuality with its presence in the author’s own life. You don’t have to search long and hard to come up with evidence of a strong gay influence in Oscar Wilde’s life. He famously was sentenced to two years of hard labor after being convicted of “gross indecency” with a male friend in 1895. Reading just a brief biography of Wilde, I see many similarities between him and Lord Henry (and in turn, Dorian himself, since Dorian was very much formed by Lord Henry’s influence).
In the latter half of the novel when things take such a macabre turn, I couldn’t help but to draw my mind to some Edgar Allan Poe works. The whole guilt factor Dorian has, from the way he sees the corruptness of his soul reflected on the painting, to his reactions after Sybil’s death, then his murder of Basil and paranoia immediately following just screamed “The Tell Tale Heart” to me. I suppose drawing these connections can easily done because they’re both very much gothic works, but for me, it seemed especially strong.
Overall, I feel like I’m in over my head with the moral and social innuendos that Wilde presents with this story. I can definitely see them, but am at a loss as to how to best elaborate on them. I look forward to reading everyone’s blogs this week to get a broader view on the class’s perspectives, as I’m sure they will be interesting. I know I’m leaving off more points that I wanted to get into. As I read, I came across so many topics that I planned to discuss in this blog but I’m now a little disappointed in myself for not writing them down so I could remember! I’m sure they will come flooding back to me as I read the rest of the blogs, or next week while reading the literary analysis, so at least I know I’ll have more to comment on!

"Gothic's Enigmatic Signifier: The Case of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla'"

“Gothic’s Enigmatic Signifier: The Case of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’” by Michael Davis brought up some interesting points of view for me. To be honest, the first few pages I found myself glazing over while attempting to absorb what I could from the reading. A little ways in, however, I started having a much easier time understanding what the author was conveying. After I was able to fully launch myself into the paper, I found that Davis makes quite a few interesting points and presents theories about the novella that I had not considered. The topic he brings up that really caught my eye was that of the absence of Laura’s mother- which I will be focusing on in this blog.

In this article, Davis’s zeroing in on the absence of Laura’s mother and how this effects the story opened my eyes to the possibilities Le Fanu leaves for speculation. Without a mother in her life, Laura unknowingly has a void that Carmilla uses to her advantage. Carmilla attempts to gain favor with Laura at first, through presenting herself as that loving, maternal link Laura is missing. Although Laura has been brought up by Madame Peredon, who supplies her with a mother-like substitute, Davis theorizes that Laura does indeed subconsciously remembers the actual bonded relationship with her mother and is missing it. I liked the quote from the story that Davis uses to introduce the reader to Carmilla’s first attempts at gaining Laura’s devotion and trust in a maternal way, which was:

“Her murmured words sounded like a lullaby in my ear, and soothed my resistance into a trance, from which I only seemed to recover myself when she withdrew her arms.”

Here, Carmilla is tapping into Laura’s weaknesses by exploiting her lack of a mother. Carmilla easily can see that this is a good tactic to magnetize herself to these girls, as we also learned how she bewitches General Spielsdorf’s niece, who is also mother-less.

Davis continues the subject by suggesting that by presenting herself as a motherly figure, Carmilla is able to broach the loving, soothing side as well as the darker and more fearful aspects of the relationships. By showing herself as this figure the girls have been longing for- one who will provide them with such an enthralling and captivating array of emotions that they had never experienced- the comfort and deep attachments- Carmilla is able to expose them to her strange and troubling traits, that would normally scare anyone away. Because the girls are so drawn to the positive, they are able to overlook the negative. This is a method Davis describes as “good mother” or “bad mother” when he writes,

“The ambivalence Laura experiences towards ‘the demonic shadow mother’ is, as I have already suggested, the result of a split between that which she comprehends, the soothing caresses of the ‘good’ mother or ‘good’ breast, and that which, untranslated, sinks into the unconscious to remain there as an ‘encysted’, troubling and potentially traumatic enigma- the other side of the split: the ‘bad’ mother or ‘bad’ breast."

Going along with the importance of a maternal theme in the story, Davis also makes a note of mentioning the opposite, paternal relationship factors towards the end of the article. I liked how he tied this factor in, as I think it does deserve a mention. Here, Le Fanu depicts Laura’s father and General Speilsdorf as being somewhat typical male characters- strongly devoted and protective. Although they tried with all of their physical might to protect their daughters (or niece in General Spielsdorf’s case) they were not able to protect them emotionally. Obviously- Bertha did not survive the encounter with Carmilla at all, so General Spielsdorf’s efforts were in vain, but he was able to fulfill his goal of “avenging” her death by bringing an end to the threat of the vampires. Laura’s father was able to help in the assassination of Millarca, but the emotional trauma Laura experienced will remain with her forever, regardless of any protection her father yearns to provide her with.

All in all, although, as mentioned earlier, I found the article hard to muster through at the very beginning, I ultimately ended up engrossed in it and all the theories that Davis presented. I enjoyed how his writing got me to think more analytically and to put more into dissecting the story and asking “why?” This allowed me to start making connections that I would not have made otherwise.