“The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope… It is the spectator, not life, that art really mirrors.” —The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A professor of mine once said that the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray can be viewed as a defense of Oscar Wilde’s writing. Certainly his work caused a great deal of controversy. One might read his introduction as an attempt to stem the inevitable criticism before it occurred. Oscar Wilde claims that “no artist desires to prove anything” and that “no artist has ethical sympathies.” In other words, his work has nothing to prove, no ethical stand to promote. The preface puts critics on the spot by stating that in Wilde’s eyes, he is innocent of fault. His work is merely meant to be beautiful, and any immoral message to be found comes from the reader. As he puts it, “there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book.” Art cannot influence people to immorality.
What is interesting, though, is that this theme is woven throughout the whole of Wilde’s tale. If his introduction is merely a defense of the work that comes later, then why should he have come back to the same ideas again and again?
The reason is likely that the message of the story, the message which supposedly does not exist, has much to do with the beginning claims.
When Wilde says that art has no message, he describes books, paintings, and music as simply a mirror, setting the observer in front of himself. And that becomes the premise of his story, if you think about it. A young man, obsessed with beauty, makes a wish and is given the opportunity to see the ever-changing state of his soul in a painting of himself. Quite literally, art becomes a mirror held before Dorian’s eyes. What he gleans from that mirror changes from moment to moment. At times, he derives joy from seeing the work, in other instances, terror and disgust. The image of himself leads him first to sin more daringly, then later to resolve to be a better man. What message Dorian Gray finds in the art stems from the state of his mind and the state of his soul.
The painting, then, is not an overwhelming influence shaping Dorian but rather a reflection of the man he is becoming.
Even so, there are times when art appears to have a great influence over Dorian’s actions.
The clearest example is seen in the corruption of Dorian caused by Lord Henry’s yellow book. After reading a novel describing a young man in Paris, Dorian Gray models himself after the character. He plunges into a chase of the senses, indulging in one expensive taste after another. For pages and pages, Wilde lists the variety of interests which Dorian partakes in, from collecting jewels to devoting himself to music to studying perfumes. Dorian is described as not only building these collections, but also as engaging in activities which mar his character and cast shadows over his reputation. As the narrator writes, “Dorian had been poisoned by a book (150).”
And yet, Lord Henry, near the end of the tale, tells Dorian, “As for you being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that. Art has no influence upon action (224),” once more implying that Dorian, not the novel, is to blame. After spending pages describing the actions Dorian takes under the influence of the yellow novel, Oscar Wilde flips into Lord Henry and says the book was not the cause. Art cannot be held responsible.
The two messages seem entirely contradictory. Either the book had a negative effect on Dorian or it didn’t. Wilde has already told us that it has, so why come back to the book now? Why tell us at the end that no book is immoral?
Perhaps it is because the two messages are not quite as contradictory as they appear.
What Lord Henry says is that books have no influence upon action. While this implies that there is no influence on thinking either, Harry does not outright claim that this is the case. He says nothing of emotion or thinking, only action. What this does is place the responsibility of Dorian’s decisions on Dorian himself.
This becomes clearer when you consider that the narrator who claims the book is a poison also implies that Dorian gladly drank it. He says, “For years Dorian could not free himself from the influence of the book; or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he never sought to free himself from it (130).”
Dorian may have been moved by a text, but it was an influence he chose. Perhaps in this, Wilde had a good point about the morality of art. While I disagree with him on the count of art having no message except what the observer gives to it, there’s some truth in the observer being morally responsible. The deadliest poison has no effect if left on the table untouched.
Art is still a mirror.
What we choose to read and observe and how we respond to those works says something of our character. At the end of the day, we are the ones who decide what stories we will feed to our minds. We decide what lessons we take from the works we read and what meaning we find in the art we see. If the works we choose to enjoy consistently portray immorality in a positive light, which is more immoral, the work or us? If we constantly find negative messages in stories, seeking the corrupt, even in works that are innocent, aren’t we the ones poisoning our outlook on life?
At the end of the day, art is not the moral agent. We’re the ones responsible. We should be careful not to give ourselves cause to be angered at what we find in our reflection.
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