Throughout his life, Oscar Wilde published several works that scandalized his Victorian audience, such as his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In addition to committing the sin of authoring an English novel that was “openly French” (Buzwell), he also challenged traditional Victorian values. Wilde’s war against Victorian societal expectations culminated in a lawsuit against John Sholto Douglas after Douglas accused him of homosexuality (Linder). The lawsuit, Wilde’s most brazen challenge of English nobility, led to his own imprisonment. His fall was fueled by the assumption that he, an Irish scholar, could challenge power bestowed upon English nobility by birth-right. Prior to his time on the stand, Wilde waged war on paper. As an artist, he openly rejected traditional Victorian principles, going so far as to mock them within his work. Wilde instead chose to follow a fluid system of values he associated with Individualism, the philosophy under which he believed all true artists could flourish. This pattern of thinking, which can be traced throughout his works, demonstrates his development of the idea that for a personality to thrive, it must be developed as an Individual.
Biographer Thomas Wright describes Wilde’s definition of the seven deadly Victorian virtues as “industry, thrift, obedience, abstemiousness, duty, piety and chastity” (242). The notion of duty evoked a strong reaction from Wilde, prompting the writing of “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime.” In this short story, a fortune teller reveals Savile will commit a murder. After learning this, Savile decides it is his duty to murder someone before he marries his fiancée Sybil, to eliminate the chance that she could be his victim. He justifies the crime by convincing himself it is his moral duty to commit it to protect the woman he loves. He goes as far as to paint himself into a hero among other men: “Many men in his position would have preferred the primrose path of dalliance to the steep heights of duty; but Lord Arthur was too conscientious to set pleasure above principle” (181). This passage, along with similar ones that appear throughout the story, drips with irony. Despite Savile’s objectively horrific goal, there is an air of morbid comedy that surrounds Wilde’s protagonist: Savile is very stupid. He is controlled by mindless compliance to what he deems as the morally correct response to the situation based on the value system instilled in him as an upper-class man in Victorian England. The audience is not expected to take Savile’s contrived notion of duty seriously and, if they do, they are part of the joke.
“Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” is a work of fiction, which makes it unfair to regard it as a true representation of Wilde’s views. However, a few short months prior to this story’s publication, Wilde wrote “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” the essay where he initially introduces his scorn for the value of duty. In this piece he writes “it is to be noted also that Individualism does not come to man with any sickly cant about duty, which merely means doing what other people want because they want it” (35). This essay is a philosophical and political piece written in Wilde’s own voice, rather than the voice of a character. It announces his opinion of duty to the public, while “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” paints a morbidly funny circumstance in which the idea of it is further ridiculed. The story is an illustration of Wilde doubling down on his disdain for the concept.
“The Soul of Man Under Socialism” is also an announcement of Wilde’s support for the socialist movement. Under socialism, he claims, “Each member of the society will share in the general prosperity and happiness of the society, and if a frost comes no one will practically be anything worse. Upon the other hand, Socialism itself will be of value simply because it will lead to Individualism” (3). It is the latter point that most intrigues Wilde. While he envisions practical benefits to socialism, the main appeal of it is as a means to an end. Socialism is the method through which a society can achieve true Individualism. At the time of writing this essay, Wilde deemed society as “constructed on such a basis that man cannot freely develop what is wonderful, and fascinating, and delightful in him” (9). Wilde believes socialism will free man to pursue higher interests: chiefly, creating art. This is the culmination of the message in his essay. With the embracement of socialism, the people will turn their attention to making art, because “Art is the most intense mode of Individualism that the world has known” (19). That will ultimately lead to Wilde’s ideal: a society of artists seeking to achieve true Individualism through their work.
This is where his vision conflicts with Victorian values. He explains the issue of public reaction to art directly in the essay: “… it is to be noted that it is the fact that art is this intense form of Individualism that makes the public try to exercise over it in an authority that is as immoral as it is ridiculous, and as corrupting as it is contemptible” (19). Limitations placed on works of art are limitations placed upon Individuals.
According to Carolyn Burdett, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Victorian Studies at the University of London, Victorians had strict beliefs about the role literature was to play. In her article “Aestheticism and decadence” she explains, “Literature provided models of correct behavior: it allowed people to identify with situations in which good actions were rewarded, or it provoked tender emotions” (Burdett). Wilde disputed this attitude in his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, editor of the Third Norton Critical Edition of the novel, notes that one of Wilde’s aims in writing the preface was to “take weapons out of the hands of the critics who had attacked the Lippincott’s Magazine edition of Dorian Gray by anticipating some of the charges likely to be made against it” (3n1). The preface makes a series of statements designed to redirect responsibility from Wilde and onto his audience. Among all these statements, it is the final one that is the most direct: “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors” (3). Wilde argues that the responsibility of interpretation should be placed upon the audience, not the artist. If one reader chooses to regard The Picture of Dorian Gray as degenerate while another reader chooses not to, it is not of any consequence to the artist because it is not the artist claiming such interpretations of the work as correct. Instead, the spectators see something of themselves in their readings.
This idea was explored in one of Wilde’s later works: “The Decay of Lying.” In one section, he attempts to prove that art does not have a corrupting influence over consumers. The example Wilde gives is that of young boys, who after reading stories about highwayman Dick Turpin, then become nuisances themselves by harassing and stealing from merchants. Where most onlookers blame the stories as negative influences on the boys’ behavior, Wilde does not. He instead argues “… this is a mistake. The imagination is essentially creative and always seeks for a new form. The boy burglar is simply the inevitable result of life’s imitative instinct” (65). The responsibility of the boy’s action does not fall on literature he consumed. Instead, it lies in the way life chose to interpret and subsequently imitate such art. Had the boy burglar understood the stories differently, he would have imitated art differently. The public’s interpretation of a work of art is not the responsibility of the artist. Wilde rejects the idea of moral obligation in art. Instead of using literature to deliver a pointed message, he wants to revel in it as an artform. He warns his audience of this in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Addressing his readers and potential critics bluntly, he writes, “All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril” (3). Those who read The Picture of Dorian Gray and shout it is depraved say more about themselves than the work or the artist.
While Wilde instructed his audience to avoid reading The Picture of Dorian Gray beyond the surface level, he also wrote “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” in which he advised, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made…” (5). Exploring the depths of the novel provides a wealth of material regarding Wilde’s thoughts as an Individualist and the value he placed on philosophy. The Picture of Dorian Gray depicts more than the destruction of a man enamored with his own beauty and youth; it also demonstrates the fall of a boy prevented from becoming an Individual. It is evident from the beginning of the novel that the relationship between Dorian Gray and Lord Henry Wotton will end badly. The unfortunate painter of the portrait, Basil Hallward, is wary of their friendship from the start, warning Henry not to “try to influence [Dorian]” (16). It is noted from the first chapter that being influenced by someone, or at least someone such as Henry, will take the victim down a terrible path. Henry’s ideas drive everything Dorian does and ultimately leads to his destruction. Wilde emphasizes Henry’s role in Dorian’s downfall after the initial meeting between the two characters. Henry’s inner monologue reveals the predatory motive behind his friendship: “He would seek to dominate him – had already, indeed, half done so. He would make that wonderful spirit his own” (35). Henry’s decision to use Dorian as a philosophical experiment sets the tone for Dorian’s entire adult experience. He is not aware of Henry’s true interest in him and becomes easy prey as a result. Despite warnings and guidance from Basil, he allows himself to be molded as Henry desires.
Dorian’s flaw is his inability to be an Individual. From the first moment he appears on the page, Dorian is warned away from Henry by Basil: “Don’t… pay any attention to what Lord Henry says. He has a very bad influence over all his friends…” (18). When Dorian questions the danger of being influenced, Henry agrees with Basil and explain the problem himself:
“There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral – immoral from the scientific point of view.”
“Why?”
“Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for” (19).
This passage serves as a premonition for the rest of the novel and fits perfectly into Wilde’s belief that Individualism is the ideal mode of life. Dorian reflects Henry’s ideas. One example of this occurs in Chapter 16. After murdering Basil and blackmailing the chemist Alan Campbell into destroying the body, Dorian is haunted by his actions. He retreats to an unsavory area of London to bury his memories in the city’s opium dens. By this point, the audience knows that Dorian comes from a good upper-class family and, prior to his association with Henry, was held in excellent social standing. He would not have gone there without an outside influence. When he goes to the dens, he recalls one of Henry’s lines:
“To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.” Yes, that was the secret. He had often tried it, and would try it again now. There were opium-dens, where one could buy oblivion, den of horror where the memories of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new (154).
This idea was not originally Dorian’s. In this scene, he has lost all sense of himself as an Individual and instead operates solely on the advice of Henry’s witty aphorisms. In this moment, it is obvious that Henry has achieved his goal. The price for this achievement is Dorian’s capacity for life as an Individual, culminating in his accidental suicide. Henry is not an artist, but by the end of the novel, he has sculpted Dorian into a piece of art entirely of his own vision. More than anything, The Picture of Dorian Gray serves as a warning against the rejection of Individualism.
If The Picture of Dorian Gray is a warning, then “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” is a dream. It pushes the reader away from Dorian, painting an idealistic image of a culture that values each member as an Individual. In “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” Wilde describes a world that is strikingly contrary to the society he was raised in. He believes the realization of Individualism will lead to an overall better place, writing “… through it each man will attain to his perfection” (40). Dorian’s failure to achieve true Individuality is what led to his unhappy end. This novel rejects Burdett’s idea of books as Victorian behavior models. The good are not rewarded and the evil are not punished. Dorian’s death is not written as a punishment. It is far more complicated than that.
His suicide is accidental. Dorian does not know destroying the painting will result in his own death. A key detail that prevents the audience from reading the novel as a strictly moral tale is in Dorian’s frame of mind before destroying the painting. The main factor in Dorian’s choice is he recognizes it as a piece of evidence. Wilde makes this explicitly clear to the audience, writing, “There was only one piece of evidence left against him. The picture itself…” (184). Looking at the painting does not reveal the nature of Dorian’s crimes. However, it is evidence of his decay as a person; it demonstrates his loss of individual self.
While the degradation of the painting aligns with Dorian’s actions, it is important to remember his actions do not truly begin with him. They begin with Henry’s influence. The first change occurs after Dorian’s rejection of Sibyl, not long after he falls under Henry’s shadow. He tells her:
“You simply produce no effect. 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. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid… You are nothing to me now… Without your art you are nothing” (74).
Dorian was never in love with Sibyl’s person, he was in love with the sensations she evoked with her acting. The desire for sensation is an experience he did not seek prior to his association with Henry. He becomes fixated on it only after Henry describes its appeal several chapters earlier:
“Yes,” continued Lord Henry, “that is one of the great secrets of life—to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul. You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know” (22).
This is one of the first pieces of wisdom Lord Henry imparts, and it fascinates Dorian. The true impact of this statement is not revealed to the audience until the scene between Dorian and Sibyl and, later, Dorian’s retreat to the opium dens. When he ultimately rejects Sibyl because she fails to arouse his senses, he is acting on an instinct inherited from Henry. In reaction to his step away from Individuality, Dorian’s portrait changes. Similar instances occur throughout the rest of the novel. Reading the portrait as the decay of Dorian’s personhood makes sense in the context of Wilde’s other works, while reading it as a visual representation of Dorian’s character makes less sense. Morality is of little consequence in Wilde’s world. It is in the preservation of the Individual that Wilde built his philosophy upon, not strict moralism. The Picture of Dorian Gray serves as a critique of the rejection of Individualism, much as “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” serves as a darkly comic critique of a specific deep-held value in Victorian society. Wilde uses his fiction to illustrate the ideas he developed in essays and to attack the people falling prey to the traits he viewed as genuine dangers.
Wilde’s willingness to attack core aspects of Victorian society also appears in his poetry. “The Sphinx” is a poem drawing inspiration from the French Decadents, a movement that proved absolutely offensive to his Victorian peers. In her article “Aestheticism and decadence,” Carolyn Burdett writes, “… decadence shocked the Victorian establishment by challenging traditional values, foregoing sensuality, and promoting artistic, sexual, and political experimentation.” It is a movement that Wilde embraced and served as another lens through which he could explore the anti-establishment views that brought him to Individualism. Published nearly four years after The Picture of Dorian Gray, “The Sphinx” provided a new playground for Wilde, where he could toy with imagery bound to appall his conservative critics. The sexual curiosity of the speaker in this poem is more theme than subtext, as opposed to The Picture of Dorian Gray, where the potential romantic undertones are hidden behind plausible deniability. It is a blunter and far more direct challenge to the Victorian sensibility.
One of those challenges to traditional values is the dynamic between age and power that the speaker of “The Sphinx” addresses in the first few stanzas. One of those challenges to traditional values is the dynamic between age and power that the speaker of “The Sphinx” addresses early on in the poem. Wilde’s speaker identifies the age difference between him and the Sphinx directly, saying “A thousand weary centuries are thine while I have hardly seen / Some twenty summers cast their green for Autumn’s gaudy liveries” (80). One benefit that comes with age is knowledge, which places the Sphinx in a position of power on two fronts: not only is she older than the speaker, but she also has more experience than he does—both on a worldly level and a sexual one. This revelation places the male speaker in a position that is subordinate to the female Sphinx.
The speaker is intimidated by her, a feeling that is revealed as his questions about her sexual exploits grow more and more pointed. She never answers him or speaks for herself, but this doesn’t matter; through his questioning the speaker constructs an image of the Sphinx that lines up with each of his anxieties. This is enough of an answer for him. One of the most intriguing points in the poem comes after the speaker stops asking the Sphinx questions and begins making assertions about her. Describing a fabricated relationship between the Sphinx and a god, he says:
You kissed his mouth with mouths of flame: you made the horrid god your own:
You stood behind him on his throne: you called him by his secret name.
You whispered monstrous oracles into the caverns of his ears:
With blood of goats and blood of steers you taught him monstrous miracles
(82-83)
In these lines, readers can see one of Wilde’s own anxieties emerge. The speaker describes a creature with enough knowledge and power to influence a god. The message in “The Sphinx” is subtler than the message in The Picture of Dorian Gray, but it is still there. The speaker expresses disgust at the thought of being used like a puppet by the Sphinx behind the scenes, as the god he describes is. He does not want someone standing behind him on his throne and “whisper[ing] monstrous oracles into the caverns of his ears” (82). While this poem does not dive into the nature of being an Individual, it does quietly whisper the fear of not being one. Equating Wilde to the speaker is not entirely fair, but the speaker’s unwillingness to fall prey to a more knowledgeable, more powerful figure is too close to the theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray to ignore. Unlike Dorian, the speaker chooses to reject the influence by the end of his respective piece, but the fear of that influence is still palpable in the lines in which it is referenced. Its inclusion, even briefly, in “The Sphinx” suggests the power of influence and the need to develop as an Individual is a relationship that still intrigues Wilde, even years after he published his initial comments on the subject. The influence in the poem merely takes on a more silent form than the ever-talkative Lord Henry Wotton.
Despite his insistence to the contrary, Oscar Wilde’s catalog of work lays out a portrait of himself as an artist. His desire for a system under which artists could thrive demanded that he challenge traditional values. Rather than worshiping “the seven deadly Victorian ‘virtues’” (Wright 242) that served as the foundation of a collectivist society, Wilde sought to develop the value of individual people; using his power as an artist to warn his audience of the dangerous paths the rejection of Individualism and the mindless embracement of traditional, conservative values could lead them. Wilde emerged as a witty, dangerous voice of dissent within the world of literature that threatened the English power structure; he warns his peers that those who fail to thrive as Individuals will fall prey to the influences that surround them, whether those influences be the strict moral codes of Victorian society, the seductive beauty of the Sphinx, or the sly, flattering words of Lord Henry Wotton himself.
Works Cited
Burdett, Carolyn. “Aestheticism and decadence.” British Library. www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/aestheticism-and-decadence#authorBlock1
Buzwell, Greg. “Portraits Behaving Badly: Decadence, Degeneration, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. British Library, blogs.bl.uk/english-and-drama/2014/06/portraits-behaving-badly-decadence-degeneration-and-the-picture-of-dorian-gray.html#:~:text=The%20story%20was%20described%20as,decadent%20practices%20as%20French%20literature.
Linder, Douglas. “The Trials of Oscar Wilde: An Account.” Famous Trials, www.famous-trials.com/wilde/327-home.
Wilde, Oscar. “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime.” Complete Short Fiction, Penguin Books, 1994, pp. 167-199.
Wilde, Oscar. “The Decay of Lying.” In Praise of Disobedience, edited by Mark Martic, Verso, 2020, pp. 41-80.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Edited by Michael Patrick Gillespie, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed., W. W. Norton 2020.
Wilde, Oscar. “The Sphinx.” The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Ravenna, and Other Poems. Independently Published, 2020, pp. 79-87.
Wilde, Oscar. “The Soul of Man Under Socialism.” In Praise of Disobedience, edited by Mark Martin, Verso, 2020, pp. 1-40.
Wright, Thomas. Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde. Henry Holt & Company, 2008.