The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Essay Example

It is now almost a century and a half since Oscar Wilde published the book “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” withit contentious themes of duplicity, hedonistic and worship of beauty and youth. While the book’s decadence and homo-eroticism shocked his contemporaries at the time of its publication, the theme on the worship of beauty and youth remain very much alive in this time and age. Nowhere in the book is this theme best exemplified than in Henry’s comment to the effect that “because you possess marvelous youth, and the youth is a thing worth having (Wilde, 1908, pp. 29)”. Today’s, both the youthful and the aging would perfectly relate to the book’s character, Dorian Gray, who strongly believed and propagated for perpetual youthfulness. There are so many parallels that can be drawn between Dorian’s character and today’s generation and particularly youths. For instance, just as today’s youth are generally innocent in the initial day of their life, their innocence eventually disappears mostly under the influence of today’s ‘role models’ who ironically worship vices instead of virtues. This is perfectly in line with Dorian’s character and especially the influence of Lord Henry Wotton, who influences Dorian in entering a “life of sensual indulgence (Wilde, 1908).” In fact, the path that he takes in his life is perfectly in line with today’s youths from similar background. Hailing from a dysfunctional family, where Dorian maternal grandmother conspires to have his father murdered because of his displeasure with the marriage, Dorian like majority of today’s youths from such dysfunctional family had no inspiration in life and hence his subsequent riotous nature in life. In fact, his story is a common feature in our ghettoes today where kids in care of their maternal parents are increasingly embracing violence and all sort of extreme vices. Put in the context of today’s life, the overall picture of Dorian life and especially that of murder in the most part, makes him a perfect example of a child growing without any emotional support not only in his generation but in any of the subsequent generations. There is no doubt that Dorian would behave exactly the way he behaved if he found himself living in the 21st century. Dorian picture represent that found in the ghettoes. The murder of Basil for instance, which can be blamed in most part on his emotional build-up can be likened to majority of today’s violence and senseless murders that are being perpetuated by youths of his age in poor neighborhood where the family institution is no longer existent. Dorian life of vices instead of virtue seems to be consistent with the desires of the youths of today, a desire that is particularly driven by the pop culture propagated by the entertainment industry. His life of extremes particularly makes the character Dorian appealing to today’s youth if today pop culture is anything to go by. This appeal is also manifested in Hollywood’s effort since the 1900s at integrating Dorian character and lessons in a good number of their films. Even the struggles that Dorian undergoes in asserting his character to his contemporaries are synonymous with today’s youth obsession with bad-boy image, a classic example being rapper Eminem, who has made a career out of bashing his mother. Another example of the elevation of Dorian character can be found in both the film and print version of the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Today extreme obsession with sensual beauty and youthfulness, which informs the growing list of beauty products and even cosmetic surgeries, borrows a lot from the book’s theme on the worship of beauty and youth. There is no doubt that just like Dorian’s obsession with beauty, the modern man and women will spend large amount of resources (time and money) on maintaining the perfect mirrored image of him/herself. This feeling about reality of the 21st century man and woman is consistent with Dorian’s want of beauty and youth. A great many things might have been invented since the 19th century, and especially those that makes one more visible (social networking, dating sites and the like), however the story of the Dorian Gray surprisingly retain its relevance, if the length that people will go in getting and maintaining the ideal looks is anything to go by. The perpetual beauty and youthfulness that Dorian was granted unconsciously via supernatural means is now very much possible to achieve, courtesy of cosmetic surgeries and beauty therapies. The message of the story perhaps fits better in today’s context than even the 19th century when the book was penned. This is because everything comes at a price, just as Wilde perfectly captured with the words “all art is at first a surface and also a symbol. Those who go underneath the surface do so at their own peril (Wilde, 1908, p. 6).” Unlike in the 19th century when this controversial book’s decadence and homo-eroticism shocked Wilde’s contemporaries, this book would energize the debate on homosexuality in far greater ways than it would have done in the 19th century. Even Dorian’s comment to the effect that he will never marry while stating that he is in love (Wilde, 1908, p. 57) would not have cause the controversy like the one it caused then. If anything, marriage as an institution has almost lost all it glamour and reverence in today society. This therefore shows that while Dorian created a furore by uttering such words at a time marriage was almost a must, it would not even raise an eyebrow in this time and age when marriage is more or less a contract between two consenting parties which can be terminated at a later date without any public ridicule or backlash. Dorian is corrupted by his beauty to a point of becoming selfish, cruel and reckless toward others. The extent of this cruelty is such that he can treat people contemptuous while dismissing them out of hand, because according to him their plan has no effect neither on his thought nor his actions. This fits the bill of today’s youth who has been brought-up in a dysfunctional family like Dorian. Lord’s Henry’s immense influence that border in manipulation has a lot of similarities with the influence that the entertainment industry has on today youths. The entertainment industry’s influence on today’s youths might be primarily for business purposes, however looked at carefully, it’s near fanatical has a lot in common with Lord Henry’s influence on Dorian. Borrowing from Lord Henry’s words, today’s youth is literary, “an empty echo, one that has absolutely no mind of its own (Wilde, 1908, pp. 45)”. Just as Dorian accept Lord Henry’s assertion that his beauty and youth is not only enormously valuable but fleeting as well, today’s youth are perpetually being urged by their peers in the entertainment industry on how to behave, dress, and think, something that Dorian would not have found any fault in abiding with if he was to find himself in the 21st century. In fact, just as he is condemned into a life of aesthetics by his acceptance of Lord Henry assertion on the importance of his beauty and youth, Dorian would gladly accept to following today’s fashion and obsession with beauty as is exemplified by the multiplicity of beauty therapies and cosmetic surgery. He would even be motivated by the inability to acquire perpetual beauty and youth supernaturally as was the case with him in the 19th century. The ominous picture that Lord Henry paints of Dorian beauty and youth with the passing of time appears like the one that is usually flown around by the fashion industry in order to keep the masses in an unending spending spree so as to keep abreast with the ever-changing fashion. This threat of fading beauty to a beauty-obsessed Dorian would no doubt prompt him to be as flamboyant just as they come. Just as he used to see the world in the eyes of Lord Henry, he would still continue looking at life in terms of the dictates of the fashion industry and entertainment industry just as it is doing to most us living in the 21st century. His innocence, just as was the case with him then, would have been long eroded by the likes of the pop culture and the need to stay abreast with the current fashion trends. Dorian also seems deluded by the beauty mystique that has deluded most of us to the effect that you cannot be beautiful and bad at the same time, and hence the obsession with beauty and youthfulness. This beauty mystique concept is still very much alive today as can be depicted in a good number of films and literary pieces where the characters that emerges heroes or heroines are almost always beautiful and youthful. Take the example of the book “Harry Potter and the Philosophy’s Stone,” in this book the hero Harry Porter is described as “skinny with bright green eyes and black hair, while his cousin Dudley, who in all way one looks at him, is a mean bully, is described as having “a small neck, tiny, watery blue eyes in a large face, and thick blonde hair laying smoothly on his equally thick fat head (Rowling, 1997, p. 27).” From the above narration it is surprising just how Dorian action and believe fits in the 21st century and especially his conviction. References Rowling, J, K, 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Great Britain: Bloomsbury. Wilde, Oscar, 1908, The Picture Of The Dorian Gray, Bonn, Bernhard Tauchnitz. Read More