Oscar Wilde as Artist: A Comparison of Two Works - Essay Example

Oscar Wilde as Artist: A Comparison of Two Works Oscar Wilde argues in both his essay “The Critic as Artist” and in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray that the ideal art form can only be reached through a blending of the conscience and the instinct, which could also be termed the spiritual or intellectual with the hedonistic or material. As he makes this argument, he also illustrates how the modern society is no longer capable of learning what it must from the saints of the world who have managed to blend these two aspects of their natures together to arrive at a successful conclusion. Instead, it is only possible for the cynical modern man, in all his busy activity, to learn from directly experiencing the consequences of acting without thought or presuming too much thought into what should instead be an action. This is spelled out in the essay and then acted out in personified form in the novel. In relating these concepts to the world of art, it is important to remember that Wilde’s concept of art was that it should be something experienced thoughtfully as an object of pure beauty rather than an interpretation of the artist’s values – an artistic instinct fed by spiritual inspiration. “Emotion for the sake of emotion is the aim of art, and emotion for the sake of action is the aim of life, and of that practical organization of life that we call society” (Gilbert). These ideas regarding the artistic ideal are clearly spelled out through the words of Gilbert in “The Critic as Artist” and are personified in the characters of Lord Henry Wotton (instinct), Basil Hallward (conscience) and Dorian Gray (object) in The Picture of Dorian Gray. In “The Artist as Critic,” Gilbert quickly illustrates why consciously imbuing art with symbolism and other purposeful value judgments is not the most desirable action to take; that the only true art must come into existence as the result of a perfect meld between instinct and conscience. He tells Ernest that those with the best intentions may end up being proven to have instead the worst effects while those who have intended to do great harm may similarly have enormously positive results. “[Men] rage against Materialism, as they call it, forgetting that there has been no material improvement that has not spiritualized the world, and that there have been few, if any, spiritual awakenings that have not wasted the world’s faculties in barren hopes, and fruitless aspirations, and empty of trammeling creeds” (Gilbert). In making this statement, Gilbert indicates that materialism, the lifestyle that continuously seeks to find pleasure in the tactile world, is necessary if progress is to be made because it always produces some kind of spiritual reaction. At the same time, purely spiritual movements, lacking in a material base, lose their focus and reveal nothing. The connection between instinct and conscience is made even more plain further on as Gilbert says, “The mere existence of conscience, that faculty of which people prate so much nowadays, and are so ignorantly proud, is a sign of our imperfect development. It must be merged in instinct before we become fine” (Gilbert). Once he demonstrates how Contemplation is the proper occupation of man among the highest culture, he indicates that true art serves as a vehicle. “The world through which the Academic philosopher becomes ‘the spectator of all time and of all existence’ is not really an ideal world, but simply a world of abstract ideas” (Gilbert). But the modern world remains too skeptical of these ideas when they are presented too perfectly. “No, Ernest, no. We cannot go back to the saint. There is far more to be learned from the sinner” (Gilbert). These concepts, that art must be a blend of instinct and conscience, as well as the concept that the modern world can only learn from the sinner, are illustrated throughout the personifications Wilde has built into his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lord Henry Wotton represents Wilde’s conception of the materialist concept. It is Lord Henry that first sets Dorian Gray on his odd adventure by encouraging him to take pleasure in existence, in the narcissistic appeal of concentrating on one’s own self-development and pleasure: “I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream – I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal” (Wilde, 1891, p. 20). In this and several other statements throughout the novel, Lord Henry embodies Wilde’s contempt for the morality of the times while he emphasizes how each statement opens the door to new philosophical discussion. It is Henry who encourages Dorian to hold onto his youth for as long as he can because “Beauty is a form of Genius – is higher, indeed, than Genius as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty” (Wilde, 1891, p. 23). These statements illustrate the conception of art as something that is beautiful in its own right instead of because of any basis in its core, an idea that is developed further in the presentation of Dorian Gray himself. Dorian himself is a shining example of art existing for art’s sake alone. From his very first introduction, Dorian Gray is presented as little more than a piece of artwork being shaped and refined by those around him. Indeed, the first glimpse we have of him is as he appears on Basil’s easel in the studio: “In the center of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself” (Wilde, 1891, p. 7). The boy in the image is described as a Narcissus, “a brainless, beautiful creature, who should be always here in winter when we have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we want something to chill our intelligence” (Wilde, 1891, p. 9). As Dorian is introduced in person, he appears to be little more than the blank canvas upon which Basil is painting. However, Basil Hallward puts too much conscience into the work, capturing too much of his own feelings and corrupting the work, enabling it to capture Dorian’s faults as well as his beauty. Realizing after his first act of evil toward Sybil Vane and that he will be able to retain his beauty while his portrait takes on the stain of his sins, Dorian resolves to experience pleasure as deeply and fully as he can in whatever form he can, giving in completely to the concept of hedonism without the control of conscience. The attractiveness of this mode of living to the entire society is evident in the easy manner in which Dorian is accepted on looks alone. Only toward the end of the book does Wilde begin giving hints that not everyone remains fooled by Dorian’s good looks, with dark hints regarding sneers in the streets, finally culminating in Basil’s final confrontation with him: “Staveley curled his lip, and said that you might have the most artistic tastes, but that you were a man whom no pure-minded girl should be allowed to know, and whom no chaste woman should sit in the same room with … Why is your friendship so fatal to young men?” (Wilde, 1891, p. 117). Basil’s question to Dorian illustrates his own lack of instinct, not knowing what draws Dorian to do the things he does, not having the strength to put a stop to it and not understanding what it might mean to him. Basil, instead, represents the concept of conscience, constantly striving to understand what Lord Henry Wotton has known all along. It is interesting that Wilde allows Basil to be the one person to see the portrait in all its ugliness before he meets his end as it is through him that we understand the failure of Dorian is due to the failure of the art to remain disconnected from the artist. His first theories regarding art are expressed to Henry before Dorian steps into the story: “An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what it is; and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray” (Wilde, 1891, p. 15). Basil realizes that something else has happened with the portrait he has done of Dorian. He has put too much of his own feeling into the painting. In addition to recognizing more meaning in his own art than he had intended to show, Basil later indicates there is greater purpose to art than its mere expression as he seeks to comfort Dorian regarding his infatuation with Sibyl Vane: “To spiritualize one’s age – that is something worth doing. If this girl can give a soul to those who have lived without one, if she can create the sense of beauty in people whose lives have been sordid and ugly, if she can strip them of their selfishness and lend them tears for sorrows that are not their own, she is worthy of all your adoration, worthy of the adoration of the world” (Wilde, 1891, p. 66). Unfortunately, it is also Basil’s belief that a man whose soul is as depraved as Dorian’s must show it in some respect, which leads him to completely trust Basil until the last moment of his life as it was necessary for Dorian to walk directly past Basil in order to grab the knife that would end his life. He lacked the materialistic instinct that would have spared him, and perhaps would have enabled him to have taken a different approach to Dorian to begin with. Throughout the novel, Wilde continues to expand and investigate the various elements he feels are integral to the creation of great art as well as the product left behind. The novel can rightfully be considered a tragedy of the artist as Basil illustrates the concept of conscience in art discussed by Gilbert from “The Critic as Artist.” Lord Henry Wotton personifies the oppositional concept of instinct and materialism, the never-ending search for pleasure. As Gilbert tells Ernest in “The Critic as Artist,” it takes both Wotton and Basil to produce Dorian, the artist by ignoring the instinct and attempting to capture the ideal, the other in ignoring the conscience and giving in completely to the senses. Because Wotton and Basil do not work in tandem but rather at cross purposes, the product achieved, Dorian, is deeply flawed, as Gilbert suggests must happen. Basil’s initial failure to keep instinct and conscience in balance in his creation of the portrait that opens the novel provides the gap necessary for instinct, in the form of Henry Wotton, to take complete control in the shaping of the initial form, personified as Dorian. Although this is most evident in the characters presented, as they become true personifications of these concepts, Wilde demonstrates these ideas in other discussions within The Picture of Dorian Gray dealing with materialism or the ideal and art. In each of these instances, Wilde demonstrates again and again the ideas he brings forward in his essay “The Critic as Artist,” presenting a story example of his concepts in action while underscoring the concept that the modern society will learn more from the sinner than the saint. Works Cited Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Donald L. Lawler (Ed.). A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1891; reprnt. 1988. Read More