The Destruction Of Self Through Influence In  The Picture of Dorian Gray

ㅤThe character of Dorian Gray has long fascinated my mind; his devolution from promising young gentleman to Faustian hedonist would interest anyone. In his interactions with other characters such as Basil Hallward and the Vanes, the reader sees Dorian change from an inquisitive and critically thinking young man to an impression of his role model, Lord Henry Wotton. Yes, in using the great Rene Girard’s theory of mimesis and desire mimicry, I argue that Dorian Gray actually becomes less of himself through his pursuit of pleasure and experience due to his singular role model; if he had more than one influence, he could have found himself in his interpretative weave of his role model’s influences.

ㅤDorian before Lord Henry (referred to as ‘Lord’ because that is what the novel calls him) is depicted as a spritely, young, and impressionable pianist. As a part of higher English society, Dorian does not have a job, and yet is wealthy. He is shown to be a passionate pianist “He was seated at the piano, with his back to them, turning over pages of Schumann’s ‘Forest Scenes,’” (Wilde 22). Basil tries multiple times to stop Lord Henry from meeting Dorian, saying “I don’t want you to meet him,” because of his experience with Dorian, “one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature” (Wilde 14, 21). Take note of Basil’s observation; he is saying that Dorian, sheltered and uninspired, would be heavily influenced by anyone (including Basil). Later in the novel, we get Lord Henry’s first impression of Dorian: “you were rather cheeky, very shy, and absolutely extraordinary,” a great picture of Dorian before Lord Henry (Wilde 215). Dorian is only 18 years old, and is only seen playing piano or going to small parties before he is introduced to Lord Henry. The last thing one must know about Dorian is how drop-dead gorgeous he is. Lord Henry describes him as “wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair…No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him,” (Wilde 23). Now that we have a picture of Dorian Gray, we can dive into how Lord Henry goes about influencing him.

ㅤDorian Gray’s mimetic desires are used as a vessel for Lord Henry’s desires. Girard’s Mimetic Theory has a variety known as Triangular desire in which one character (subject) wants something (object), and another character is influenced by the subject to desire the object, and once both characters are desiring the same object, a rivalry comes between them (Girard 34). What Lord Henry wants is summed up quite nicely in his first interaction with Dorian Gray: 

‘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 the maladies of mediaevalism’…’The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for things it has forbidden to itself’…’Yes’ continued Lord Henry, ‘that is one of the great secrets of life — to cure to soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul’ (Wilde 25-27).

Lord Henry is a hedonist and part of the “Aesthetic Movement,” and that reflects in the way he lives throughout the book (Simion). No, what Lord Henry is desiring is constancy, to live in his lifestyle for the rest of his life. What Dorian in turn desires is a constant aesthetic lifestyle. Dorian’s desire for sensuality then instills a mimetic desire for Lord Henry to pursue these pleasurable ideals. However, he has already reached his potential in this regard, being a high-society gentleman without a need for respect. This creates a unique dynamic where Lord Henry ends up desiring his goal for Dorian. Burak puts this nicely in the article Acting Out Gender “As he is a teacher of desire, he turns Dorian into a personification of his own desires,” (Burak). This creates not exactly a rivalry, but a toxic cycle of Dorian wanting to be like Lord Henry, and Lord Henry wanting Dorian to be like himself.

ㅤDorian’s relationship with Sybil Vane is both evidence that Lord Henry’s influence has taken hold, but also forshadows the extent Dorian will go for sensuality. Dorian meets a talented young actress named Sybil Vane, and they hit it off. However, Sybil Vane stopped acting during her second performance because “[Dorian,] you are more to me than all art can ever be,” however, Dorian responds with “Without your art, you are nothing” (Wilde 89-90). Sybil was so in love that she stopped doing the only thing Dorian fell in love with: her performance and acting. This displays Dorian’s new tendency to prefer the sensual and aesthetic, not personality and growth. The fact that Lord Henry was there during Sybil’s poor performance and embarrassed Dorian means that he does indeed look to Lord Henry as a role model (Wilde 86). Dorian coldly walks away leaving Sybil in tears on the floor (Wilde 91). We later hear that she committed suicide that night.

ㅤLooking through these events with psychoanalysis in mind reveals a deeper truth about solo mimesis. Dorian is at a prime age, and according to everyone around him, the prime physical point to be in love. Sybil is certainly enamored with him. Truthfully, Dorian did not fall in love with Sybil Vane. He says this in a conversation with Lord Henry “‘To-night she is Imogen’ he answered, ‘and to-morrow night she will be Juliet’ ‘When is she Sybil Vane?’ ‘Never,’” he has fallen in love with the concept of an actor, not a woman at all (Wilde 58). What Dorian sees in this concept can be traced with the help of Yan Zhang, who says on the subject that “To Dorian, his meeting with Sibyl has been to him a continuation of the mirror stage,” and the mirror stage is a psychoanalytic phrase clarified as the developmental stage were people develop a sense of ‘self’ and ‘other’ (Zhang 378). Dorian now sees himself as a person who requires constant stimulation and opinions. He sees Sybil’s unending identities as a reflection of himself, and is drawn to her: “Dorian finds his image reflected in Sibyl, while she remains a distinctive ‘other’. Dorian reconstructs the imaginary self and relocates his self-identity through the dual relationship with the mirror image and the romance with the actress,” (Zhang 378). Because of this, we can confidently say that Dorian’s sense of self is very loose at this time—he is seeing himself, not in Sybil, but in the multitude of identities she represents.

ㅤBy accepting Lord Henry’s ideals as his own, Dorian Gray severely limits his ability to be influenced by others. Basil Hallward is the painter of the titular picture. It is clear that Dorian Gray has had an influence on Basil, but the reverse cannot be said. Shortly after meeting the quiet, reserved Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry and is raptured by his ideas and does not heed Basil’s constant warnings (Wilde 22-33). It could be claimed that if Dorian had had more reservations about Lord Henry, he would not have dived in so deep to his ideals, however, Basil himself ended up feeding Lord Henry’s arguments through the act of painting the picture of Dorian. For Dorian to believe he was beautiful enough that his portrait would shake the artistic world was something that changed him for the worse (Wilde 31-32). In this way, the two most influential characters in Dorian’s life hand him a worldview that serves him as “divine” among men, worthy to be “worshipped,” (Wilde 23, 28). Gods don’t need people to tell them what to do. Lord Henry (and innocent Basil) has inadvertently ensured that Dorian becomes uninfluencable after his initial track is set. This is a problem, of course, but it gets worse when you consider Dorian’s sense of self, or lack thereof, with these goals.

ㅤThe portrait is shown throughout the novel to radically alter Dorian’s thought process. Dorian first notices a change in the portrait the morning after dumping Sybil Vane—a twinge of the lips—enough to realize it had changed for the worse as a direct result of his treatment of the woman. For a moment, it makes him regret his “cruel” decision, but that is soon tested as he receives the news of Sybil’s suicide. In talking with Lord Henry, Dorian concludes that “the girl never really lived, and so she has never really died,” which is not true, but is true from purely Dorian’s perspective, as he never saw her for who she truly was (Wilde 105). After looking at the portrait again, Dorian makes the final decision that “Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins—he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all” (Wilde 107). It causes him to re-evaluate himself and make a decision to change his life. He continues to look at this picture throughout the story, and it proves to now be the only thing that can directly influence his lifestyle. This creates a new mimetic triangle of desire with the portrait becoming the rival of Dorian’s desire. 

The picture is influenced by Dorian’s actions. What may come as a bigger surprise is the picture’s raw influence on Dorian. When showing Basil the mangled mess that has become the portrait since Sybil’s death, he “glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him, as if it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas,” the portraits hideous visage and Basil’s recoiling reaction to it made it clear to Dorian that in order to pursue his desires—in order to continue being ‘himself’— he must kill Basil Hallward (Wilde 158). The picture’s influence on Dorian creates another toxic cycle in that Dorian is egged on by the portrait’s changes to live life to the fullest, to take advantage of this ability, to gain maximum pleasure, no matter how cruel, all while the portrait becomes more grotesque and devilish to encourage him more. Who is Dorian now? He is a murderer, perhaps twice over. He is a cycle, a circular definition without a source. He is what remains when a bouquet of satisfaction and pleasures are melted together and burnt by the fires of cruelty and selfishness. He is barely a person. Is there anything that still defines him?

ㅤMimetic theory suggests that we are made up of other’s desires. I believe that we are taught to be ourselves by who we hang around, by who we look up to as role models. Even subconsciously by simple proximity. We first meet Dorian pouring over some piano music, ready to continue having his portrait painted by Basil. The pianist is an oft-forgotten part of Dorian that shows up in key moments in the story, signaling when Dorian is free-thinking—out from under the influence of Lord Henry. So not very often. It signals the inception of his change, and the heralds the end as well. After being threatened with death by Sybil’s brother, James Vane, Dorian’s life is finally put in full perspective for him. James Vane is killed in a hunting accident (Wilde 202-208). Dorian is deeply affected by this and decides to use this opportunity to turn his life around. To be “good” (Wilde 209). James Vane is now only the fourth (Alan Campbell went unmentioned until now) death due to Dorian’s actions, so it would be a good question to ask what was so different about this one. This has again to do with Dorian’s mental development as one can see James Vane as “It is hard for Dorian to give up imaginary self-identity until James breaks the up the relationship between Dorian and other mirrors,” and finally exiting Zhang’s “mirror stage,” (Zhang 380). James Vane shocks Dorian awake with his one-two punch of ‘I am going to find and kill you’ and his sudden death, instilling Dorian with a new ideal: to make use of the life he almost lost and that James will no longer have. The next chapter starts with him explaining his change in heart to Lord Henry. He is playing the piano as he does so. He is thinking for himself, or at least trying. He sees what his non-existent sense of self has yielded, and is finally fed up with it. He tries takes the first step into his own life in many years by being influenced by another person. It is in these interactions between influences where we as humans find our selves. These interactions have been missing from Dorian’s life due to the nature of Lord Henry’s influence.

ㅤDorian’s critical error was allowing himself to be so easily influenced by Lord Henry, and it is that choice and many others that led him to violently end his cycle. If Sybil’s suicide was taken seriously (as it had been before Lord Henry showed up), Dorian may have seen the problems with his lifestyle earlier. If Dorian had realized that the book Lord Henry got him was actually enjoyed by his role model, maybe he would have questioned the man’s mental state (Wilde 128). If Lord Henry had seen beneath Dorian’s thin cardboard front, he might have realized that this “perfect” man was both the epitome of his own ideals, and an evil person. No, Lord Henry chooses not to look deeper into anything. Placing himself in the role model position, Lord Henry takes charge of teaching Dorian Gray about the world. He is a father-figure. Throughout the book, he says sexist overgeneralizations like they are stickers he is fond of. Most of them, like “there are only two kinds of women,” are easily refutable if you care to peer deeper into people, instead of deeper into your stereotypes of them (Wilde 52). No, the real villain here is someone who wanted a pupil just to exercise his whims on. A pupil he didn’t care what happened to. Lord Henry, in his cruel manipulation, drew Dorian to where he could not recover himself, and ignored his responsibility to help save the lost young man. He is so unobservant that he thinks Dorian is “quite perfect” a day after rejoicing at the death of a man. Lord Henry had accomplished his goal of feeling “that fresh impulse of joy” that Dorian brought him as a student of hedonism (Wilde 25). It is here, abandoned by his role model, struggling to find himself after being Lord Henry for so long, where we find Dorian faced with the fact that he cannot regain himself. Lord Henry’s influence has penetrated too far, and is idea of a “good deed” is to spare a country girl named Hetty from ever seeing him again (Wilde 209). Dorian is eager to see if the picture changes for the better with his change, but he is faced with an unchanging hag of a man who broke up with a woman because he was vain enough to realize good deeds seen would fix his cardboard cutout self. He ends the cycle then and there with the same knife he used on his friend. He stabs the picture, killing himself and returning the picture, his mirror, back to its original perfection. Due to Dorian’s sole role model and his lack of responsibility, he was unable to regain himself once his eyes were finally opened to the bloody trail his desires and pleasures left behind.

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