"Uncanny is what one calls everything that was meant to remain secret and hidden and has come into the open" (Schilling).
The uncanny, a concept coined by Freud, postulates that something can be both familiar and foreign to someone - if something is uncanny, it is recognizable, yet alien. When someone looks at something they find uncanny, they are paradoxically attracted to and drawn away from that thing simultaneously. It is one of the more interesting aspects of cognitive dissonance, and one which is present in a lot of fiction. The uncanny is used in many instances to create a subtle sense of wrongness, or alienness, in something that is considered to be normal. The uncanny most certainly applies to the character of Dorian Gray in the Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray; in this essay, we will explore facets of the uncanny and how they relate to this mercurial, mysterious and tragic character.
Freud called the uncanny 'das unheimlich' , defining it something that is uncomfortable, and unfamiliar; at the same time, the uncanny remains hidden and concealed from true knowledge:
Heimlich is not unambiguous, but belongs to two sets of ideas which are not mutually contradictory, but very different from each other - the one relating to what is familiar and comfortable, the other to what is concealed and kept hidden. Unheimlich is the antonym of heimlich only in the latter's first sense (Freud, 2003, p. 132).
Dorian Grey is the very definition of uncanny; he is a figure of exceptional beauty, the subject of endless infatuation and aestheticism by those around him. A young man living in the late 19th century and painted by Basil Hallward, Dorian effectively makes a deal with the devil to keep his youth and appearance; as a result, the painting ages instead of him. Remaining eternally youthful while the painting itself withers and wrinkles, Dorian effectively uses his time to plunge into debauchery and hedonism, acting with no regard for health or consequences. As nothing he might do will change his age, he is freed from the responsibility of caring for himself or others.
The uncanny is often used in fiction to denote something that is inherently unnatural or not suited to its environment. Jentsch (1906) states that the uncanny, in fiction, leaves the audience enraptured in an object or person due to the inherent disorientation the uncanny effect has on the reader:
In telling a story one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton and to do it in such a way that his attention is not focused directly upon his uncertainty, so that he may not be led to go into the matter and clear it up immediately. (Jentsch, 1906).
The uncertainty created by the uncanny in fiction is sly and stealthy; attention is not called towards the uncanny aspect of the figure, but one simply intuits it. By creating this disquiet in the reader, they are suspicious and fascinated by a character without really knowing why. Having things that are lifelike, without being living, is the hallmark of the Uncanny, and Dorian Gray fits this model to a T.
The uncanny element of Dorian Gray is evidenced in his appearance; no matter how old he may be, he looks endlessly young - not a wrinkle on his face. In this way, when people look at him, there is something unsettling about him, particularly as time passes without a change in his looks. "He is some 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, p. 4). This desire is expressed by Lord Henry in the beginning of the book, demonstrating the desires of both Dorian and the people around him to maintain his beauty. However, the price paid is an increasing disquiet that stems from the continued unnatural youth of Dorian Gray.
The reason Dorian's youth is uncanny is due to the expectations of people's appearance according to their age. Societal expectations, based on experience and intuition, leads to people assuming wrinkles and age lines on people as time passes; at the very least, some form of bodily change should occur. When that does not happen, in the case of Dorian Gray, a cognitive dissonance is experienced where people cannot reconcile Dorian's appearance with his age. As a result, they are disturbed by him, despite the fact that they are drawn to his beauty. This is the essence of uncanny - something or someone that does not feel right somehow, despite the superficial comfort with its appearance.
Societal expectations of what a person is supposed to be drives the essence of the uncanny. By defying these expectations, the discomfort required for this effect is created. In Dorian Gray, Dorian himself ruminates on this duality present between what the body can actually do, and what the soul wants to be:
He used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the Ego in a man as a thing simple, permanent, reliable, and of one essence. To him, man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose flesh was tainted with monstrous maladies of the dead (Wilde, p. 457).
With this mindset in mind, it is easy to see the pull and the desire for remaining eternally young; people want to avoid the 'monstrous maladies' and remain that 'complex multiform creature.' By achieving this, Dorian gains the immediate respect of his peers; however, the fact that this phenomenon shouldn't happen, and is not natural, does not escape them, creating the uncanny effect.
Freud discusses the idea of the 'double' in the uncanny - often, repetition of the same thing will lead to that same uncanny effect. Often, when something random happens often enough, it is thought to be more than coincidence, due to its uncanny nature. In the case of Dorian Gray, there are two instances of doubling; Dorian's continued youth, which persists with time, and the duality of Dorian the man and Dorian the picture. Dorian the man should age; however, he does not. In this instance, there is an increasing 'doubling' of Dorian's true age and the age he looks. As he grows older, his looks increasingly belie his age, this dichotomy growing further as more time passes. Because he is older than he seems, this enhances the uncanny effect he has on others.
Another uncanny element to the book is the painting itself - the uncanny element to the painting involves its ability to change its appearance to reflect Dorian's true age, as well as his sins. As Dorian continues down an evil path, more wrinkles and disfigurements appear on the painting, which Dorian has hidden away so as not to look at it. "Basil,' he said, looking very pale, 'you must not look at it. I don't wish you to'"' (Wilde, p. 165). By looking at the painting, Dorian's youth would be destroyed, and all the years he has skipped would transfer back to him. Instead, he wishes to remain uncanny, unsettlingly young, and vain - he prefers this to death. For a time, he does examine the painting, unsettled and endlessly fascinated by his own beauty and "more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul" (Wilde, p. 190). This contradiction between loving his beauty and mocking the age that shows up in the painting is both an indicator of Dorian's endless vanity, and the uncanny effect taking hold even on himself. He is disgusted and enamored with himself, and he is trapped in this emotional state regarding himself.
This fascination with youth that Dorian has was Wilde's way of showing how uncanny making that wish come true would be. It is shown in the book that youth is a persistent value that is fleeting and all important - "Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!" (Wilde, p. 33). However, once Dorian's wish is granted, and years pass without consequence, his friends all look at him with immediate respect and adoration due to the lovely appearance he offers. At the same time, it unsettles them once they think about it further.
Other instances of the uncanny happen around Dorian as well, demonstrating and foreshadowing his own collapse into that realm of uncertainty. As Lord Henry espouses the value of youth to him, he sees a bee buzzing around some flowers, and notes how unreal it seems:
He watched it with that strange interest in trivial things that we try to develop when things of high import make us afraid, or when we are stirred by some new emotion for which we cannot find expression, or when some thought that terrifies us lays sudden siege to the brain and calls on us to yield (Wilde, p. 33).
This thought that Dorian holds is the absolute essence of the Uncanny - often, we are afraid of something that is very important or unfamiliar to us, but we cannot truly place that feeling. Often, people are disturbed by what seems right at first glance, but intuition tells us is not. Dorian feels this feeling with the bee, and the other characters in the story feel that about him as his own spell takes hold.
Aesthetics lies at the heart of the uncanny in Dorian Gray, as Dorian uses his attractive personality to further his appearance. Throughout the novel, Dorian is selfish yet endlessly fascinating to those around him; the "innocence" and "purity of his face" allow him to get away with being an unrepentant, self-serving monster. That hedonism that Dorian displays is very clear to the reader, but the superficial society in which Dorian inhabits seems to be blissfully ignorant of his faults due to his looks. Dorian's uncanny youth lasts for such a long time, even his dead body becomes uncanny to those who come across it. Because they had started to reconcile Dorian's youth with who he was, suddenly seeing his wrinkled corpse was equally as disturbing and disquieting:
Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was (Wilde, p. 332).
Society's fascination with youth and appearance lead to Dorian's sudden aging being a huge shock to those who witnessed it. Once things are returned to normal, suddenly that disturbs his friends even further.
Beauty reigns in The Picture of Dorian Gray; the appearance of a person rules over all, and beastly personalities can hide behind a pretty face and get away with it. Of course, in order to accomplish this, Dorian has to give up his soul. By doing so, he projects his own sins onto the painting, creating the disquiet of an aging painting contrasting with the eternally youthful human being. That same contrast is what brings about the disturbing nature of Dorian Gray, and the pretty face belying such an old, evil personality.
The uncanny works in this story by reminding the reader of their own dark side, their own repressed impulses. Dorian is our id gone mad, and the painting is our superego reminding us of the things we have done. By refusing to look at the picture, and keeping it hidden, Dorian establishes it as something to be considered a danger. The uncanny is all about having a hidden dark side; Dorian literally hides his in the attic in his home, the picture becoming an uncanny threat to Dorian himself. Often, social taboos are represented in the uncanny; these are things that we want, but are forbidden to show that we want. Therefore, we push these feelings or desires to the background, or do our best to simply express them in secret (Freud, p. 140). We do not want to be found out and exposed as someone abnormal; Dorian fears exposure of the painting to the world.
In conclusion, the uncanny is an element that lies at the heart of the themes of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The Uncanny, defined by Freud and others as the valley between realism and discomfort, can be used aptly to describe Dorian's continued youth and vigor despite the years, and the toll his debaucherous lifestyle has on his own body. The use of doubling by paralleling Dorian's own looks and his painting furthers the concept of the uncanny, demonstrating just how odd and unsettling his situation truly is, both to the reader and to the other characters around him. Though they are blinded by his beauty, Dorian's true nature lies just below the surface, and creates that discomfort felt by the characters and the audience.
Works Cited
Freud S, 2003, The Uncanny, Penguin.
Jentsch, 1906, On the Psychology of the Uncanny, Penguin.
Schelling F, 1980, The Unconditional in Human Knowledge: Four Early Essays, trans. F. Marti,
Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press.
Wilde O, 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ward, Lock and Company.
