The Picture of Dorian Gray is a contradiction of people who are authentic such as Sybil and Henry and those who are hiding their true selves behind deceptions, like Dorian and Basil. This paper will look at the use of “smoke and mirrors” in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. “Smoke and Mirrors” is a metaphor that refers to the hiding of truth behind a veil of deception. This is a concept that is popular in Victorian Literature and helps to drive the plot as the conflict is often times essential to the advancement of the storyline.
In the story both Basil and Dorian are deceptive characters in that they both hide their true selves behind the portrait. Basil hides his homosexuality and infatuation with Dorian behind the guise of using him as a muse. Dorian hides his true nature by having the portrait take on the results of his lifestyle on its face, while he continues to remain young and beautiful. The authentic characters in the story are Henry and Sibyl. Sibyl truly loves Dorian and she seems to be an inherently kind person. Lord Henry is authentic in his beliefs in that he is proud to live a life of hedonism and excess.
Basil
Basil is hiding the fact that he is obviously homosexual. When we meet Basil he is working on a portrait of Dorian and talking with his friend Henry. We learn that Basil is entranced by Dorian as he is extremely cultured and beautiful describing a moment during their first meeting as “we were quite close, almost touching. Our eyes met again” (Wilde, 2007). Basil enjoys using flattery on Dorian and “saying things that he should be sorry he said” (Wilde, 2007).
This could be construed as an attempt at courtship on the part of Basil. Nonetheless, there seems to be a flirtation between the two men. Basil has had him sit for a number of paintings as he feels that Dorian inspires him to be a better artist. At the start of the book Basil is painting Dorian as he truly is rather than as a mythological character. He tells Henry that he is not happy with the painting as it shows too much of his feelings towards Dorian.
This shows that Basil is not comfortable in revealing the truth about himself. The fact that Basil may be in love with Dorian is further demonstrated when Henry suggests that Basil should hang the painting he is working on in an art gallery Basil tells him that he cannot because the painting reveals too much of himself. He tells him that he worships Dorian and later when Henry wants Dorian to go to the theatre and Basil wants to paint him some more Basil begs Henry not to " take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him. Mind, Harry, I trust you." (Wilde, 2007).
There is a sense of the homosexual competition between Basil and Henry throughout the story when it comes to Dorian. Basil seems to get jealous when Dorian choses to hang out with Henry rather than him and Basil says such things as "as long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me."(Wilde, 2007). However, he does not admit his feelings, but this however, would have been normal behavior for Victorian Society. This is because there had been a number of “heteronormative laws forced the systematic silencing of many homosexuals” (Sanna, 2013).
Basil is inauthentic in that he will not admit his true feelings for Dorian instead he hides behind excuses of painting pictures. All the time reveling in the interactions that he has with Dorian. Even as Dorian’s life is doing in a downward spiral he cannot seem to fully separate himself from Dorian. There is the sense that he cannot/ will not distance himself from Dorian as he feels that to do so would cause him to lose the most important thing/ person in his life. In the end this unwillingness to let Dorian go ends in his death, when Dorian severs ties with him by stabbing him to death.
Dorian
Throughout the story any mentions of Dorian’s sins are extremely vague, but there are mentions of boys with Basil asking about why Dorian’s "friendship is so fatal to young men", (Wilde, 2007) and that one young man’s father shows “shame and sorrow” (Wilde, 2007). This gives the indication that the relationship between Dorian and these other young men were more than platonic, especially since one gets the idea that their reputation in society was ruined. This is further demonstrated when Dorian blackmails Alan Campbell with revealing the secret between them. Dorian was also in love with Sibyl. The references to Dorian being like the gods and his relationships with Sibyl and Henry make it seem like he homosexual or at least bi-sexual. This may have been the reason that he was more willing to hang out with Henry, then Basil. Basil was repressing his true nature, while Henry was about embracing it.
Dorian further hides his true self as he uses the mirror to stay young and beautiful and he does not allow anyone to see his true face. Which is marked with age, along with his sins and vices. From drinking, drugs, murder (intentional and unintentional) and fear. Dorian uses the mirror to hide who he truly is, both physically and emotionally as a person’s visage can tell someone a lot about their mental and/ or emotional state. The reason for this according to McGinn may not have been just because Dorian did not want to grow old, but also because it is easier to hide one’s wickedness behind an appealing facade. This is because beauty seems to be connected with the idea of virtue. Whereas ugliness would have been associated with moral depravity (McGinn, 2003). While Dorian was willing to partake in morally corrupt and illegal actions, he was not willing to allow himself to bear the repercussions of such acts. Instead he chooses to hide his “secret vices” by “conducting a double life hidden from the inquisitiveness of the contemporary public and the condemnation of the law” (Sanno, 2013).
Sometime later Dorian is in an opium den, where he runs into James. James wants revenge on Dorian for the death of Sibyl. Nonetheless, Dorian is able to escape the situation by using the fact that he still looks as though he is only twenty. He does so by “using a methodology evil individuals usually avoid precisely because they wish to protect themselves. “The evil hate the light—the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception.”” (Peck, 1983)
The light however cannot show Dorian for who he truly is. This is because his face has not changed with the lie. He then returns home. Later while hosting a party at his home he notices James looking in his window and becomes laden with guilt and fear. The next day finds Dorian cannot leave his home because of the fear that is running through him, “his delusions concerning James Vane’s whereabouts—for they are nothing less—threaten to blot out reality” (Profit, 2013).
Even though the picture makes it possible for Dorian to hide who he truly is from society. It cannot allow him to hide from himself. He knows what he truly feels about a situation even if his face shows something else. This is why after he sees the angry sneer on the portrait’s face after breaking up with Sibyl he puts the painting in a remote area of the house. The reason for this is even though Dorian had planned to agree to rekindle their engagement. He did not have any true care for her. Rather he was in love with what she represented, saying “So I have murdered Sybil Vanemurdered her as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife. Yet the roses are not less lovely for that.” (Wilde, 2007).
The picture will always reveal the truth of Dorian’s nature. It is Dorian’s subsequent inability to face himself that will result in his death. This was because he did not want a reminder of who he truly was. After he gets rid a young girl who was in love with him and sees that the picture has a hypocritical smirk on its face. He gets so angry because he knows that the picture is not just hiding who he is on the outside, but also reflecting him on the inside. This was because he had gotten so use to his beauty hiding his real nature that when he was confronted with the truth of it he tried to destroy it and ended up destroying himself.
Dorian uses the portrait as “smoke and mirrors”. He uses the mirror to both hide his imperfections and to also hide his true nature. However, he does not just hide the truth from others. He hides it from himself. He is so unable to see the truth that he hides that painting in a remote area of his home. This is because he wants to be able to continue living the fantasy that his soul is as beautiful as his face. It is only when he tries to destroy that truth that he inadvertently destroys the lie.
Henry
Lord Henry Wotton is an extremely wealthy man who lives according to his vices and embraces his hedonistic tendencies. This is why Basil did not want him to meet Dorian as he was afraid that he would take Dorian away from him and corrupt him. When he first meets Dorian he thinks to himself “Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candor of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him” (Wilde, 2007). He is portrayed as the devil and evil in the book. This is because Dorian went from being innocent and uncorrupt to vain and self-involved after hanging out with Henry. Henry saw that Dorian despite his innocence was prone to being vain and he used that in order to corrupt him by telling him that his youth and beauty will not last. It is the fear of aging that Henry instills is him that causes Dorian to curse the picture. However, while Henry may have awakened Dorian’s darker nature. It was always there. This would have been why Dorian was so easily swayed and willing to choose Henry over Basil.
This is because to Dorian, Henry represents freedom to be who he was, saying “I never approve or disapprove of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life.” (Wilde, 2007). While Basil was the restrictions put on him by society. Henry seems not to take anything too seriously and tends laugh everything off as being irrelevant. In fact, Henry reveals his inability to care and/ or take things seriously when he is told of Sibyl’s death, saying essentially that if he had someone kill themselves because they were in love with him. “It would have made me in love with love for the rest of my life” (Wilde, 2007). He goes on to say that for him, people, even the ones that like and adore him will not kill themselves for him. Instead, they “have always insisted on living on, long after I had ceased to care for them, or they to care for me” (Wilde, 2007). Henry then goes on to describe future contact with these people as being tedious because they always insist on reminiscing about the past. His idea is that life is meant to be lived “but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar." (Wilde, 2007).
Henry does not even pretend to have sympathy for Sibyl or to care for how her death may effect Dorian. Instead he goes on to reminds Dorian that no one remembers the dead and that Sibyl’s actions were ultimately meaningless. This lack of real feeling or consequence for his actions is why Henry is seen as being evil. He likes to see what he can push people to do. This is why he originally takes an interest in Dorian. He is able to succeed in his plan because he is attractive and able to utilize his manipulative personality. This is because after he meets Dorian and sees that he is beautiful. He starts telling him about how he is going to lose his looks and that no one will want to have anything to do with him when he is old and ugly. He then tells Dorian that the "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful” (Wilde, 2007).
Henry is authentic in that he does not hide behind “smoke and mirrors”. His reputation and action are well known; this is why Basil does not want Dorian to meet him. It is the fact that Henry is honest with both himself and his friends about who he is that makes him an authentic character. Henry is not a nice man, in fact he is cruel, self- centered, self- involved, manipulative and arrogant. He also lives a life of drugs and hedonism that he was more than willing to pull Dorian into just because he wanted to see what happened.
Sibyl
There is not much to say about Sibyl. She was an actress who fell in love with Dorian and committed suicide when he broke off their engagement. She was the catalyst for Dorian first seeing the effects of his cruelness on the face of his portrait. Sibyl was one of the most authentic characters in the book. She truly loved Dorian, not just the illusion of him (Dorian only loved her because she was an actress and was able to move him with her performances). Sibyl on the other hand loved Dorian and found that she could not pretend to be in love with someone onstage, since she had experienced the real thing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “smoke and mirrors” is reflected for both Basil and Dorian it was their inability to acknowledge who they truly were. For the both of them this led to their deaths. Dorian because he could not face himself and the corruption of his own soul. Dorian had tried to deny the truth of himself by doing good deeds. He however, discovered upon looking at his portrait that his face had not begun to look any better. Instead there was a look of hypocrisy of the portrait’s face. This is when Dorian realized that he could no longer hide from who he was and that if he was going to get any kind of freedom from who he was. He would have to destroy all remnants of his true nature.
Whereas Dorian was lying about who he was and was destroyed by the truth when he came face to face with it. Basil was killed by Dorian when he sought to force Dorian to accept his truth. He wanted Dorian to repent for his behaviour. Dorian not wanting to either face the truth or repent from his actions. Yet his fear that Basil would reveal the truth of who he was to society led him to killed him.
Henry who was the only person who was true to himself throughout the story besides Sibyl and she only became authentic, when she fell in love with Dorian. Nonetheless, Henry was the only person that was true to himself throughout the book. Due to this he was the only one who survived. This was because even though his morals were corrupt and perhaps his agenda in getting Dorian to embrace his dark side was amoral. He was true to himself. It is this truth that allowed him to survive the story.
Works Cited
Mcginn, Colin. "The Picture: Dorian Gray." Ethics, Evil, and Fiction (1999): 123-43. Web. 22 May 2016.
Peck, M. Scott. People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. Print.
Profit, Vera. Lying as a Sign of Individual Evil in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. N.p.: The Forum on Public Policy, 2013. PDF.
Safar, Helmut. Homosexual Repression in The Picture of Dorian Gray. N.p.: San Francisco State University, 2000. Print.
Sanno, Antonio. "Silent Homosexuality in Oscar Wilde's Teleny and The Picture of Dorian Gray and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." Law and Literature 24.1 (2012): 21-39. Web. 22 May 2016.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Genoa: Black Cat Pub., 2007. Print.
