DECADENCE IN THE PICTURE

OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR

WILDE
Prepared by Ms. Teref and Mr. Teref
OSCAR WILDE 1854-1900
BIO
 Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland on
16 October 1854.

 Drama and tragedy marred Wilde's private life. He married

Constance Lloyd in 1884 and they had two sons, but in 1891 Wilde
began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed 'Bosie'. In
April 1895, Wilde sued Bosie's father, the Marquis of Queensberry,
for libel, after the Marquis has accused him of being homosexual.
Wilde lost and, after details of his private life were revealed during
the trial, was arrested and tried for gross indecency. He was
sentenced to two years of hard labor. His wife took their children to
Switzerland and adopted the name 'Holland'. Wilde was released
with his health irrevocably damaged and his reputation ruined. He
spent the rest of his life in Europe, publishing 'The Ballad of
Reading Gaol' in 1898. He died in Paris on 30 November 1900.
WHY DO PEOPLE WANT/NEED TO ESCAPE
FROM LIFE? WHY IS LIFE SO INFERNAL?
 Student discussion: how do YOU escape when you need
to? What is YOUR safe haven?

 Known forms of escapism through:

 nature

 excess (debauchery…)

 being aloof, cold, reportorial

ROMANTICISM
 sandwiched between Romanticism and Modernism
 Romanticism – artistic and literary movement between 1800-
1850 Europe; the Industrial Revolution, poverty, capitalist
exploitation, factory smoke stacks, filth, exploitation of child
labor, no work insurance… led to disappointment and escapism
into nature (Wordsworth), foreign countries (Byron, Coleridge),
drugs such as opium.
 - Art – landscapes, Nature
Caspar David Friedrich:
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

Nature is the greatest magnificence of God’s creation – the Sublime = the

feeling of awe when you look at the Grand Canyon – it’s so beautiful but
overwhelmingly huge that it’s terrifying.
REALISM
 mid 19th century
 criticized society with reportorial accuracy – the writer
doesn’t judge his characters though the characters are
flawed.
 Authors described in great detail poor living conditions,
female sexuality, prostitution…
 e.g. Madame Bovary by Flaubert (loose woman, doesn’t
like her child and feels trapped by her), Nana by Emile
Zola (prostitute – scat vomit) or any novel by Charles
Dickens – A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Tale
of Two Cities.
REALISM – PAINTING THE THIRD-CLASS CARRIAGE,

HONORÉ DAUMIER (FRENCH, 1808–1879)

DECADENCE
 the ultimate escape from reality which is suffocating, forcing us to live a lie, be who
we are not; e.g. homosexuality. Decadence compels one to cloister oneself from the
world, to lose oneself in art – the trigger for this state is terror, but the result is
horror.
 a 19th century French movement marked by moral decay and hedonism (the opposite
of asceticism). The Decadents believed that art was superior to nature and that the
finest beauty could be found in dying or decaying things. Some of the qualities of
Decadent writing include but are not limited to excessive self-centeredness or self-
absorption, restless curiosity, overly ornate refinement, eccentricity, and moral
perversity (necrophilia, drug use, wanton violence, sadism, masochism). The
Decadents attacked the moral and social standards of their time, such as bourgeoisie
tastes (nouveau riche, petty middle class), religiosity, hypocritical morality. Thus,
they wanted to upset the status quo of their society by satirizing it. Some of the well-
known Decadents were Paul Verlaine (Saturnine Poems), Arthur Rimbaud (A Season
in Hell), Charles Baudelaire (Flowers of Evil), and Joris-Karl Huysmans (Against
Nature). Against Nature is the unnamed novel or “the yellow book” which Lord
Henry hands to Dorian Gray on his birthday at the beginning of The Picture of
Dorian Gray, which ends up corrupting Dorian. Although this book isn’t specifically
named in the novel, Oscar Wilde did cite this novel as the referenced novel
JORIS-KARL HUYSMAN’S AGAINST
NATURE
 about a character who has a nervous breakdown, isolates
himself in a mansion, blocks out the light, and has his
walls painted in ocher colors because they bring out the
pretties colors in candlelight. To emphasize this effect,
he has a tortoise studded with gems so that the gems
would prism the light against the walls and ceiling.
However, the tortoise’s shell is so heavy, that the animal
develops heart failure and dies.
THE TOILET OF HELEN,
AUBREY BEARDLEY,
19TH CENT. BRITISH
WRITER
AND ILLUSTRATOR
One idea of Pompeii has dominated popular consciousness through art and literature:
The cataclysmic eruption that destroyed the Vesuvian cities in A.D. 79 was a justly
deserved punishment for sin—whether erotic excess, gluttony, violence, greed, or a
failure to accept Christianity.

This notion of Pompeian decadence has provided an acceptable setting for modern
artists to present sensual scenes or subversive themes. It has also offered a vehicle to
explore contemporary issues related to class privilege, slavery, sexuality, memory, and
personal identity.
MODERNISM
 late (1890s) 19th century to mid 20th
 art movement that embraces the destructiveness and
FRAGMENTATION and the ugliness of modern
civilization, unlike Romanticism (which wants to escape
from it)
 Modernism celebrates the destruction, the Apocalypse -
in order to process reality.
 The Razor’s Edge, “breaking down the fourth wall”
 PABLO PICASSO’S GUERNICA (NOTE FRAGMENTATION)

During the Fascist dictator Franco,  

dictator of Spain from 1939 to his death in 1975, Franco allowed Hitler to test his
bombs by dropping them on Guernica, a Spanish town. This was the first
manifestation of modern warfare.