“CUT[TING] LIFE TO PIECES:” Aphorisms and “Curious Influence” in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Beyond
If, with the literate, I am impelled to try an epigram, I never seek to take the credit; we all assume that Oscar said it. – Dorothy Parker
The Picture of Dorian Gray is not a normal novel. Its theatrical dialogue is peppered with the succinct and overarching statements that its author, Oscar Wilde, is particularly known for. These statements are known as aphorisms and are such a mainstay of his rhetoric that Amanda Anderson describes them as “the formal signature most associated with Wilde” (158). Aphorisms are also often referred to as epigrams, paradoxes, or witticisms. As observed by Simon Reader, while some critics have different connotations for each word, Wilde himself uses the terms interchangeably (454). Reader uses the term aphorism in his article, and I will do the same here. This essay will explore Wilde’s use of aphorisms in The Picture of Dorian Gray and how Wilde uses aphorisms to show the power of influence on his characters. Wilde uses aphorisms in The Picture of Dorian Gray to show the contagious influence that Henry has on Dorian and Basil. Furthermore, he shows how aphorisms have the power to create connections, corrupt individuals, and develop new understandings.
It does not take long for Wilde to incorporate aphorisms into The Picture of Dorian Gray. The preface is almost entirely composed of them, with phrases like “All art is at once surface and symbol” and “All art is quite useless” forming a prelude to the novel (41-42). By including a preface to the text, Wilde draws himself closer to the text of the novel and makes the reader keenly aware of his authorial presence looming large over the text. For Wilde, aphorisms are neither pure facts nor pure opinions, but rather something in the middle. Wilde intentionally oversaturates the perceptions of the reader by bombarding them with successive aphorisms which primes the reader to notice them when they are used in the novel.
In the narrative of The Picture of Dorian Gray, aphorisms are associated with the character of Henry from the very beginning. The second time he speaks in the novel, Henry employs one of Wilde’s most famous aphorisms: “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about” (Wilde 44). Henry ripostes Basil’s remarks with other aphorisms, like “I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible” on page 47 and “Conscience and cowardice are really the same things” on page 48. The word ‘incredible’ in the first example is particularly poignant considering what Thomas Crosbie and Jeffrey Guhin posit about the employment of aphorisms. They argue that, for an aphorism to be significantly impactful, “it must be interesting, and it is that quality of interest that allows it to live outside its original context” (Crosbie and Guhin 382). One could exchange the word ‘incredible’ in Henry’s aphorism with Crosbie and Guhin’s ‘interesting’ and come to the same conclusion. Wilde is making a statement on why aphorisms are so powerful: if they are ‘incredible’ or ‘interesting,’ they are easily believed.
Once Dorian Gray physically enters the narrative, Wilde furthers his association between the use of aphorisms and the character of Henry. As noted by Reader, “While Dorian sits for the picture, suspended in the moment of his own representation, a feed of epigrammatic commentary flows from Lord Henry’s mouth into his ears” (Reader 456). From “All influence is immoral” and “To influence a person is to give him one’s own soul” on page 58 to the infamous “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield of it” on page 59, Dorian is bombarded by Henry’s aphorisms. He introduces the temptation of an entirely new frame of thinking about the world, and Dorian has no choice but to yield to it. The first time Dorian employs an aphorism is right after he makes the wish which sets the plot in motion. When Dorian proclaims that “Youth is the only thing worth having,” it is almost as if he is a student repeating a sort of catechism that his teacher has just taught him (66). Henry’s contagious influence spreads to both Basil and Dorian. In this scene, Henry uses sixteen aphorisms, Dorian uses two, and Basil uses one. The aphorisms used by Dorian and Basil in this scene are either responses to Henry’s aphorisms or are reliant on Henry responding with another aphorism. Wilde shows that at least at this point in the novel, Basil and Dorian are completely reliant on Henry for their rhetoric.
For the next thirteen pages, Wilde bombards the reader with aphorisms said by Henry, which solidifies the connection between Henry and aphorisms. Chapter four shows the progression of what Manganiello describes as “recreating Dorian in [Henry’s] own image” (28). Dorian justifies Henry’s tardiness by quoting him: “Punctuality is the thief of time” (84). Henry’s influence is first felt subconsciously and then slowly takes hold of Dorian. This can be seen in the same scene when Henry remarks to Dorian: “You always come dreadfully late” (93). Wilde establishes a parallel between both characters’ tardiness to demonstrate that Dorian subconsciously begins to act like Henry before he fully realizes it. During Dorian and Henry’s exchange in this chapter, Henry is the only one who uses original aphorisms. The only time Dorian uses an aphorism is when he is directly quoting what Henry previously told him (94). Dorian again acts as the passive student, absorbing the input of Henry’s aphorisms and learning their value as he sees them being implemented in real-time. The perspective then shifts to focus on Henry, where Wilde employs the phrase “the lad was his own creation” (96). This corroborates Dominic Manganiello’s claim that Dorian is as much Henry’s work of art as he is Basil’s (28).
Henry’s contagious influence spreads even beyond those whom he interacts with himself. When Sibyl Vane talks to her brother James about Dorian, she starts to employ aphorisms like “To be in love is to surpass oneself” and “When poverty creeps in at the door, love flies in through the window” (105). These aphorisms only show up when Sibyl is talking about or to Dorian, highlighting a connection between the two that supports the idea of Henry’s influence being like a contagion. Wilde emphasizes the connection between Henry’s influence and aphorisms with the line “The mere touch of Sibyl Vane’s hand makes me forget you and all your wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories” (114). The ‘theories’ that he is talking about here are Henry’s decadent philosophies towards life, love, and pleasure which are expressed principally through his aphorisms.
When Dorian falls out of love with Sibyl Vane, the aphorisms return in full force. This time, the aphorisms have become internalized within Dorian’s internal monologue. “There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love” (125). Dorian is no longer just outwardly emulating Henry by using aphorisms in conversations; his contagious influence has entered his mind and impacted how he views the world. After another aphorism on page 127, Dorian remarks that “Lord Henry had told him that, and Lord Henry knew what women were” (127-128). Wilde is once again explicitly connecting Henry to aphorisms and is proving what Manganiello claims about Henry being Dorian’s “lord of language” (28). When Henry speaks to Dorian after Sybil dies, he showers him with aphorisms, from “one can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing” to “There is a fatality about good resolutions – that they are always made too late” (135). Dorian quickly succumbs to the power of Henry’s aphorisms and influence. Before Henry leaves, Dorian tells him: “No one has ever understood me as you have” (139). This serves as the point of no return for Dorian’s conscience.
Dorian’s intellectual metamorphosis is characterized by an increase in his use of aphorisms. Nearly half of page 164 is entirely composed of aphorisms, however, they are unlike the kinds of aphorisms that have been encountered previously. They are less quotidian and instead appear more intellectual or academic. Consider the differences between “Society, civilized society at least, is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating” from page 174 and “It is personalities, not principles, that move the age” from page 94. The former takes up more rhetorical space and is more precise in its evaluation of civilized society. While the latter is easier to remember, it has less substance. In a proto-Joycean way, Dorian’s inner development can be seen through his increased use of aphorisms and the increased depth of the aphorisms he uses.
When Basil visits Dorian for the last time, demonstrations of verbal influence are on full display. Wilde peppers in aphorisms throughout Dorian’s dialogue. From “Nothing is serious nowadays. At least nothing should be” on page 180 to “One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends” on page 183, Dorian has become a rhetorical imitation of Henry. Like in earlier scenes between the two, Basil uses aphorisms only when referring to Dorian and his actions. In the middle of his heated argument with Dorian, Basil says: “They say that you corrupt every one with whom you become intimate” (183). Just like how Henry’s influence ‘corrupted’ Dorian, so too is Dorian now able to corrupt others with his influence. Once Dorian impulsively decides to kill Basil, the words that Wilde uses to describe Basil shift. He uses very impersonal language like “some one” on page 189 and “the thing” on page 190. One cannot help but connect Basil’s past statement using the words “every one” with the words “some one” used to describe his dying body. Wilde is signifying that, in his last moments, Basil has fallen victim to Dorian’s influence.
After Dorian kills Basil, aphorisms run amok in the novel’s inner monologue. Phrases like “there were sins whose fascination was more in the memory than in the doing of them” give support to Dorian by generalizing his emotions and actions to a larger societal phenomenon rather than as a problem unique to him (193). When he wants his arguments to be particularly persuasive (both to himself and others), Dorian employs aphorisms. Crosbie and Guhin give credence to this thought process in their study of aphorisms, noting that “the judicious use of aphorisms offers authors a highly effective means of focusing long and complex arguments” (394).
In the denouement of the novel, Dorian begins to question his morality, which is signaled by a change in his relation to aphorisms. Henry unsuccessfully uses aphorisms while trying to comfort Dorian, who eventually says, “You would sacrifice anybody, Harry, for the sake of an epigram” (233). Dorian has become disillusioned with Henry and the rhetorical aphorisms that are so closely tied to him. The fact that Henry responds to this parry with another aphorism suggests that he does not comprehend this blow to his “linguistic narcissism” (Manganiello 28). In the second to last chapter, Henry unsuccessfully tries to re-exert his influence over Dorian using aphorisms. He uses at least twenty-seven aphorisms while Dorian only uses one. Aphorisms appear only once in the last chapter, and the aphorism that Wilde uses is particularly poignant. “What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of shallow moods and sickly thoughts” (248). The subject of these aphorisms is the futility of youth, the thing that Henry so often praised and treasured Dorian for having. At the end of his life, Dorian uses the aphorisms that he so frequently associated with Henry to rebut his friend’s greatest argument. To speak in artistic terms, Dorian has become so masterful of a copy that he seems more real than the original.
In summation, Wilde uses aphorisms throughout his works. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, aphorisms are almost contagious as Henry exerts his influence over other characters. Wilde shows the contagious nature of influence through internal, external, and subconscious means. Throughout his entire œuvre but especially in this novel, Wilde demonstrates the power of aphorisms and their potential to connect, corrupt, and create.
WORKS CITED
Anderson, Amanda. “‘Manners Before Morals:’ Oscar Wilde and Epigrammatic Detachment.”
The Powers of Distance: Cosmopolitanism and the Cultivation of Detachment, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2015, pp. 147–177.
Crosbie, Thomas, and Jeffrey Guhin.
“On the Ambivalence of the Aphorism in Sociological Theory.” Sociological Theory, vol. 37, no. 4, 2019, pp. 381–400. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26870433.
Manganiello, Dominic. “Ethics and Aesthetics in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.’” The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, 1983, pp. 25–33. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25512571.
Reader, Simon. “Social Notes: Oscar Wilde, Francis Bacon, and the Medium of Aphorism.” Journal of Victorian Culture, vol. 18, no. 4, 2013, pp. 453–471, https://doi.org/10.1080/13555502.2013.860394.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Broadview Press. 2002.
Aubrie Miller, 19, Providence - USA
“Aubrie Miller is in her second year of studying English and Comparative Literature at Brown University.”