A psycho-analysis of a soul in distress:

The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Gwen Herat

This is the story of a life gripped in mortal sin brought upon himself without as much as assessing where it would lead him. A strong evil power that drove Dorian Gray to be in full control of his life and transfer his soul to a ‘living’ picture where it would take on the years he leaves. The story does not indicate how he manipulates such a miracle.

Was it his turbulent mind or mesmerising effects that grips the reader, confronting him as found in the pages. From the outset, the story looks simple but the deep dark secret that lay is incredibly challenging. Whatever the reason is, it is best left for a psychologist to determine the process of a vibrating restless mind resplendent with the most beautiful physique and charm a man could wish for which a modern psychologist might find incapable of disentangling unless he puts his subject under hypnotism.

But then what happens when he wakes up?

Ambition

Much of the story is drawn from ambition to challenge or ‘beat’ life and declare his power above God or Creator or fall partly in line with the theory of evolution as discovered by Darwin which leads to cases such as these even if they are fictitious in the eyes of psychologists. The story begins in the raw expansive world of tension, chroniclyising the tragedy of young Dorian Gray born a scion to riches who tastes luxury at its best but is left with a few friends for company.

But the vitality and strength of character make him the ruler of his fate as well as that of a painter and scientist. With a telling account of his momentous decisions and growing menace, he becomes a threat to those who love him. Dorian Gray rises to be the man of the moment and the citizen of the world. The confronting years under terrible pressures defining the course of his life, this ‘dramatic personae’ baffles science with his retaining power of age.

How ruthfully he ‘kills’ his love ... so akin to Hamlet who ruthfully ‘drives’ Ophelia to her death even though under different circumstances, is a matter of comparison.

Fantasy

Building his personality on the foundation of fantasy Dorian Gray’s story can be anyone’s story in different shapes and male ego.

With great psychophysical perception one can examine the milieu in which he was shrouded with an ambition to stay young on borrowed time. The volatile force that scourged his mind was his own seeking in which he wallowed. Nowhere does it state that he attempted to peep deep into the insights that he struggled to achieve, ultimately.

He was the architect of his own doing. Many who read his classic will tend to dismiss it as an agnostic visionary in today’s contest of literary concept that is realistic than those that emerged from perceptive power as idealism, contrary to philosophers who cease philosophising ideology in cases such as these. It is during such phases that individuals go through that make the writer’s dreams achieve a greatness they look forward to that Oscar experienced, never for a moment imagining to what heights this classics would impact the reader with the story he leaves behind.

The study is of a very normal man in turmoil with his soul given to the devil to dissect while in control of his senses with a magnificent body for post-mortem, and who had the ability to flaunt to incredible imagination which stunned his readers. With a narcissism quality to wade through life and dominate the few who rotated around his life to what he wanted to be; the people who loved him, became the very people whom he destroyed at the end both physically and mentally.

Dorian Gray is the dream of any young girl but he remained the youth who fell in love with himself and tried in vain to cheat life at its own game at the marathon end and who literally succeeded with a grotesque finale.

Human behaviour

Ever since I read The Picture of Dorian Gray I was intrigued by human behaviour to what extent a little mind could cope with and end in explosion. I am still at a loss as to how Oscar Wilde handled a repulsive mind seeped in human drama the pathos, anguish, passion ardour and intensity imbibed in a paining that he presumed would never grow with age while the rest of the world around his idol, remained blossoming manhood. But the frustration it caused its creator, never did explain to me when I read the book over and over again in the decades that followed.

However, my curiosity did not kill the cat when I re-read it again a few weeks back after brushing away the dust it had collected on its cover, staring at me, the face could well have been my dream man.

My pursuit did not end there but continued to stretch over the years to nose-dive into what ‘gay’ meant that surrounds people especially celebrities and in the case of Oscar Wilde, there is a hint of it attached to Dorian Gray who falls in love with himself which is reflected in the painting. Later, we were to learn about Oscar Wilde’s gay activities that miserably led to his death. I was able to view these bearings more dispassionately. Somewhere in the recess of my mind I had an abhorrence to gay people, especially the famous man I met globe-trotting officially. I could from where I had to cease even from a world renowned literati.

Miserable

After reading it again just a few days ago, I felt miserable at my inability to understand why they are so near but so far away. If Oscar Wilde was alive and kicking today and wrote his classics, he would have been hailed in a higher status as the genius whose texts could have been sold in millions because it is the fashion of the day for celebrities to be gay. He was born far behind time.

Dorian Gray was the son of love and death. Francis was pale as a ghost, still, the coachman and the footman crept upstairs. The policeman and other servants followed. They knocked on the door but there was no reply. Finally they got on the roof and dropped on to the balcony and kicked in the windows.

When they entered, they found a splendid portrait of the 20 year-old Dorian Gray with all his youth and handsome features intact.

Lying on the floor was a dead man, with a knife in his heart. He was withered and wrinkled and horrible to look at. It was not until the servants examined the rings on his aged fingers that they realised it was their employer.” Dorian Gray had changed places with his own painting.