Carroll 1 Jonathan Carroll. A Portrait of Psychosis: Freudian Thought in The Picture of Dorian Gray

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1 Carroll 1 Jonathan Carroll ENGL 305 Psychoanalytic Essay October 10, 2014 A Portrait of Psychosis: Freudian Thought in The Picture of Dorian Gray The final decade of the nineteenth century was a most controversial time for academia, with Oscar Wilde publishing his provocative The Picture of Dorian Gray and Sigmund Freud beginning to rise to prominence in the field of psychology. Though neither Wilde nor Freud likely influenced one another s works, ideas expressed in Wilde s novel fit remarkably well within Freud s theories of psychoanalysis. All art is quite useless, claims Oscar Wilde as an introduction to his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (2). Contrary to this radical claim, however, Wilde s ensuing story, a work of art, is immensely useful in painting a moral lesson: an example of the potentially fatal consequences of an unblanaced personality. Reading such a personality is most facilitated through the principles of psychologist Sigmund Freud and his theories on the id, ego and superego. Most notably, the story of Dorian Gray exhibits thoughts and actions congruent with the Freudian Oedipal complex, the principles of pleasure and reality, and repression along with its insanity-inducing effects which ultimately consume himexposes how the willing allowance of the id to supercede the superego, resulting in devotion to the pleasure principle, can only end in destruction and can only be ended by the destruction of self. Gray s premature orphaning results not in the typical Oedipal complex of a nuclear family s son with mother-love and father-hate, but instead in a distorted and warped version wherein he becomes the object of his own desires. The Oedipal complex was a point of honor

2 Carroll 2 upon whose invariance psychoanalysis would either stand or fall, and accordingly Freud held the belief that all (male) infants invariably begin life with this love of mother and hatred of father (Parsons 132). Gray has no reason to be an exception, and thus must have began his life with an intense desire for his mother. This desire is no doubt further intensified by his lack of a father (who died before Dorian was born) and consequent lack of an impediment in a relationship with his mother; however, his mother dies as well before he is even a year old, leaving his desires unfulfilled and without a manifestation or, at least, the traditional manifestation. Because Gray knew what he had got from [his mother]... had got from her his beauty, he sees her in himself and thus becomes the object for his own mother-desires originating from the Oedipal complex (Wilde 137). He represses these desires for many years, but he is eventually able to recognize them once the hedonistic Lord Henry introduces to him the need to seek out pleasures while he still can. With such a dramatic desire for himself, Dorian Gray necessarily seeks out self-pleasure with little regard to the reality of the world according to Freud s pleasure principle. Characters in The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and likewise the reader, are led to believe by the character of Lord Henry that an imbalance of the id, ego and superego is desirable. With the ideal harmony between instictual desires, the control of those desires, and the recognition of the consequences which those desires will have in a society the id, ego, and superego, respectively a person is able to please him- or herself in ways which do not detriment the society or self, i.e. ways which are not destructive. Raise one of the triarchy to greater import than the others, though, and there will be destructive results to either others, self or both parties. Lord Henry suggests that Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, instigating in the reader s mind the notion that the ego and superego the human s natural inhibitions to elevating

3 Carroll 3 the id unreasonably are in fact the cause of destruction, rather than an imbalance of the three parts (Wilde 40). This is a twisted and untrue idea, but it is enough to have Dorian consider the abandonment of the ego and superego to allow his id to run free. Furthermore, it allows the reader to conceive how Dorian changes from a harmonious individual to a selfish, destructive man. The push that catalyzes the change itself lie in Lord Henry s words I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit, thereby giving both Dorian and the reader a manifestation of the id: Lord Henry Wotton (Wilde 76). With no one stepping forward to vocalize for either the ego or superego, Dorian submits himself entirely to the id and disenfranchises both of its checks and balances. The prominence of Dorian Gray s id over his ego and superego creates in him an unbalanced personality, which the reader observes manifested in his interminable devotion to the pleasure principle. Whereas the id has received a vocal representation, the ego and superego share representation by Basil Hallward s titular portrait of Dorian just as Mark Edmundson interprets Freud s theories in Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego: we want to sink back into easy pleasures... by letting a masterly object take the place of the superego (Edmundson 28). However, not only is this masterly object a non-vocal source, Gray actually locks the portrait away, thus removing it from the story and consequently the reader s attention. With neither ego nor superego immediately present, the reader loses sight of the reality principle in Dorian s life save for the occassions when Dorian returns to the uppermost room and confronts his portrait. However, these confrontations do not serve well to reinforce the existence of the reality principle, as the narrator points out that Dorian, when thinking of the portrait, speaks with the madness of pride, and furthermore the man himself attributes his perception of

4 Carroll 4 the portrait s changes as a product of that tiny scarlet speck that makes men mad (Wilde 146, 88). Although to Dorian this explanation saves him from confronting his ego and superego and their implicit consequences, to the reader the explanation serves as an example of the delusions or hallucinations... [which] have their origins primarily in the fears and wishes within [the mentally ill] (Brenner 2). As Dorian essentially admits that his desire for an imbalance in his id, ego and superego has made him mentally ill, the reader no longer even expects him to acknowledge the reality principle, leaving him solely with the id and pleasure principle and their destructive ends. The reader finds in the imbalanced, mad antihero a life which, due to its subscription to the pleasure principle, is thus inescapably destructive to others and self alike. With the reality principle s general absence from the novel, Dorian s devotion to the pleasure principle leads to the deaths of his friends and acquaintances and ultimately Dorian himself. Since the mentally ill Dorian has no drive but for pleasure, he fails to sympathize with the needs of others and only cares for the immediate satisfaction of himself. When Sibyl admits that I have not pleased you, Dorian has no qualms about leaving his unpleasurable fiancé in her grief, and though after reflection he believes that reconciliation with her is possible, the reader knows by now that Dorian cannot be sincere about indefinite, committed relationships, only immediate gratification (Wilde 85). Hence, Sibyl s suicide comes not as a surprise but rather as the obvious resolution of an encounter with the unbalanced Dorian and his formidable pleasure principle. After some time, Basil confronts Dorian with an entire list of victims: Why is your friendship so fatal to young men? There was that wretched boy in the Guards who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry Ashton,

5 Carroll 5 who had to leave England with a tarnished name. You and he were inseparable. What about Adrian Singleton and his dreadful end? What about Lord Kent s only son, and his career?... What about the young Duke of Perth? (Wilde 144) The reader knows by now that Basil s plea for Dorian to recognize the reality principle that he needs to moderate his pleasure-seeking to avoid claiming more victims comes as a threat to Dorian s id and consequently must be snuffed out; just so, Dorian murders Basil in a show of fanatical devotion to the pleasure principle, which thusly claims another victim through its acolyte. Still unchecked, the id drives Dorian to further destruction which eventually must culminate in his own demise. Dorian Gray can only stop his pleasure principle s destructive rampage by allowing it to claim his own life. Dorian himself never realizes this; however, his necessary sacrifice is apparent to the reader after he continuously resolves to change his pleasure-seeking ways before reconsideration and rejoicing in the tragedies which he sows, such as calling his brief escapade with Sibyl a marvellous experience and wondering if life has still in store for me anything as marvellous (Wilde 100). Indubitably, when the narrator begins to expose Dorian s thoughts, claiming that he would never again tempt innocence. He would be good, the reader recognizes not an impending change but rather more destruction (Wilde 212). Dorian s subsequent attempt to temper his pleasure principle once and for all cannot be successful, just as all other efforts conceived from his alleged changes of heart have not succeeded; with neither the ego nor superego to influence him, Dorian cannot truly abandon his idish desires. Because change is impossible for the story s main character, the story s only possible resolution is the death of

6 Carroll 6 Dorian. Just so, in his final attempt to be good, Dorian ends up killing himself along with his id and its desires, and too finally the destruction which accompanied them. The pleasure principle serves as the main driving force for Gray, with the antihero paying little heed to the reality principle in part due to the unrealistic concept of the novel. According to Freud, all humans wish to relentlessly pursue pleasure as Dorian does this wish comprising the pleasure principle but reality prevents them from doing so: the reality principle. The prevention is due primarily to the consequences which result from putting one s own pleasure before others wants and even needs and safety. This is of no concern to Gray, though, who not only has an intense drive for pleasure, but is also able to largely ignore the reality principle since no physical defect will affect his body, only the titular work of art. This phenomenon is obviously surreal and implausible, but it is exactly for its fantastic nature that Gray is able to reject the reality principle in his own life. Furthermore, because the consequences of reality are able to impede his quest for pleasures, he actually fears anything that fits within the reality principle because, subconsciously, he knows it could and likely would convince him to consider others in addition to or even before his own pleasure-seeking needs. However, as evidenced in his brief relationship with the actress Sibyl Vane, pleasure is far more important to him than the reality of others emotions, and thus those who do not service his pleasure principle are worthless to him and feared. She confesses to him that I have not pleased you, placing herself outside the realm of pleasure and thus outside of Gray s desires, and consequently: A fit of passionate sobbing choked her. She crouched on the floor like a wounded thing, and Dorian Gray, with his beautiful eyes, looked down at her, and his chiselled lips curled in exquisite disdain. There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people

7 Carroll 7 whom one has ceased to love. Sibyl Vane seemed to him to be absurdly melodramatic. Her tears and sobs annoyed him. (Wilde 85) Despite Sibyl s very real emotions which quickly drive her to suicide, she is no longer useful for his pleasure and thus enters into the reality principle for Gray (i.e., that which he fears and rejects with exquisite disdain ) where she is inconsequential to him. However, try as he might, Gray cannot entirely escape his fears, and in another vein of Freudian thought, he merely represses this fear of reality so as to continue on with his focus upon the pleasure principle. Dorian s repression of reality and its consequences, represented by his friend Basil s portrait of him, agrees completely with Freud s concept of repression and its nature of being gone but not forgotten. Gray begins with the fear of losing access to pleasure due to the loss of youth. At this point, the reality that life does age is still very much a conscious fact to him, and because this reality would restrict his access to his greatly-desired pleasures, he fears it. Through unexplained means, though, his aging and stress do not affect his person but instead a picture of him, thereby transferring his fear of aging to a fear of the portrait. The portrait then represents the reality principle for him his reality while he lives in surreality by maintaining his youth and beauty and likewise access to pleasure. Still, he has a fear of the portrait, and thus engages in an activity which bars from consciousness the unwanted memories, emotions, desires, or wishfulfilling fantasies, the process more colloquially known as repression (Brenner 8). Gray tries to repress the memory that there are real consequences to his pleasure-seeking actions by locking the transformative painting in the uppermost room in his house; in order to continue his pursuit of pleasure, the picture had to be concealed. There was no help for it (Wilde 117). Subsequently, he literally lives with his fear, albeit repressed in the securely-locked top floor;

8 Carroll 8 no one else knows that it exists there, and Gray himself tries not to acknowledge it at all. Like any repression, though, the fear still resurfaces and results in Gray s severe mental instabilities. Gray s refusal to resolve his fear of reality and willingness to simply repress it allows the fear to exist yet within the unconscious mind and even resurface in his conscious mind, affecting his mental health. After reflecting on the great pain he has caused Sibyl, Gray is hesitant to admit that this pain is a reality caused by him. Thus, he refuses to acknowledge his fear, that is, reality, by claiming that the perceived corruption of his portrait is actually a misperception, merely a product of that tiny scarlet speck that makes men mad afflicting his brain; however, delusions or hallucinations have their origins primarily in the fears and wishes within [the mentally ill], and Gray, according to Freudian psychoanalysis, begins to personify the mental instability resulting from repression (Wilde 88, Brenner 2). Without repressing his fears, Gray must submit to reality and largely relinquish the pleasure principle; since his self-desires rule that he must submit to the pleasure principle, he must be increasingly paranoid and even murderous to ensure that his repression is not compromised. The paranoia and murderous tendencies which Dorian develops, in line with Freudian thought, manifest to protect the repression of his fears in his unconsciousness. His paranoia is most evident in his fleeing at odd times to his home to ensure that the portrait is still locked away that the reality principle is still repressed and unable to impede his quest for pleasures. His paranoia further increases when the vengeful James Vane appears and begins to stalk him, forcing him to confront another facet of reality: death. He attempts to repress this fear too, writing off Vane s appearances as only his fancy that had called vengeance out of the night though as with his his prior explanation of delusions or hallucinations, his reassuring himself

9 Carroll 9 only goes to prove that he is unhealthily repressing his fears (Wilde 192). Basil Hallward instigates the culmination of Gray s paranoia then by attempting to force his friend to acknowledge reality, in this case the lives ruined by his reckless pleasure-seeking. Dorian is subconsciously terrified by the imminent dissolution of his repression, the essence of [which] lies simply in turning something away, and keeping it at a distance from, the conscious (Madison 21). Basil s words threaten the distance between Gray s fears and his conscious thought, and thus he kills the painter in order to protect his repression. Because of the prolonged, unhealthy repression of his fears, those fears fester within Gray and ail him with paranoia and ultimately homicidal tendencies, the capstone of psychoses. A famous claim of Freud s is that all people, real or fictional, can fit within the constructs of psychoanalysis even if they existed before the psychoanalytic method did. Wilde first published his The Picture of Dorian Gray six years before Freud first used the term psychoanalysis, and yet the main character, his thoughts, actions and drives, all undeniably fit within numerous notable theories which the psychologist first introduced including the Oedipal complex, the struggle between the pleasure and reality principles, and repression and its debilitating side effects. Though the ruin of Dorian Gray may seem to the reader too harsh given his efforts to change his hedonistic ways, he or she understands that the once-innocent man s death is necessarily tragic in order to make the useless art piece s moral lesson impactful. Whether coincidence or more probably principle, Wilde s sole novel provides a legitimizing study for a psychoanalytic reading of literature, and Freud s theories place Dorian Gray in an illuminating psychological context. Through psychoanalysis, the reader finds him- or herself within the

10 Carroll 10 troubled mind of a young man instead of an implausible fantasy. Once acknowledged, the troubling story of this troubled, id-dominated mind leads the reader to the conclusion that the quest for unrestricted pleasures ends only in destruction, and consequently warns against treating others humanity as a means to self-serving pleasure instead of an immutable reality to avoid a fate such as Dorian s.this context dispels much of the surreal elements from the tragedy, and though the extremes of ageless youth and beauty still make an exact replication of Gray s life impossible, the innocent boy s now-explicable ruination through self-obsession serves as a compelling caution against hedonism and treating others humanity as a means to self-serving pleasure instead of an immutable reality. Works Cited: Brenner, Charles. Chapter IV. The Psychic Apparatus (Continued). An Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis. Madison: International Universities Press, PDF file. Madison, Peter. Freud s Concept of Repression and Defense: Its Theoretical and Observational Language. St. Paul: North Central Publishing Company, Print. Parsons, Anne. Is the Oedipus Complex Universal? Psychological Anthropology: A Reader on Self in Culture. Ed. Robert A. LeVine. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, Print. Edmundson, Mark. Introduction: Freud in Love. Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Other Writings Scribd. Web. October 25, Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York City: Barnes & Noble, Print.

11 Carroll 11 Jonathan Carroll ENGL 305 Psychoanalytic Keyword Search/Abstract October 10, 2014 Murfin, Ross C. Psychoanalytic Criticism and The Turn of the Screw. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin s, Print. Subjects: dream; Sigmund Freud; unconscious; id, ego, superego; theory of repression; oedipal; collective unconscious; analysis of language; manifest content; latent content; condensation; displacement; object-relations; transitional or potential space; Jacques Lacan; form of discourse; independent selves; Symbolic order; objet petit a; Greg Zacharias; psychic wholeness. In answering the question, What is psychoanalytic criticism? Murfin takes the reader through both the history of psychoanalytic criticism and the main concepts of perhaps the two most influential psychoanalysts: Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Beginning with Freud, the writer covers all of the key Freudian theories from unconsciousness to condensation and displacement. Going on to how Lacan expanded upon Freud s theories and his focus upon language, he ends with an evaluation of an application of psychoanalytic criticism to Henry James The Turn of the Screw as done by Greg Zacharias.