CHAPTER 8

At the beginning of chapter 8, Oscar Wilde deliberately uses a paradoxical statement, “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities”, to illustrate how powerful Lord Henry’s influences are on Dorian. Paradoxical sentences are commonly used by Lord Henry to reveal and challenge the hypocritical nature of society, which became a symbol of Lord Henry. But this quote is said by Dorian instead of Lord Henry, indicating how Dorian unconsciously sounds like Lord Henry and doesn’t think his own natural thoughts, underlines that the society’s toxic and corrupted thoughts had influenced Dorian to a large extent, foreshadows Dorian’s internal degradation later in this chapter and the ultimate downfall leading by those deeply rooted thoughts of hedonism. On the other hand, readers might believe that Dorian’s corruption is not blamed on the influence of Lord Henry or society, since this quote has never been expressed by Lord Henry previously, which means that this thought is developed by Dorian himself, implying that Lord Henry’s destructive influence merely helped Dorian to uncover his hedonistic nature and triggered the transformation, hence the moral decay is driven by Dorian’s freewill and self-development. 

When Dorian mentions that the things we deem as ‘unnecessary’ are the “only” things that are really ‘necessary’, an aspect of hedonism is directly linked to the quote as the pursuit of pleasure through the senses can be seen as ‘immoral’ in many cultures which then, thwarts Dorian’s philosophies. This suggests that Dorian has become vanity and is implementing a hedonistic lifestyle as his pursuit of instant gratification and superfluous desires takes precedence over fulfilling his true needs. Not only that, but it also goes to show that what Dorian deems as essential opposes what people with morals would deem as so, highlighting Dorian has lost the conscience to distinguish right and wrong. However, another interpretation might be that Dorian’s morality is not opposed to society but is conformed to a certain standard due to social pressures and expectations. This is due to the fact that Dorian’s paradoxical thought was imposed by Lord Henry, while Lord Henry’s character reflects the hypocrisy of Victorian society and all the societal norms that citizens of this era were expected to follow, suggesting that Dorian’s corruption should be blamed on the Victorian society. Therefore, this quote demonstrates an aspect of satire through the challenge of Victorian society and uncovering the society’s intrinsic nature of hedonism and extravagance.

Although Dorian initially shows a state of regret over Sibyl Vane’s death, Lord Henry’s conversation with Dorian about the insignificance of Sibyl’s life alters Dorian’s mind and allows him to avoid a sense of responsibility for Sibyl’s death, dipicting the negligence toward the lower class. The theme of aestheticism and hedonism is directly reflected by Dorian Gray’s reaction to Sibyl’s death when he states “It seems to me to be simply like a wonderful ending to a wonderful play. It has all the terrible beauty of a Greek tragedy, a tragedy in which I took a great part, but by which I have not been wounded” – indifferent and unwavering. This indifferent and heartless feeling of being a spectator to enjoy and appreciate this tragedy indicates that Dorian’s sense of morality is already corrupted due to the ingrained influence of Lord Henry. The juxtaposition of “terrible” and “beauty”, “wonderful” and “tragedy” of opposing words creates a stark contrast between what people normally feel toward death, tragic and terrible, and what Dorian perceived, beautiful and wonderful, emphasizing how severely degraded Dorian’s nature is. 

However, the use of “terrible” and “tragedy” might also suggest that Dorian knows that he should feel sorry for Sibyl’s demise, indicating that he hasn’t lost all of his conscience and is still able to distinguish between morality and immorality. This showcases the duality of human nature and Dorian’s internal struggle, portraying a three-dimensional character with a complex nature, making this figure more believable to readers.

Through the use of simile, Dorian coldly compares the demise of Sibyl with a “wonderful ending to a wonderful play” suggesting that Dorian hasn’t devoted his true love and passion to Sibyl. Dorian is fascinated with Sibyl only due to her artistic talent that fulfills Dorian’s obsession with aestheticism, even when Sibyl is dead, Dorian still objectifies her to attain his desire for novelty. The tragedy of how Sibyl’s being treated as an amusement for the upper class before and after her demise reflects the fate of millions of other lower classes. The value of the lower classes is solely the pleasure or beauty they could bring to the wealth, otherwise, their life is disregarded and insignificant. In this way, Oscar Wilde reveals and criticizes the destructive nature of the infatuation of aesthetic beauty and social classes.

Oscar Wilde uses this quote to illustrate the beauty of Sibyl and an aspect of aestheticism, hedonism, and hypocritical Victorian society. It uses literary allusion and simile by comparing Sibyl Vane with characters from Shakespearean plays, including “Desdemona, Ophelia, Juliet, and Imogen.” Oscar Wilde feels the need to communicate the idea of Sibyl’s beauty being so ethereal that he mentions other gorgeous Shakespearean characters in order to enhance the reader’s perception of her. The author didn’t just refer to one Shakespeare character, but a continuous use of a series of four most famous Shakespeare female characters, highlighting that Sibyl’s beauty goes beyond the highest standard in society at that time. This also demonstrates Dorian’s extreme form of hedonistic lifestyle as he is not satisfied with the beauty of only one Shakespearean character, but wants to own an actress who could be any type of female to fulfill his unlimited temptation and vanity. On the other hand, this quote creates an opposite atmosphere. All four plays mentioned are tragedies, especially the mentioning of famous play, Romeo and Juliet, which reminds readers of the blinded and impulsive obsession with beauty instead of real love, foreshadowing the doomed fate and tragic ending of Dorian and Sibyl. 

Moreover, this quote focuses on Sibyl’s art and deemphasizes her personality, Sibyl has been objectified as her only value is to create perfect art and she has only been loved superficially by her acting skills. By dehumanizing Sybil in this way, Dorian and Lord Henry can remain blame and guilt-free. Dorian manipulated Sybil and toyed with her for as long as she brought him pleasure, so when he tired of the affair, he simply removed her from his life without any hesitation. Ironically, the affections and adorations that Dorian obtained are also due to the aesthetic pursuit of his youth and beauty, if Dorian’s appearance alters and degrades, he will be abandoned at once just like Sibyl Vane. In this way, Oscar Wilde criticizes the hypocrisy of Victorian society as how people prioritize superficial beauty over true inner beauty.

Throughout the entire book, Oscar Wilde never directly describes Sibly’s own unique appearance or inner virtues, but merely uses allusion to the characters Sibyl acted in other books, highlighting that Sibyl is formed by fragments of imagined characters and she doesn’t have her own identity. Wilde deliberately uses allusion to portray Sibyl as a two-dimensional character who only shows one side of her identity which is her art. Sibyl’s loss of identity not only reflects an individual’s tragic fate, but is a macroscale of the entire society. Oscar Wilde depicts this phenomenon that everyone is forced to cater to societal standards, revealing that the damage of the mad pursuit of aestheticism in Victorian society made everyone lose their unique beauty, challenging that the blind obsession with the pursuit of aestheticism is ruining the diversity of society.

The quote “the moment she touched actual life, she marred it, and it marred her, and so she passed away” employs personification and antimetabole to showcase the theme of illusion vs. reality and the destructive power of cruel society. Oscar Wilde depicted Sibyl Vane as a god-like, celestial being she is beyond reality and only exists in flawless illusion. Sibyl Vane has been “marred” by the “actual life” since the touch of reality was so lethal that Sibyl Vane, being an innocent and inexperienced girl, wasn’t prepared for its dangers. This uncovers the hypocrisy of Victorian society as it is glamorous on the surface while rotting the soul of the wealthy and destroying the life of the lower class. Moreover, this quote indicates that both Dorian’s love for Sibyl and the world Sibyl lives in are simply an idealized illusion of Shakespearean play, which immediately falls apart when they are stained by the imperfect reality as both of them are poisoned by society’s aesthetic standards, making them unable to accept any extent of flaws. 

However, it’s hard to understand why Sibyl reciprocally “marred [the reality]” as she seems to be harmless to anything. Lord Henry states this because he believes that Sibyl’s boring acting destroyed the mood of the upper class and made them “suffer” for being bored. By creating an alternative of victim and perpetrator and blaming the tragedy on the victim, Lord Henry and Dorian escape the sense of guilt for Sibyl’s demise. Furthermore, Lord Henry completely objectifies Sibyl and devalues her life, not recognizing her as a person with a unique identity, reducing her to nothing more than a perfect art and aesthetic pleasure whose only purpose is to entertain the upper class such as Dorian and Lord Henry, Therefore, Lord Henry not only views Sibyl’s bad performance as losing her only value, but is also a sin that that “marred” upper class’s hedonistic lifestyle and pursuit for aestheticism, therefore her downfall is destined and is what she deserved. 

The tragedy of Sibyl Vane directly links to Dorian as he has also been objectified by Lord Henry and society as an attractive figure for people to enjoy. Similar to the experience of Siby, when Lord Henry reveals to Dorian the reality of Victorian society, it marred him by rotting his morality, while Dorian also marred society by committing sins and becoming a bad influence on other people. On the other hand, Dorian is completely different from Sibyl in that even if his beauty degrades, he still won’t be abandoned because of his high class and wealth. This is also embodied in that Sibyl pays her life for Dorian’s corruption while Dorian is not punished by it at all. In this way, Oscar Wilde uncovers that the value of the poor is being the playthings and entertainment of the higher class, reinforces the different fates of individuals due to their disparity in wealth and power, and criticizes the inequalities between social classes in Victorian on a macro scale.

The quote, “Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins - he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame”, exemplifies the drastic change in Dorian Gray’s view of life due to the influence of societal expectations. The hyperboles of “eternal, infinite, and wild” highlight the intrinsic nature of Dorian’s unrestricted desires and infinite obsessions with a hedonistic approach to both physical and emotional pleasures. Oscar Wilde uses five different detailed descriptions of the superficial happiness that Dorian longs to possess, and only briefly mentions the consequences of those pleasures, emphasizing that Dorian weighs the pursuit of sensual pleasures over sins due to his unlimited temptations and corrupted morality. By employing the literary technique of oxymoron multiple times within the sentence, Wilde highlights the contrast between what Dorian was to possess externally and what the portrait had to endure as he started to showcase his moral decay. The oxymoron also implies Dorian’s dual nature as he recognizes and struggles between the advantages and disadvantages of hedonism, creating a realistic three-dimensional figure which in turn, fosters readers to have a deeper connection with Dorian Gray and his experiences.

This is a crucial turning point within the novella in which Oscar Wilde adapts and pivots Dorian Gray’s character to one of purity and innocence to one who is enchanted by the ideas of hedonism and aestheticism. After talking to Lord Henry, Dorian completely loses his last grasp of conscience, remorseful thoughts, reparations, and his sense of ethical implications have all disappeared, suggesting that Lord Henry’s powerful influences on Dorian have shaped his new identity. Moreover, Lord Henry represents all the hedonistic and hypocritic thoughts of Victorian society which highlights his influence over Dorian and how it criticizes a larger scale of how Victorian society compels individuals to follow the a trail of irrationally that includes pursuing aestheticism and hedonism, alongside valuing external attractiveness over inner beauty. The consequences of this are well demonstrated by Dorian Gray, that society judges a person’s virtue and morality solely based on one’s own superficial appearance, neglecting the sins committed by those who possess external beauty until it’s too late to make amends, allowing victims of those corrupted thoughts to become a fatal influence towards other innocent individuals.

Dorian, initially pure and innocent, becomes fascinated by hedonism and aestheticism after conversing with Lord Henry. His guilt, conscience, and concern for morality disappear, indicating Lord Henry's influence. Lord Henry embodies the societal pressure to pursue aestheticism and hedonism while valuing outward appearances over inner virtues. Dorian Gray exemplifies this, as society judges solely based on looks, disregarding the transgressions of the physically attractive.

Plastic surgery is performed to enhance or alter a person's appearance for aesthetic reasons. It’s especially common in South Korea that more than one in five women had some extent of plastic surgery. The strong emphasis on aestheticism and appearance is deeply rooted in Korean culture, encouraging people to use external forces to achieve the idealized look. This preference for beauty has escalated into social pressure that people, especially women who are often objectified, are forced to conform and fit into the standardized beauty using the measure of plastic surgery, since physical attractiveness can lead to success in various aspects of life, including career advancement and relationships. Moreover, this phenomenon of lookism is often associated with discriminatory notions based on looks. The significance of external beauty in modern society overlooks people’s inner qualities and abilities, which aggravates the consequences of hedonism and aestheticism,  resulting in discrimination and bias based on appearance. Not only that, aestheticism, when taken to an extreme, can result in a standard of beauty. People want exactly the same look: light skin, tiny nose, wide eyes with double lids, and a small face with a V-shaped chin, not accepting any flaws or imperfections. This narrowed beauty standard damages the uniqueness of individuals and the diversity of society, requiring everyone to transform their appearance instead of embracing everyone’s natural beauty. Therefore, plastic surgery connects with the themes of aestheticism and hypocrisy in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, especially corresponds with Sibyl’s experiences as her appearance is being objectified and loses her own unique beauty and identity, which represents a macroscopical issue in the modern society for most of the women. 

In this age, there’s an unprecedented obsession with luxury goods such as Chanel, LV, and Gucci, due to society’s pursuit of hedonism and extravagance. The purpose of luxury brands is to distinguish social classes, and the high price made them only accessible to a small percentage of affluent customers in society. However, in modern society, many individuals in the middle or lower classes who can’t afford expensive goods, still prioritize the acquisition of luxury items over necessities, even if it means stretching their financial resources and neglecting their essential needs. The fascination with luxury brands could be partially explained by the ingrained hedonistic lifestyle that possessing luxury items can create a temporary sense of fulfillment and confidence, allowing individuals to escape from daily struggles and monotonous work. While other people are forced to purchase luxury items to conform the society and gain social recognition since luxury goods are symbols of success and social mobility, which links with the social classes in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of the legendary French house of Chanel, states in an interview on a Chinese TV show that he feels unbelievable and does not encourage people to buy a luxury bag with two or three months’ salary. Some people believe that it’s a kind reminder to suppress the irrational obsession, while others deem that this is discrimination toward the poor and Karl Lagerfeld is rejecting ordinary people's consumption. This indicates a sense of hypocrisy as luxury brands encourage everyone to buy it while their services are rude and disrespectful toward middle or lower-class customers. This phenomenon in modern society verifies Oscar Wilde’s quote “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities and his critiques of hypocrisy society, showing that the themes in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ are still relevant to everyone. 

In the modern era where AI technology is rapidly developing, the distinction between the real and digital worlds is getting more blurred. The concept of the digital afterlife is especially intriguing and controversial. This technology enables people to immortalize deceased family members or friends as virtual figures. Some believe that this can offer emotional comfort to mourners, while others argue that this could also bring emotional exploitation. This technology creates an illusion that the deceased one is still alive, making grieving individuals find it more difficult to move on and face reality, potentially leading to psychological issues. That directly showcases the conflict of illusion vs. reality, the former brings temporary relief while causing people to be addicted to it, and harder to face reality when the illusion falls apart.