The Impossibility of Perpetual Youth

Since the beginning of time, people have attempted various methods to stay young for as long as they possibly can. Though perpetual youth is impossible, people still go to extremes to try to deceive time and reason to stay young. People quickly decide that youth is the only character worth having, and Dorian Gray is no exception. Perpetual youth is impossible in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Dorian’s obsession with his own youth and youth in general is aided and intensified by all the people in his life.

One of the strongest factors in Dorian’s narcissism and obsession with youth is Basil Hallward’s painting of him. This depiction facilitates Dorian’s obsession with his youth and himself.

In Dorian’s mind, this portrait is the epitome of youth and beauty. It gives him an image to strive to become and try to maintain for the rest of his life. This image is not an accurate representation of Dorian’s looks, because Basil is infatuated with Dorian.

It becomes a constant reminder for Dorian of what he never had and what he never could achieve. Basil does not see any imperfections in Dorian, which creates a false sense of perfection for him, because he may never have such a youthful glow as Basil depicts him with.

Dorian falls in love with this version of himself, and even tells Basil, that he “Appreciates it, I am in love with it, Basil. It is part of myself, I feel that.

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” (Wilde, 45). Another reason this painting would lead to Dorian’s obsession with his looks is that this picture is painted in the prime of Dorian’s life as well as youth, thus aiding the unrealistic expectation that this is what he should look like for the rest of his life or he is worthless. Dorian becomes jealous of the portrait because it will stay looking as young as he did the day that he was painted. Dorian explicitly says, “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose?” (Wilde, 43).

Dorian can never forgive Basil for the complexes that he has developed through Henry’s guidance and his own narcissism. Having this painting is a constant reminder that he shall age and never be as young as he was in the painting ever again. It is a constant reminder of what Dorian views as a failure, though it is impossible for him to stay perpetually young. Dorian comments on this multiple times throughout his life, and he says, “How sad it is. I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.” (Wilde, 42). This quote is just the beginning of the sadness that Dorian feels about his aging and how the portrait will always remind him of what he is not. Not only did Basil create the image that causes so much vanity, but he also introduces Dorian to Lord Henry Wotton, who perpetrates the idea of beauty and youth being so desirable.

Henry ingrains in Dorian that youth is the only characteristic in life worth having. Henry actually tells Dorian, “You have the most marvelous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having” (Wilde, 22). Later in life, Dorian will blame Basil for all of his misdoings instead of Lord Henry, because Basil introduced them. Dorian, in a fit of passion, berates Basil, “You met me, devoted yourself to me, flattered me, and taught me to be vain of my good looks. One day you introduced me to a friend of yours, who explained to me the wonder of youth, and you finished a portrait revealed to me the wonder of beauty.” (Wilde, 204). In blaming Basil for all the bad movements that he as made in life, he is passing along the blame and making himself an even worse person for it.

Lord Henry Wotton is the most essential character in Dorian’s transformation into narcissism and his ultimate downfall as a character. Henry is the person that imposes the idea of youth’s importance, and Dorian can never go back once he is convinced. Dorian expresses how much he idolizes youth by saying, “Lord Henry was right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I will kill myself.” (Wilde, 43). This is Wilde’s way of foreshadowing how important youth becomes to Dorian and actually tells the reader the ending chapters before they expect it. “Lord Henry acknowledges a metaphysical dynamics operating within the human condition while stopping short of suggesting a set of values that could govern behavior.

A few pages later, in propounding his New Hedonism, he presents not a nullification of values, but a hierarchy of standards that contrasts sharply with the world’s.” (Gillespie, 8). Though Gillespie argues that “Henry suggests a set of values that could govern behavior,” he actually sets up Dorian’s belief system for the rest of his life. Moreover, Henry aims to convince Dorian of his ideas so much that it becomes a “…project of subverting Dorian. But this detachment is affected as a guise to conceal the depth of his evil and the extremity of his moral position. Rather than a charming socialite or harmless epicurean decadent, Lord Henry is a Nietzschean Ubermensch who believes himself to have thrown off the constraints of externally imposed morality. His teleological purpose is to ‘be in harmony with one’s self’ (76).” (Buma).

Henry’s game plays into the idea of the need for youth because the need for youth is similar to the need Henry has to convince Dorian of his ways. Since Henry’s own youth is fleeting, he attempts to live vicariously through Dorian convincing him that youth is the most marvelous characteristic that someone can have, and that youth is the only concern in life; that he is useless once his youth fades. As Brian Aubrey said, “Henry is a tired man who wants to live vicariously through a younger, more beautiful specimen who has the ability (or so Lord Henry supposes) to experience life as Lord Henry believes it ought to be experienced.” (Aubrey, 1). These obsessions that the men have once they are convinced makes these men the depressed and predictable people that they are. This attempt to pass along his fear of aging creates the monster that is Dorian Gray.

Dorian takes on the attitude that maintains in society, that youth is to the utmost importance. That without youth, we are unworthy. Dorian easily buys into this. Lord Henry could have just as easily convinced Dorian that youth is the least important aspect of life, and Dorian would have believed it just the same. Desperate to stay young forever, Dorian makes a wish that seems to just be hopefulness. This wish seemingly comes true, but not without consequence. This mad wish is one of the instances where the question of youth’s perpetuality comes into play. Though this wish physically comes true, it leads to Dorian’s insanity. The perpetuity of his youth leads Dorian to act in ways that he would not have if he were not so obsessed with his own desirability from the beginning.

Dorian becomes a less compassionate person and kills two people, one being himself. In killing himself, he actually achieves perpetual youth in a way, because the painting is returned to its state as young. ‘They found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty (170).” (Alley). So, in society, this beautiful portrait of this man will remain young for eternity, but in the process led to the disarray and philosophical and literary decomposition of the person the portrait is of. It is important to mention that his wish ends up reversing at the end, which means that even the abnormal or magic cannot make youth last forever. Dorian’s need to stay young leads him to murder. He kills the man that he believes is responsible for his need for perpetual youth.

Dorian believes that the painting is what causes the misery in his life, not his outward narcissism and need for the impossible. In true character, Dorian goes to extreme lengths to prove that Basil is to blame and even ends up killing him. Dorian confesses to this in order to explain that he believed that every misfortune is Basil’s fault: “Alan, it was murder. I killed him. You don’t know what he had made me suffer. Whatever my life is, he had more to do with the making or the marring of it than poor Harry has had. He may not have intended it, the result was the same.’ ‘Murder! Good God, Dorian, is that what you have come to?” (Wilde, 223). At the end of the novel, Dorian tries to stab the portrait of himself, which reflect back at him the sins he has committed and ends up killing himself. This is an important revelation for the reader.

Since Dorian tries to get rid of the painting that reflects the truest version of him, it kills the perfect young body that this disastrous man could never maintain. Wilde uses this morbid irony to show that there is not a “…moment of vision with redemptive power. Dorian loathes himself, but, except by killing himself, he never stops being himself. Suicide is not a form of resolution. It is a capitulation to ultimate failure.” (Carroll). Wilde does this to end Dorian’s story in a way that he believes is the utmost failure. Dorian’s life becomes completely focused on staying young, not on his morality. Dorian cannot see the wrongs in his life because he is so focused on not aging. Looking young is the only important characteristic in his life, which leads him to be a horrible, narcissistic, and compassionless person. He cannot see the outcomes of his actions, or he does not care.

Some of his actions are morally youthful, but all of his actions are morally irresponsible. His version of perpetual youth is challenged because he still sees how his actions affect his life by watching the portrait age and grimace at his actions. Dorian reflects his mental youth by not realizing the consequences of his actions on others, for example, when Sibyl kills herself because of his cruel words and actions, he is indifferent. This is how he reacts when the person he claims to have loved so much died. The pressure society puts on people to stay young only adds to Dorian’s need for perpetual youth. As a person who is middle class, Dorian knows that his beauty and youth could be used to elevate his standing. Bristow comments on this saying, “Dorian wears a fine aristocratic face, but possesses what may be referred to as a working-class (debased, gross, indecent) body, as he moves across and between different echelons of society.” (Bristow, 15).

Dorian tries to use his youthful face and glow to get himself ahead in life, which is a creative choice, but ultimately a limited one. Instead of working to change his social status, he just attempts the impossible by wishing he would be young forever. The connection to society also gives Henry a convincing way to connect his personal opinions to the real world, “In the discussion of Chapter Six, where the ‘good’ is discussed, Hallward, while not resisting Lord Henry’s principle of ‘self-development,’ also espouses a balancing sense of being linked to the rest of the world: ‘But, surely, if one lives merely for one’s self … one pays a terrible price for doing so?’ (64).” (Alley, 4). This connection to society’s overall opinion makes Lord Henry’s argument and opinions more appealing to Dorian. Wilde made sure to include that Henry used both society and his own personal ideas, both having an effect on Dorian to different degrees.

One of the most important themes that Wilde explored was this idea of obtaining perpetual youth. By making perpetual youth seem possible by granting Dorian’s wish for his place to be traded with the painting, Wilde created a complex world where perpetual youth still is not attainable even with the help of the abnormal. The consequences of Dorian’s supposed perpetual youth are proven countless times by Wilde, creating a bigger idea of consequence when wishing for the impossible. Dorian serves as an example of what narcissism and too much self-appreciation can do to a person and society. Wilde carefully crafted his character to make sure that, “Dorian’s role in the story is to be an object lesson, to represent what hedonistic materialism might do to Western civilization” (Bristow, 4).

The character of Dorian Gray serves as a warning from Wilde about what the desire for perpetual youth and the ultimate debilitation that comes with the impossibility of attaining it. Wilde takes the reader through the consequences of materialism and narcissism and what it could mean when widespread through the decay of Dorian’s life. The entirety of this story becomes a vehicle to teach about the consequences of what could happen when someone becomes obsessed with themselves. The reader gets to watch Dorian’s life become worse and worse as time goes on while he physically stays youthful. The descent into madness further demonstrates Wilde’s example of the dangers of narcissism and the need to be perpetually young.

Wilde also uses literal imagery to show how dangerous the idea of perfection becomes. Wilde shows this usually unexplored idea about art because he“…complicates his own notion of the cultivation of the ‘personality’ through art by showing its morally dangerous and socially irresponsible side.” (Gomel). This idea of art having consequences and a connection to dangerous circumstances is introduced in the beginning of the novel by “prefacing his novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” with a reflection on art, the artist, and the utility of both. After careful scrutiny, he concludes: “All art is quite useless” (Duggan, 1). This continues Wilde’s intent to prove that hedonism and narcissism lead to downfall. This painting becomes unrecognizable, that even Basil cannot recognize the painting without seeing his own signature. (Gomel). Oscar Wilde beautifully demonstrates the idea of the need for perpetual youth despite its impossibility through his character Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Gray demonstrates the most extreme actions one could take in an attempt to stay young for as long as possible. Though Gray attains prolonged youth through his granted wish to switch places with the portrait, he confirms that perpetual youth is impossible, because it leads to his ultimate downfall.