Wilde Words

From "The Young King" (A House of Pomegranates), an oft-overlooked fairytale. The young king, who has newly come to the palace after being raised by a poor shepherd, is dreaming of the slaves who are weaving the cloth for his coronation robes:

'Who is thy master?' asked the young King.

'Our master!' cried the weaver, bitterly. 'He is a man like myself. Indeed, there is but this difference between us -- that he wears fine clothes while I go in rags, and that while I am weak from hunger he suffers not a little from overfeeding.'

'The land is free,' said the young King, 'and thou art no man's slave.'

'In war,' answered the weaver, 'the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich make slaves of the poor. We must work to live, and they give us such mean wages that we die. We toil for them all day long, and they heap up gold in their coffers, and our children fade away before their time, and the faces of those we love become hard and evil. We tread out the grapes, and another drinks the wine. We sow the corn, and our own board is empty. We have chains, though no eye beholds them; and are slaves, though men call us free.'

'Is it so with all?' he asked.

'It is so with all,' answered the weaver, 'with the young as well as with the old, with the women as well as with the men, with the little children as well as with those who are stricken in years. The merchants grind us down, and we must needs do their bidding. The priest rides by and tells his beads, and no man has care of us. Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning, and Shame sits with us at night. But what are these things to thee? Thou art not one of us. Thy face is too happy.'

Musings on the film

Looks like principal photography on the Dorian Gray film is finished, and it's in post-production now, so news will probably be scarce. No word on a release date besides 2009.

I've been pondering the implications, if any, of shortening the title to just "Dorian Gray". Of course this reduces emphasis on the picture that is at the centre of the novel, but it's possibly not a bad thing. The portrait is, after the transformation, basically Dorian's soul. From the moment he utters his wish his body and soul (or mind or conscience or whatever you want to call what comes to be displayed on the portrait) are separated, and Dorian Gray does not exist independently of his portrait, nor does his portrait exist without him. So, naming the film simply Dorian Gray demonstrates that the story revolves around him, and all parts of him. He's still the hero. I think I'd probably prefer the full title of the novel, but the shortened version is better than something completely made up, like, I don't know, Dorian and Henry, or The Mystery of Dorian Gray (say, that's catchy!) or Big Gay Love Triangle That's a Little Bit Hetero, Too, And There's a Painting Involved.

On another note, the more I think about this new Emily Wotton character, the more I worry about how the addition will affect the plot, and especially how it will affect the character of Sybil Vane. I'm guessing her role or screentime will be reduced, and Emily Wotton will be Dorian's next or later love interest. Which... argh. I appreciate that there are few women in the novel and those that are there get a pretty raw deal. Oscar Wilde is a bitchy misogynist like that. But poor Sybil never gets her due, and there are many ways that her story could be changed or given short shrift without much thought. She's really important in the novel for a lot of reasons that I probably don't have to explain if you've read it, but here goes anyway: Dorian's involvement with her marks the first time he understands, uses and abuses his power, as well as the first time he notices a change in his portrait; her situation mirrors Dorian's in that she has to play the part that is set for her and cannot break free or find her own words; their affair is Dorian's first understanding of the beauty of art and the tragedy of thwarted expectations, etc. Her suicide is also mirrored in his "suicide" at the end of the novel, for they both find themselves in a situation that they want to escape from, but do not know how. And, on a purely personal, sympathetic note, I really feel for Sybil and her desire to break free of shadows and the words of Shakespeare so that she can live in the light with Dorian and speak her own words. I worry that all of Sybil will be lost if they keep adding extra female characters in order to reduce the homoerotic undertones of the story or to lessen the impact of Wilde's stunning sexism. Either motive is not going to serve the original story well.

Dorian Faustus

I keep seeing The Picture of Dorian Gray being referred to as a Faustian novel, and it's starting to irritate. While not very familiar with the legends of and literature about Faustus, I understand the basic premise, and I also understand that "Faustian" as an adjective is an easy way to explain the plot of Dorian Gray: it involves an exchange of the soul. But a key part of Faust's story is that he willingly makes a pact with the Devil, while Dorian Gray does no such thing. He utters a wish without any belief that it will come true, and without any knowledge of the consequences. He is offered no choice, and he makes no bargain. Isn't it interesting that Wilde wrote it this way? Dorian really has no idea what it means to give away his soul. And to whom does he give it, anyway? There is no devil in this story, with the possible exception of Lord Henry (he spends the time just before Dorian sees his portrait telling him the value and importance of youth and beauty: "Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!").

The actual wish, however, is all Dorian:

"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

His friends immediately make light of it:

"You would hardly care for such an arrangement, Basil," cried Lord Henry, laughing. "It would be rather hard lines on your work."

"I should object very strongly, Harry," said Hallward.

And the adage "be careful what you wish for" is proven true once again. Faust's bargain is his soul for knowledge, while Dorian's is almost the opposite of that: he wants to remain young and beautiful, innocent and, it might follow, ignorant (although he does have his own thirst for knowledge and experience, prompted by Lord Henry). But no exchange ever actually takes place, and no one makes it official, although dialogue in the rest of the scene hints at it (Lord Henry tells Basil that he has now seen "the real Dorian Gray"; Basil wants to destroy the portrait and Dorian cries, "It would be murder!"; Basil refers to it as "the real Dorian", etc). The fact that the exchange Dorian wished for has taken place is given no divine or supernatural attribution; there's no sense that Dorian's wish was diabolical. It's just not that Faustian.

Nonetheless, the novel is advocating some sort of morality, and certainly seems to say in the end that Dorian profits nothing by losing his soul. But in this soul-exchange-that-is-not-a-pact, does Dorian regain his soul with his death and the portrait's return to its pristine condition? Answers on a postcard.

Small Dorian Gray article

Here's a small article from MSN quoting Ben Barnes on the relevance of the Dorian Gray story to the zeitgeist (love that word!). On the topic of homosexuality, he says: "I think it is underplayed in the book, and it is present in our film but not highlighted." That sounds promising to me; I feel that while the novel's homosexual subtext is indeed very subtle, it's still a vital part of the storyline and shouldn't be ignored, but nor should it amped up as the main storyline. Getting that balance right will be very difficult for those involved.

Video

A small behind-the-scenes video on set of the film has been posted on Youtube. Don't get excited, the only thing I learned from it was that apparently in this adaptation Lord Henry has a daughter. I had thought that Emily Wotton would be Lord Henry's sister, who from memory is mentioned a few times in the book and whose scandalous divorce Dorian is somehow involved in. Guess I was wrong.