Abstract
My thesis aims to discuss the ¡§creation¡¨ issue in Oscar Wilde¡¦s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Depicting how Dorian is made a decadent hedonist, the novel is generally regarded by critics as a story of creation, in which what is created is not only the magical painting but the hero as well. Only through his image mirrored in the painting Basil offers can Dorian come to know himself; the hero is ¡§produced¡¨ as what he is by his friends. Thus, to discuss how this creation of the hero takes place, I will employ Jacques Lacan¡¦s theory of the mirror stage, along with Roland Barthes¡¦ insight of ¡§textuality.¡¨
¡§Mirror, Text and the Symbolic Matrix.¡¨ By suggesting these three interlocking axes I seek to outline the process of creation that governs the novel. Through his image mirrored in the picture, Dorian comes to know himself. He identifies with the image and grows. However, the painting that reveals Dorian to himself is an artifact produced by Basil. What Dorian identifies with is a ¡§text¡¨ he ¡§reads¡¨ in Basil¡¦s work, an other. Seeing how he changes the portrait, ¡§writing¡¨ it with his ¡§passions and sins,¡¨ Dorian comes to enter the symbolic realm. Yet it is also through such a move that Dorian is ¡§objectified in the dialectic of identification with the other¡¨ as Lacan suggests. He is inserted into the chain of signifiers, in which the ¡§real¡¨ Dorian is ceaselessly replaced.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is through the complex work of texts and the interplay of influences that the hero is created; by analyzing these interactions I would like to disclose the creation issue. In my first chapter I begin by re-examining the relationship between Henry and Dorian, through which I aim at illuminating the characters¡¦ function as ¡§floating signifiers.¡¨ I proceed to throw light on Basil, the creator of Dorian¡¦s image, in chapter two: by which I seek to reveal Basil¡¦s influence over Dorian. In chapter three I would analyze how Dorian¡¦s romance with Sibyl influences him¡Xand what Sibyl signifies to him, while I would also discuss the significance of James Vane (Sibyl¡¦s brother). The fourth chapter is a discussion dedicated to the picture, which functions not only as a Lacanian mirror but becomes the canvas upon which Dorian and Basil compete writing¡Xwhile both are ¡§written¡¨ by the text they produce. To conclude, I would re-examine the nature of text: to which man is both its cause and its effect.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0703102-160943 |
| Date | 03 July 2002 |
| Creators | Chiang, Felix |
| Contributors | Ming-Tse Lin, Hsiao-Yu Sun, Chih-Wei Chang |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0703102-160943 |
| Rights | unrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive |
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