Angela Carter Gothic Part 1- The Bloody Chamber

Imagery:

MIRRORS

LILIES

WHITE,

RED- BLOOD
MASKS

THE TORTURE CHAMBER

THE CANDLES

The Victorian Gothic

 halloween costume 

The religeous and scientific uphealvals agreed a fascination with ghost stories and tales of horror. EG. Allan Poe (1809-49). Gothic tradition was from the previous century, often set in the remote past, with mysteriies, ghosts, exotic castles, forests and dreams, with extreme language and erotic elements. It allowed a world free from restraints but also containing characters with psycological obsessions.

(This will be further studied in link with Angela Carter- The Bloody Chamber, Wuthering Heights and Macbeth. 

Mirrors in the gothic are used for a similar purpose as the function given to Basil´s painting in Dorian Gray. In 1891 William James described a number of real life cases of "alternating personality" suggesting the human mind was capable of fragmentation.  The painting reflects "the real Dorian" while Dorian´s young, beautiful face remains intact with the passing of time. Dorian turns out to destroy his initial innocence into vanity and cruelty.
This theme clearly withholds the obsession of the 19th century about the relationship between image and reality.

This is still a current debate as can be seen for example with apperance and reality within the world of the media and it´s effect on society. Beauty of models is valued above the concequences involved in reaching such canons for young girls. Devoting their lifes to such canons can involve developing life costing psychological obsessions for some, such as anorexia and bulimia. (Can a slight correlation be drawn between such cases and Dorian?)

Beauty and asthetics is a concern of the human being that will always remain a constant. Having a relevant theme is one of the many, many reasons why Dorian Gray has overcome the test of time (one of the proofs for a classic).

Context of Dorian Gray, Wilde´s life and Preface analysis.

Dorian Gray Context:

- The Victorian gothic

- Realism vs Roamnce

- Crime and Punishment

- Decadents and Symbolist

- The English Asthetics

- Wilde´s life and influences

- Sexuality and the psyche

Oscar Wilde´s life:

Oscar Wilde was born in 1854, 16 October, Dublin, Ireland. Educated in Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. Oscar Wilde made a great conversationalist and a famous wit. He began publishing mediocre poetry but soon achieved wide spread fame with his comic plays. Wilde published his only novel; The Picture of Dorian Gray before he reached the height of his fame.
Dorian Gray was criticised as immoral and scandalous by the Victorian English society. Wilde chose to write an extra preface and six more chapters due to his dissapointment with the receival. In the preface, (beautiful in my opinion), Wilde makes an elegant counterargument to critics about the nature of art and it´s value relying solely on creating beauty, and therefore remaining aside from any moral or political responsabilities. Raising a debate of the function of the critic and the role of the artist in the 19th century.

PREFACE- Favourite quotes. ART.

"The artist is the creator of beautiful things"

"To reveal art and conceal the artist is art´s aim"

"Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For those there is hope" 

"The elect to whom beautiful things only mean beauty". (With this he defends his novel, as a work of art and suggests critics, who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are the "corrupt". 

"there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written or badly written."

Wilde goes on onto suggesting the nineteenth century are unable to appreciate either realism nor romanticism. eg." the nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass". - Meaning romanticism idealises realities, banishing the ugliness (Caliban - Shakespeare "The Tempest" monster), and realism doing the contrary- unexploring the soul and beauty of romance and nature but exposing reality as scientific and crude. 

"morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium". 
Aristotle said that the world was only a reflected copy of the divine perfect world, and that art, therefore where only copies of the copies of the divine. However, Wilde calls it imperfect, but for that, it is perfect because it reveals the human soul in its best original expression.

The freedom of the artist is praised in self defense from the castration of criticism ; 
"The artist can express everything"

"language are to the artist instruments of an art". "Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art"
It is true, that as humans we are flawed and that the ingredients to construct a novel, it´s character´s and themes all rely on a profund perception of human vice and virtue, to create a hero or a villain, to imagine a strong plot.

Wilde also mentions the "art of the musician" as the type of all the arts from the point of view of form. 
The harmony and mathematics held in music are entrenched in the artist, sustaining a base for good poetry and literature and any asthetic creation. 

"All art is at once surface and symbol". 
With this, Wilde asks the critic to look both at the surface and the deeper symbolic function of the work of art. Dorian Gray is not an immoral book. It´s characters lead an immoral life but Dorian is punished for it towards the end just like Dr Faustus for negotiating with Mephistofoles. This shows the pattern of the morality play popular from the early 1400.

"All art is quite useless"
In England, the reaction against Victorian prudery and utilitarism raised a calling for greater freedom of expression for artists. This debate was taken up by Wilde´s tutors at college and influenced his works of art. This new position stood against the insistence of the previous century where beauty equalled usefullness because artists had a phrophetic function, helping humanity towards ungraspable truths. I personally agree that the artist has a special sensibily and capacity to bring the people closer to the sublime. Wilde originally perceived this within a Christian framework and after his loss of faith he still saw art as a force for good. It is why I see "The Picture of Dorian Gray" as a tragedy to let the reader extract his own conclusions of what is right and wrong. Throughout in his style, Wilde enjoys the pleasure in his language to express the pleasure of life and blending the line between art and life. Lord Henry sais to Dorian in the end "life was your art".

Can a Dorian Gray be considered as an epitomisation of art itself?

 Paradoxically, Dorian has been beautiful superficially for all his life but that has costed his soul to become corrupt and foul. This is a very common characteristic of the gothic; "Fair is foul and foul is fair" (Macbeth three witches)- evil and good are confused and confusion is the source for corruption. 

I do see a direct relationship of Dorian Gray with art itself because Wilde stresses art to be "useless"·in the preface and concludes with Dorianfeeling unsatisfyied with life and empty. A beautiful face; "life was your art" Lord Henry sais, but empty and vain. 

Studying novels

What to consider when studying novels: 
-Format and style
 -The writers perspective;context of production
-Shape and structure; openings,endings,main plot or sub plots,
 -setting
 -Choice of language
-links and connections

-Narrative aspects:
*narrative voice
*characterisation
*use of contrast
*symbolism and metaphors
*recurring themes
*imagery

 -Critical perspectives:
*psyhoanalisis
*marxist critical analysis of economical background
*feminist perspectives
*study of classics and valuavle pieces of art. etc..

To start with, Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde...

My ole, well worn copy ( Found it in my Atic where oodles of misterious things hide).