The Effect of Self-Perception on the Conflict Between Illusion and Reality Pt.2

Dorian’s acceptance of his new self-perception is displayed through his actions and desires; because his identity is rooted within the illusions of beauty, he falls for Sybil Vane, failing to realize the truth; to him, “she was always a dream, a phantom that flitted through Shakespeare’s plays” (106-107). He loved the idea of Sybil, not the reality of her, showing how one’s self-image can cause an individual to accept an illusion as actuality. Once Sybil truly fell in love with Dorian, she was unable to uphold the very illusion her “prince charming” admired, and so Dorian, obsessed with his own self-perception as an aesthete, addressed the conflict between his ideal and the reality by breaking Sybil’s heart. This action, however, failed to resolve the tension—instead, it led to Sybil’s death by suicide, demonstrating how when identity is the factor inhibiting an individual from resolving a conflict, attempting to preserve one’s own view of themselves may cause them to act cruelly. Though Sybil’s death does cause Dorian’s self-perception to falter momentarily—when he calls her death “terrible”—Lord Henry’s sway over Dorian’s identity results in him admitting “that this thing that has happened does not affect [him] as it should” and instead it seemed “to [him] to be simply like a wonderful ending to a wonderful play” (104). Dorian’s unsympathetic response to the death of someone he once claimed to have loved reveals the dichotomy between Dorian’s perfectly tragic illusion and the heartless superficiality of his reality; through this contrariety, Wilde highlights Dorian’s increasing levels of corruption as he begins to self-identify more with the illusions of beauty and youth, going so far as to suppress the true gravity of his actions in order to perpetuate the ideals. Dorian continues to indulge in his illusions by going to “opium dens where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new”—he hungers for novel stimulus, because “curing his soul by the means of the senses” (193) would prevent the reality of his immoral actions from affecting him. Essentially, Dorian seeks reprieve from his undesirable reality by reinforcing his own fantasies, thereby embedding his self-perception entirely into his hedonistic ideals. Ironically, this serves to amplify the conflict between his illusions and reality by further dividing the two.

As a result of Dorian’s self-perception becoming embedded entirely within his illusions rather than his reality, he begins to experience paranoia stemming from the duality of his character—he is afraid of being seen as the man shown by his own portrait. His fear of James Vane is one manifestation of said paranoia. Dorian’s own conscience had “[raised] such fearful phantoms, and gave them visible form” (210); essentially, Dorian’s misconduct haunts his reality. Because he had already acted upon his illusions, however, he is no longer able to revert his self-perception into its original state. Wilde uses this to indicate the permanence of acting upon one’s identity in relation to their ideals—by taking action, regardless of whether the act is influenced by delusions, an individual will have a distinct impact on their own reality. For Dorian, this impact affects his mental state significantly, as he begins to believe “shadows of his crime were to peer at him from silent corners, to mock him from secret places, to whisper in his ear as he sat at the feast, [and] to wake him with icy fingers as he lay asleep” (210). Due to the toll on his own consciousness, Dorian attempts to eliminate what he deems to be sources of insecurity; in other words, he attempts to counter the aspects of his life that display the true hideousness of his reality—and, more specifically, his own soul—in a final attempt to maintain his self-perception. At this stage, Dorian lacks an identity beyond his illusion, making it impossible for him to reconcile the conflict between his illusion and reality without losing his identity in the process; thus, he cannot claim responsibility for his crimes. Instead, Dorian opts to destroy his portrait, thinking it “would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free [and] . . . at peace” (233). In his mania, however, Dorian fails to realize his portrait is connected to his own life—and so he dies in his final attempt to reverse the negative impact of his illusions on his reality. Since Dorian’s self-perception did not alter and he still adhered to his ideals of pleasure without consequence, he failed to reconcile the conflict haunting him. This inability to reach a resolution shows the deceptiveness of the idyllic and the dangers of placing one’s self-perception into such fantasies; Dorian dies “withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage” (234), becoming the very thing he had wanted to avoid when he made the wish on the portrait.

Dorian’s downfall can be attributed to his lack of a self-perception fixed within his reality. His reliance on illusions in the formation of his identity and his unwillingness to sacrifice his self-view when faced with a divide in his ideals and reality counteracted all other endeavours to reconcile this conflict. In fact, Dorian’s self-perception was the factor preventing him from ever finding peace in his reality. Through Dorian’s arch in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde indicates that self-perception, when rooted within illusions that contradict with reality, will negatively impact an individual’s ability to live a truthful existence. Though ideals can provide comfort in the form of escapism, over-reliance on them can inhibit one’s attempts to find truth within reality. Ultimately, tying one’s identity to illusions can hinder one’s ability to perceive their own reality.