Making Connections

In Wilde’s letter to the editor reprinted on page xxiii of the introduction, he suggests that Basil, Dorian, and Lord Henry are incomplete because they fail to strike a balance between indulgence and restraint. At least that’s what our text’s editor gleans from the author’s words. Taking this reading a step further, you might say that the novel allegorizes these impulses, with Basil representing indulgence, Lord Henry restraint, and Dorian the tension between the two extremes. It’s easy for us to forget that Dorian wrestles with this conflict because his efforts are so overshadowed by his losing record and the ugliness of his acts.

You could also apply a similar reading to Bleak House. In this case, Jarndyce, Woodcourt, and Esther also lack a balance between indulgence and restraint. (Although critics have characterized the binary in terms of desire and selflessness, I believe they derive from the same basic impulse.) Jarndyce gives care and protection to his wards, but he will not indulge himself by accepting gratitude. Woodcourt is heroic and generous in deed, but after seven years of marriage he infantilizes Esther and treats her like a domestic. Esther, on the other hand, begins as self-effacing, and like Jarndyce she runs from compliments—not literally like he does but by reflecting the compliment back onto the sender. But Esther at least tries to evolve; it’s just that her efforts are blunted by the men in her life. When she accepts Jarndyce’s proposal, she puts her arms around him and gives him a kiss, but he just stands there like a stone wall. Although she seems to concede defeat at the end, who knows what lies beyond that curious hyphen. 

The point I want to make is that it’s important for givers to accept gratitude for their acts. The process isn’t complete until the receivers express their thankful feelings and the givers accept them. Giving and receiving—whether in the form of material objects or love—is an organic process. It’s essential to the development of a civilized society—in contrast to the decaying world that Dickens portrays—but each link in the evolutionary chain must be fully formed before it can grow. The same logic applies to indulgence and restraint. Henry tells Dorian—in order to egg him on—that “the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it” (19). But this only leads to a life of indulgence, as Dorian shows. Temptation is part of the life force. It should not be replaced by restraint but informed by it. This also holds true for the relationship between life and art, the parallel theme of the novel. Their connection is a symbiotic one. Each cannot prosper without the other. It’s not an either-or question of whether life imitates art or art imitates life; they nurture each other.