Returning back to the idea of Lord Henry’s ‘Satan-like’ questioning, it would be plausible to say that the language used in this chapter by Lord Henry supports this notion. Wotton’s choice of words is aggressive yet strangely spiritual and, at times, contain religious connotations; he refers to returning ‘to something finer, richer, than the Hellenic ideal’ which was an age, during the years around the turn of the century, where Greek society was bought dramatic political developments and a newly reformed democratic government that revelled in the idea of an individual being able to ‘take charge of their own destiny’1 , which is basically the crux of Wotton’s philosophies. Furthermore, specific phrases such as ‘the mutilation of the savage’ and ‘We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us’ encourages the idea of Henry’s views being somewhat aggressive due to the malevolence in their delivery. Other words such as ‘sin’ and ‘purification’ and constant reference to the soul also indicates towards the negatively spiritual tone of his epigrams, which subsequently adds to the idea of Lord Henry Wotton being the ‘devil on Gray’s shoulder’.2
Furthermore, Lord Henry's cynical outlook on life, and Hedonistic nature seems to be in keeping with the idea of the devil's role.This idea of Lord Henry being the Devil, and laying his dangerous influence upon the initially pure and innocent Dorian, results in Dorian unknowingly ‘making a deal with devil’ and this can be likened to the German legend of Faust; Faust, being dissatisfied with life, despite being a highly successful scholar, makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.3 However, there is no actual point in the novel where Dorian makes this deal: it is Lord Henry’s ‘strange panegyric on youth’ coupled with Gray being entranced by the beauty of the portrait that leads Dorian to make the impossible, and somewhat violent, wish: ‘If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old...I would give my soul for that!’, as he now also believes, or has been influenced to believe, that ‘there is absolutely nothing in the world but youth’. Moreover, as a result of Wotton’s words and Basil’s portrait the sense of his own beauty comes to Dorian as a revelation, and this marks the start of a new side of Dorian, one who is vain, selfish and corrupt.
Lord Henry’s philosophies follow a timeline in which, at first, they are amusing and thought-provoking but, nearer the end of the novel, they seem improbable and shallow. An example of this occurs in Chapter 19; he claims that ‘the books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame’. However, the decadent book that Wotton lends Dorian in Chapter 10 actually facilitates Dorian’s real downfall, so it is difficult to accept what Lord Henry says as true. This particular ‘yellow book’ poisons Dorian, and Lord Henry was fully aware of the influence the book would have on him when he sent it as a gift; when Dorian meets Henry later that evening and expresses his fascination of the book, he replies with ‘Yes: I thought you would like it’, which suggests that Henry is only interested in how far he can stretch his influence on Dorian, and doesn’t really care about the emotional impact it has on Dorian at all. This particular mode of impact on Henry’s part is by far the most destructive of all the influences he has had on Dorian through the duration of the novel; ‘Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful’. Lord Henry tries to assure him that art is too aloof to influence anybody but the book simply confirms Dorian in evil, he so now embarks upon a course of life which consciously embraces sin and destruction. Gray is led astray by ideals as much as by decadence (in the form of the book), all provided to him by Lord Henry.
This brings us to the idea of Lord Henry only viewing Dorian and their supposed friendship as a science experiment; this is particularly evident in Chapter 4 where he refers to Dorian as ‘a more interesting study’ and muses over how ‘he had always been enthralled by the methods of natural science’. Wilde’s use of almost satanic language here is also very interesting; ‘…one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure…nor keep the sulphurous fumes from troubling the brain…making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams’. The idea of ‘sulphurous fumes’ and ‘monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams’ are reminiscent of a hell-like environment, which again, encourages the idea of Lord Henry adopting the devil’s role. However, this is extremely ironic as Henry views himself as a sort of God; he feels that ‘the lad was his own creation’. Furthermore, he is completely detached from the situation, claiming that ‘it was no matter how it all ended, or was destined to end’, which indicates how he has managed to remove himself from all guilt and is also evidence of his completely amoral stance on life. Moreover, through his idea of merging life with Art (‘…a complex personality took the place and assumed the office of art, was indeed, in its way, a real work of art’), he is comparing himself to the likes of masters such as Michelangelo and even Plato when he is musing over ‘soul and body, body and soul…was the soul a shadow seated in the house of sin?’, which indicates how Henry believes he is superior to ‘man’ and he is completely within his right to see the life of another person i.e. Dorian Gray’s, as a viable means for his ‘art’ and scientific experiments. After years of ‘developing’ Dorian's personality, Lord Henry feels as though he's created the ideal human being. He admires Dorian profoundly, but more importantly, he admires himself for having made Dorian what he is.
The most confounding part of Dorian Gray’s acceptance of Lord Henry’s influence is that Henry does not practice what he preaches; his many philosophies are entirely egocentric and immoral, while his own life remains boringly sedate, which is picked up by Basil in the first few chapters of the book: ‘You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing.’ However, his own reserved nature does not stop him from promoting his selfish ideals in others and as he conveys to Gray his world view, Dorian becomes corrupted as he attempts to emulate him.
Lord Henry Wotton is seen as a ‘critique of Victorian culture at the end of the century, promoting a view of indulgent Hedonism’4; he is in fact, as stated by Oscar Wilde in one of his letters, ‘what the world thinks me’. Wilde painted a lot of himself into Henry, and the author himself is hidden behind this entertaining ‘Prince Paradox’, the nickname given to him by Dorian. Without Lord Henry, The Picture of Dorian Gray loses much of its appeal; he is the Devil on Dorian’s shoulder, the bug in his ear and ultimately, the influence Gray wishes he never had. However, what was initially fascinating about Henry eventually becomes ignorant. His intellect become presumptuous and blinds him to the disappointing reality of his own life and the ugly effects his influence has had upon Dorian Gray.
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4Quoted from www.wikipedia.com
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