In “The Harlot’s House”, Oscar Wilde doesn’t seem to speak directly about much, referring mostly to dancing shadows and ghosts, but upon closer inspection, there are some pretty profound things to think on in different parts of the poem.
First and foremost in my mind is the use of those terms: shadows, ghosts, skeletons, “black leaves wheeling in the wind”. The only human beings he speaks of are himself and his love. This was possibly the most intriguing aspect of the poem. Here they were, quite clearly “stopped beneath the harlot’s house”, yet he speaks not of a single other living soul there – they are all marionettes, skeletons, and shadows.
The word “shadow” can in fact be used to imply a sort of lacking of substance or presence, as in phrases like “a shadow of what it had been”. The same can be said of his use of “ghost”. This all seems to reinforce the idea that these people – the harlots, and possibly their clients – are quite less than human, in his eyes. They are very human-like, but had fallen to this level of contemptibility through their actions.
Even though traditions – especially religious ones – would have us believe that sexuality is contemptible, and often villainized in literature, I wanted the shadows in the image I created to be more than this clichéd idea of sinful humans, so I did some more digging.
In Jungian psychology, for instance, a person’s “shadow” can be considered anything outside of their conscious self. It can also be viewed as the entirety of a human’s darkness; those desires and thoughts that society has told us are wrong, and which we separate or even hide from – attempting to deny them a place in our conscious mind, though they are a part of our very being. Sexuality is very easily a part of this shadow, as are the fantasies and desires that accompany that primal urge.
With these ideas, I began to draft my image. I wanted to include shadows, and tie them to the humans in the picture, who were to represent certain types of people I’d been seeing in the literature and art we’ve been studying. First, I drew the Virgin – the character who would embody the moral argument. Virgin characters have long been made as virtuous paragons, to either succeed or fall prey to men of ill intent – again reinforcing the relation of virginity and chastity as being virtuous and right. Such characters as Belle of the old Beauty and the Beast fairy-tale – while yes, the Disney version is one of my favorite movies from my childhood, it does not have that same contrast between the virgin, Belle, and her wicked sisters, who had many lovers, but said they would only marry into more wealth. Rossetti’s Goblin Market also has Lizzie, who puts herself in harm’s way to help her sister, while keeping her virginity in-tact. The virgin basically exists as this polarized pure goodness, to contrast the other characters in the story.
With the virgin is the temptress – the fallen who lusts after the virgin, or seeks to make him fall. She is the shadow that invites the guests in to dance with her, and whose violin entrances Oscar Wilde’s “love” in the poem.
The love is represented by the tempted girl, who feels the draw of the beautiful mask. We all are tempted in different ways – physical attraction, social pressure, perhaps we even fall victim to circumstances that force us to sacrifice our “virtue” to survive, or a predator who takes it from us. At one time or another, we all are presented that choice, as is Laura in The Goblin Market, and she chooses to give in to the goblins’ call.
The last in the picture is the wolf. The wolf is the one who dives headlong into and may even revel in the debauchery and sin. He may even be that predator or tempter, who draws others in, to fulfill his own desires. He’s the Big Bad Wolf, the goblins in the market, the ancient succubus (or incubus), or even Dracula. I wanted very much for him to appear as both the human and the shadow, because we don’t always see the spider until we’re caught in its web.
Hopefully I was able to capture all these character types and ideas in my art. Even though it’s not really common belief that sexuality is so dichotomously good or evil anymore, I do think it can make for some provocative imagery. The Oscar Wilde poem is probably my favorite thing we’ve read, this semester, and along with some other insights, provided a lot of the inspiration for the finished piece.
References:
Beauty and the Beast, Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, 1783
Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti, 1862
The Harlot’s House, Oscar Wilde
