First of all, Henry is fucking hilarious. I love this dude. Honestly, aside from the sometimes (most of the times) shitty advice -- which he says in a way that it seems as though he is imparting some sort of infinite wisdom – he is honestly, the smartest man in this book. So, our three ‘main’ characters are Basil (which I always pronounce like the herb), Dorian Gray (of course), and Lord Henry. And so, after reading the book and Freud’s The Ego and the Id theory, it is relatively easy to associate this theory with the three main characters of the book, and the painting of Dorian.
So, Freud starts by first trying to define consciousness and the unconscious (which he doesn’t really end up doing, but whatever). Consciousness is nothing else but the surface of our mental apparatus; “a function to a system which is spatially the first one reached from the external world” (Gay 632). Meaning, that it is the part of our minds that is the closest to our external reality. While the unconscious is everything else. From then on, he goes on to define the ego, superego, and the id – basically the three main components of our personality. The ego is attached to our consciousness, but it is also the “part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world” (Gay 635); which basically implies that kind of everything was unconscious at first – which does kind of make sense because as babies we don’t really have any mental processes except wants and desires (basically we were all id). So the ego is in charge of regulating our id; it is our reason and common sense, what talks our ego out of doing – some, not all – stupid shit. Our id is purely based on desires and urges with our ego as its filter. The superego, however, is basically our conscience, it says “no” to everything the id suggests. Absolutely everything.
And so, with the three components of our personality relatively defined, we can come to this simple conclusion, our id is wants and desires, it’s the spoiled child. The superego is the person with a stick up its ass, that says no to absolutely everything the child wants. And the ego is the bridge between the two, the part that actually sees the light of day, the part that creates the compromise between the two other parts. If you’ve seen the show Big Mouth, you can think of the id as the hormone monster, the superego as the Shame Wizard, and the ego as the kid. And if you haven’t, then it’s the classic image of the person (ego) with a little devil on one shoulder (id) and a little angel on the other (superego).
Related to Oscar Wilde’s novel, it is relatively simple to identify which characters represent any singular aspect of Freud’s theory. Of course, since the novel is called The Picture of Dorian Gray, it would be easy to assume that Dorian is the ego, since he is the principal character of the novel; developing it as Dorian as the ego, Basil as the superego (the little angel on his shoulder, that he infinitely ignores), and Henry as his id. And yet, it is not that simple. Despite the fact that Henry does pave the way for Dorian in his mischiefs, and he does play a great part as the devil on his shoulder, Henry does not have the reputation Dorian ends up having, nor does he do half the shit Dorian does, he just talks about doing them, in a purely philosophical/theoretical way. Smart man. So as much as he presents himself as the id, his substance is that of the ego. He knows what he would like to do (id) and talks about it, but he doesn’t do it because his morality (i.e. superego) doesn’t particularly let him and so he doesn’t act on it (ego). Basil, on the other hand, is purely superego. He completely ignores his id (if he even has one at this point – which he kind of shows he does after he reveals that he’s in love with Dorian), and only ever acts on his supergo’s wishes, which is basically do nothing and just be a good little boy; such is the case with Basil, that Henry even points it out for us when he says, “Basil puts everything that is charming in him into his work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life but his prejudices, his principles, and his common sense” (Wilde 50). Meaning that instead of acting on his id, Basil just downloads all the feelings and wants and desires of his id onto the canvases, and only ever listens to his superego. And so, we are left with Dorian; he presents himself as though he were super moral and innocent (which he is, in the very beginning of the novel and then just declares a big “fuck it”), while in reality, his entire being is comprised of his id. He does whatever it is he wants and gives zero fucks about it.
Aside from the fact that Dorian is a representation of the id in action, I think he doesn’t feel the guilt he is supposed to feel over the shit he does (like Sibyl Vane – poor girl), because of the painting. The painting that Basil made for him in the very beginning of the novel is a physical representation of the clash between Dorian’s ego and his superego (that’s what creates the sense of guilt, the clash between these two); which is why Dorian does not feel guilt or remorse. Either because, in a very corny way, Basil, with his love for Dorian, linked Dorian’s pure and innocent – initial – soul/nature to the painting, and now that his soul/nature is changing, so is the painting; or because Dorian relinquishes the guilt onto the painting, so long as he, himself, does not look like what the painting looks like.
Just to wrap this up, here is one of my favorite Lord Henry phrases. Enjoy :)
“He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time” (Wilde 41).
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