Bilgrami describes “objective identity” as “who you are in light of certain biological or social facts about you.” HOW DO The Picture of Dorian Gray AND Fleche PRESENT THE COMPOSITION OF iDENTITY?

section 1 - ambition:

• The PofDG » ambition to portray oneself as aligning with a particular notion, whether that is aspirational or genuine inner emotions often makes up much of one’s identity - link back to JSTOR title article » Wilde presents Dorian’s infatuation with the upkeep of his appearance/ambition to maintain his youthful appearance as controlling how he presents himself (subjective identity) and how he is perceived (objective identity) » objective identity encourages this ambition

• AO2:

  • “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!” (pg30)

  • “I know, now, that when one loses one’s good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything” (pg31)

  • “why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul? he kept his youth - that was enough.” (pg 132)

• AO3: Victorian society put a high value on a gentleman’s good reputation and there was huge pressure to conform to society’s expectations. Desires and habits that did not fit in with these expectations had to be hidden or repressed and the novel explores the consequences of this.

• AO4: both Wilde and Chan show that ambition in identity is important in its composition, because one’s aim will affect how that individual’s eventually comes out

• A05: “Through the image he obtains from the portrait, Dorian acquires an identity and begins to sense and interprets the outer world as an independent individual” | “He enjoys the self image forming through the portrait and he wants to keep his newly-formed perfect image.” » https://www.academypublication.com/issues2/jltr/vol0702/18.pdf

• A05: pg285-6 (John R Maynard): “his identity exists as the desired of others, first of the loving painter Basil Hallward, who worships his beauty but also creates it for Dorian, gives him this identity by objectifying, even commodifying it on the canvas; then of Lord Wotton, who shows Dorian how to fashion himself by demonstrating how easily he can remake and manipulate his identity…. Identity, to use the term that Judith Butler has explored so well, seems to be not a heritage that one owns but an act one learns to perform. In this formulation, identity comes last, its manifestations first; it comes last as a conceptualisation of a set of practices…Identity is always a fiction…” » A Companion to “The Victorian Novel” » edited by Patrick Brantlinger and William B Thesing

• AO5: Individuals differ in the level of importance they place on a specific identity; thus, each individual's hierarchy of important identities is different. » https://www.jstor.org/stable/41318089?read-now=1&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents

• Fleche » Chan’s ambition to please her parents hindered her from exploring her identity in her gender and sexuality, and living authentically » this ambition meant her early ‘objective’ identity in how others saw her, perhaps did not align with her ‘subjective’ » alternatively to TPoDG: Chan seems to send a message that subjective identity should be of more importance » how one sees oneself should end up being reflected outwardly, becoming objective, rather than how they are perceived by others affecting (detrimental?) the inward

• AO2:

  • Practice

    • “…all the girls swapping one uniform for another before practice”

    • “Hours later, I would transform”

  • Dress

    • “each time you wore it, you shut your body up.”

  • Notes Towards an Understanding

    • “My mind was turned to/two frequencies: mother’s Cantonese rage,/your soothing English, inviting me to choose.”

  • A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far

    • “Most nights, I dream of my mother’s face, by turns harsh and tender/In a nightmare, I shouted at her: Neither you nor I are the enemy!”

  • Always

    • “Do you ever write about me?/ Mother, what do you think?/ You are always where I begin.”

    • “Always the lips wishing/they could kiss those mouths/you would approve of.”

  • Magnolias

    • “the girl dreams that the words sprouting like weeds from her mouth are not/weeds, but magnolias: her mother’s favourites.”

  • The Window

    • “You will refuse/your mother’s rage, her spit, her tongue/heavy like the heaviest of stones”

  • A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far

    • “Do you know what camouflage looks like on a day-to-day basis?/Checking the coast is clear before opening a single tab (and multiple decoys) on a screen…Watching my parents’ faces for a sign to hold a tidal wave back”

• AO3:

  • despite the wider acceptance of queer identities in contemporary society, in comparison to that of Victorian England, the Hong Kongese culture that Chan grew up in regarded such notions as this, as subversions from the ‘norm’ » Chan felt she had to suppress this, therefore, to avoid disappointing her parents, and this ambition to do so overcasts her actual identity, as she presents in a ‘normal’ way

• AO4:

  • when the PicofDG is read via a queer lens, it could be argued that attitudes towards the queer community have not advanced enough » concept of coming out, for example - any romance between Basil and Dorian is caged within terms like ‘infatuation,’ showing similar suppression of authentic subjective identity, aside from Dorian’s general hedonistic behaviour, translating to inaccurate objective identities

• AO5:

  • “Ethnic self-identities can be understood as ‘definitions of the situation of the self’ (Rumbaut 2005). For children of immigrants, they can be conceptualized to emerge from the interplay of racial and ethnic labels and categories imposed by the external society and the ancestral attachments asserted by the newcomers.” » Varieties of Ethnic Self-Identities: Children of Immigrants in Middle Adulthood by Cynthia Feliciano and Ruben G Rumbaut

section 2 - subjective identity in self-perception/inner identity:

• TPoDG » Wilde portrays identity as containing an inner identity that the individual could choose to keep hidden » is self-perception more important than external judgement? or is inner identity just not as important as how others see you? Dorian knows that he disfigures his soul in the upkeep of his youthfulness, seen within Basil’s painting, coming to loathe himself for it

  • whilst society lavishes him with praise and awe, he must maintain a facade of innocence » is subjective identity and self-perception perhaps more important and truthful then, contrary to what Bilgrami says? because his soul, how he sees himself, is really what he is

• AO2:

  • “the life that was to make his soul would mar his body.” (pg30)

  • “but here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their souls.” (pg105)

  • “he grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul.” (pg139)

• AO3:

  • aestheticism » occurred during late 1800s, focused on the importance of art above everything else + decadence, luxury » Wilde’s championing of aestheticism could perhaps explain Dorian’s own fixation on preserving himself as an art piece

• AO4:

  • difference in historical context » whilst Dorian most likely his implied homosexual feelings for Basil as sinful, alongside his general growing lack of moral regard, actively leaning into it, Chan believes and knows that her sexuality is not sinful » there is more to identity than reputation and presenting yourself a certain way for others to make opinions

• AO5:

  • pg314 (Cannon Schmitt): “Like Jekyll, Dorian Gray embraces a split between a public and a private or an outer and an inner self; unlike Jekyll, however, he never imagines the former as anything but a cynical necessity, a ruse to allow him to pursue his unspecified crimes or sins without fear of suffering the consequences.” » A Companion to “The Victorian Novel” » edited by Patrick Brantlinger and William B Thesing

• Fleche » Chan = whether or not others can see it, subjective identity and how one sees oneself makes up a more significant part of identity than “objective” » how Chan discovers herself to be in regard to her sexuality remains as how she identifies herself, whether the people around her know it/can see it or not

  • having to conceal this part of her identity throughout her childhood does not make it any less significant/true

• AO2:

  • The Window

    • “an encumbered body/let loose from its cage”

  • //

    • “I have stopped believing that secrets are a beautiful way/to die.”

  • A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far

    • “I am writing in the voice of my most hopeful self”

    • “One day, it becomes a choice to walk out of this life, or to begin living mine/I left half of my language behind to escape my impeccable persona”

• AO3:

  • Chan forced to hide identity whilst growing up

• AO4:

Chan had experienced living behind a facade in her childhood and then living freely as an adult, and unlike Dorian, who is, for much of the novel, content with safely living a double life as it were, Chan refutes this idea of settling.

• AO5: “More recently, however, scholars have begun examining the many ways in which identities do change, and a growing body of theoretical and empirical work on identity within organization studies has focused on identity's dynamism”

  (e.g., Ashforth, 2001; Ibarra, 1999; Markus & Wurf,1987). In short, to maintain a sense of continuity over time and yet adapt to shifting personal and social conditions, individuals need to balance their need to preserve identity stability with their need to sustain identity dynamism. » https://www.jstor.org/stable/41318089?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents

• AO5:

  • “subjective identity requires identification with one’s own tendencies” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20028067?searchText=identity+definition&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Didentity%2Bdefinition%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ab2ac217dfc7b872abf8b660af55638a9&seq=3)

    • she not only acknowledges her sexual attraction, but identifies with it, rather than it being just present

  • “[Identities] may…be a source of solidarity and belonging when one is feeling alienated from one’s social environment” BILGRAMI :(https://www.jstor.org/stable/20028067?searchText=identity+definition&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Didentity%2Bdefinition%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ab2ac217dfc7b872abf8b660af55638a9&seq=3)

  • “We adopt particular identities to fill needs, like the desire for belonging or self-esteem” (Clayton, 2012)

section 3 - objective identity in exterior perceptions » has inner identity been successfully conveyed? either way it is a part of one’s personal brand and therefore identity, even on a superficial level:

• TPofDG: Wilde explores how easy it is to simply impose a facade on the exterior, your “objective identity”, in place of your subjective and inner » he is seen an aspirational figure, as much of his attention is on his consistently youthful appearance » society influences what he pays attention to within himself » exterior eventually comes to reflect his interior to others, at the very last second - last page

• AO2:

  • “Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul.” (pg21)

  • “You have a wonderfully beautiful face, Mr. Gray. Don’t frown. You have. And Beauty is a form of Genius—is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation.” (Lord Henry - pg26)

  • “sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life” (pg33)

  • “what did it matter what happened to the coloured image on the canvas? he would be safe. that was everything.” (pg116)

  • “they wondered how one so charming and graceful as he was could have escaped the stain of an age that was at once sordid and sensual.” - pg139 » suggested that perhaps instead of wondering, responses aloud would have made Dorian rethink the corruption of his soul

  • “is insincerity such a terrible thing? i think not. it is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.” (pg154)

  • “his beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth but a mockery” (pg238)

  • “it was the living death of his own soul that troubled him” (pg239)

  • “it would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace” (pg241)

  • “they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty” (pg242)

  • “lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. he was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. it was not till they had examined the rings that they recognised who it was” (pg242)

• AO3:

  • reputation crops up again » Dorian’s class, status and background within Victorian society mostly absolved him of needing to act morally: “society, civilised society at least, is never ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating” - pg154, TPofDG

• AO5: Queer reading » Dorian’s quest to retain his appearance in the likeness of Basil’s painting could perhaps be an attempt to remain the same in the eyes of his lover » aligns with Wilde’s concealed sexuality

  • https://hyacinthreview.org/terri-pinyerd-the-picture-of-dorian-gray-and-the-symbolism-of-the-self/ : “Wilde himself once stated that:

    [Dorian Gray] contains much of me in it. Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry, what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be – in other ages perhaps….In this sense, the back-and-forth of Wotton and Hallward symbolizes something greater: Wilde’s use of his public persona to distract from his reality and the first facet of Wilde’s self.”

• AO5:

  • pg285-6 (John R Maynard): “his identity exists as the desired of others, first of the loving painter Basil Hallward, who worships his beauty but also creates it for Dorian, gives him this identity by objectifying, even commodifying it on the canvas; then of Lord Wotton, who shows Dorian how to fashion himself by demonstrating how easily he can remake and manipulate his identity…. Identity, to use the term that Judith Butler has explored so well, seems to be not a heritage that one owns but an act one learns to perform. In this formulation, identity comes last, its manifestations first; it comes last as a conceptualisation of a set of practices…Identity is always a fiction…” » A Companion to “The Victorian Novel” » edited by Patrick Brantlinger and William B Thesing

  • pg207 (Lyn Pykett): "Lord Henry Wotton argues that if we repress our desires in conformity with social mores ‘we degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid’ » The Cambridge Companion to The Victorian Novel

• Fleche: Chan conveys the message of identity needing to become whole » the subjective aligns with the objective - identity should be composed of both, and they should complement each other » is this always possible though?

  • her objective identity comes to reflect her subjective identity » identity composed of both

• AO2:

  • //

    • “Tonight, I forget that I am/bilingual”

  • Names (II)

    • “when I am met/at the threshold/of each bathroom/with the frightened jerk of a woman/pushing the door open/I say nothing/insist on my body’s relevance to conditional spaces”

  • Wish

    • “if you looked within me now, you’d see/that my languages are like roots/gnarled in soil, one and indivisible”

  • Names (II)

    • “so when I am greeted with/Sir/Sir/Sir/ on the streets/of London/in the cafe/of the British Library/I blame myself/blame the clothes I chose/thought camouflage/was a fashion label/I could hide behind/can hear my mother’s voice/it’s your fault/they've mistaken you/for a boy”

• AO3:

  • moving to the West, specifically the UK, allowed Chan to be able to live fully as herself = alignment between objective and subjective identities

• AO4:

  • “society, civilised society at least, is never ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating” - pg154, TPofDG

Mary Jean Chan depicts identity as being heavily affected by one’s upbringing. Chan’s mothers asks of her in ‘Always,’ whether “[she] ever write[s] about [her],” to which Chan indignantly replies that she is “always where [she] begins,” despite her falling short of her mother’s wish for her to have lips that “could kiss those mouths/[she] would approve of.” Although unable to satisfy herself and her identity, her mother retains significance in her life, simultaneously gaining her approval. This compulsion to compromise is comparable with Chan’s childhood quest to reconcile her adoration for English literature, which she felt better represented her queer desires (in texts such as ‘Twelfth Night’), with her mother’s insistence that she “declare [her] allegiance to China’s extensive literary canon.” TO REFERENCE Since she was young, she has been aware that she is “a tiny machine/being oiled for the day [she] must face the world,” in ‘Rules for a Chinese Child Buying Stationery in a London Bookshop,’ yet she is proud of finding her identity and being and feeling alive, because “dead daughters do not disappoint.” This striking line contains a double entendre, both of which relate to Chan’s quest for identity; an internal death behind a maternally approved facade, or to come out, and face resentment within a community where suicide is unfortunately rife.  As the poetry collection progresses, a shift in tone is identifiable, one of reminiscent wistfulness. Chan thanks her “fantasy mother...for taking [her] coming out as calmly/as a pond accepts a stone/flung into its depths,” before admitting that, in reality, she “returned it [her] room and touched/all the forbidden parts of [her]self.” The visual simile of a stone entering a pond conveys a sense that, although Chan is very much aware that, whilst what she came to discover of herself and her identity was foreign to her mother and original culture, she would have appreciated feeling comfortable enough to come out, and continue being loved and embraced as she was, nonetheless. Instead, she is forced to retain her secret within the concealment of her room, to avoid commotion. Chan was once “the girl [that] dream[t] that the words sprouting like weeds from her mouth [were] not/weeds, but magnolias: her mother’s favourites,” in ‘Magnolias,’ eager to please and succumb to her mother’s wishes, until she becomes , in ‘The Window,’ one who “will refuse/[her] mother’s rage, her spit, her tongue/heavy like the heaviest of stone.” There is a recurring theme of language throughout ‘Fleche,’ and how this can play a part in one’s identity and their search for it – an idea also highlighted in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray,’ where Dorian’s primary influences are the words of Lord Henry and the contents of his yellow book. A cultural relativist perspective, however, would shine a positive light on the fact that Chan was so profoundly constructed around her mother’s beliefs and cultural norms, and that she was able to find herself in Western culture, alongside her roots in Chinese society.  In ‘Fleche,’ Chan’s doubts of her identity stem from her mother’s verbal response to her coming out, especially her “Cantonese rage.”