唯美主义的现实悲剧——《道林•格雷的画像》中的“皮格马利翁”原型分析

Tragedy of Aestheticism in Reality—An Analysis of Pygmalion Archetype in the Picture of Dorian Gray

摘要: 奥斯卡•王尔德是19世纪末唯美主义运动的代表人物，他一生仅创作了《道林•格雷的画像》一部长篇小说。小说中隐含着“皮格马利翁”这一神话原型：在精神上，亨利对道林的言谈身教使得道林成为亨利创作的一件艺术品；在物质上，画家巴滋尔为道林绘制了一副有生命的画像，赋予道林“永葆青春美貌”的神性力量。小说通过“皮格马利翁”原型创造了一个充满感官享乐且不受自然法则约束的唯美主义理想，但同时却将这个唯美理想置于充满桎梏的现实世界中考量。这种理想与现实世界的矛盾冲突，体现了弗莱的“秋之悲剧”叙事结构，说明了道林的悲剧根源在于从唯美主义的理想世界坠落，进入现实世界。

Abstract: Oscar Wilde is a consequential figure in Aesthetic Movement of the late nineteenth century. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel written by Wilde. Pygmalion seems to play a thematic role in the novel as a mythological archetype. For one thing Henry’s preaching makes Dorian his work of art, for another Basil’s painting of an animated picture enables Dorian to stay eternally young and beautiful. The Pygmalion archetype, on one hand, creates an aesthetic idealism which leads to relief of social constraint and attainment of carnal happiness; on the other hand, it examines such idealism in harsh reality filled with moral principles and natural laws. This thesis aims to study the conflicts between ideal and reality from the perspective of Northrop Frye’s theory “fall for tragedy”, with a view to demonstrate how the tragedy of Dorian Gray can be traced to the misplacement of myth in reality.