Category: The Little Stranger

Imbalances of Power

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Hello all,

Below is a brilliant essay submitted by Sophie Russell on imbalances of power in the ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ and ‘The Little Stranger.’ Improvements have been added in bold.

In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ and ‘The Little Stranger’, Wilde and Waters use imbalances of power to represent social concerns and constructs of the time. Both authors show the power that the supernatural has over the characters. The supernatural has been manifested as a result of anxieties around change- the fin de siècle in ‘Dorian Gray’ and changes of class in a post-war society in ‘The Little Stranger’. These social concerns and constructs result in power imbalances between the characters, particularly because of class and gender.

In both texts, the supernatural has a powerful and destructive effect on the characters. In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, Wilde mainly presents the effect of the supernatural on Dorian Gray via the portrait. The portrait becomes a split self of Dorian because he wishes the retain his youth and beauty forever- ‘If it were I who was to be always young, and picture that was to grow old. For that I could give everything’. Dorian does ‘give everything’, as he trades his soul in order to retain his youth and beauty. The portrait becomes a part of him, a split-self. The split self double is a common Gothic trope, used to show the power that the supernatural can have, especially during times of social change because of the threats that change can bring,  as supernatural threats can hide behind a façade. Wilde uses the split-self trope to show the effect that the portrait has over Dorian. In ‘The Little Stranger’, Waters also uses the Gothic trope of the split-self for a similar purpose. Dr Faraday is suspected to be the ‘little stranger’ and what is tormenting the Ayres throughout the novel, allowing Faraday to become a part of the Ayres life without them knowing that he is a threat. Faraday is unaware that he may be a threat or have a double self, unlike Dorian, although at the end of the novel, he says the ‘little stranger’ may be ‘spawned from the troubled unconscious of someone connected with the house itself’, unknowingly aligning with the theory that Waters suggests at throughout the novel. In the first chapter, Faraday narrates that he ‘wanted to possess a piece of it’ and steals a ‘plaster acorn’ from Hundreds Hall. This may have been when Faraday becomes ‘connected with the house’, meaning that he unconsciously is tormenting the Ayres for the entire novel. Waters uses the irony of Faraday stating this but being unaware of it to show that the supernatural can have a powerful effect in the novel, even if they are unaware of it. This differs in ‘Dorian Gray’ as other characters are unaware of Dorian’s deception. While Faraday is unaware if the supernatural’s effect, other characters in the novel are. Roderick is the first in the novel to be tormented by the ‘little stranger’, such as the fires in his room where it ‘seemed to leap’. The fact that the fire ‘leaped’ instead of spreading like a normal fire would shows that it is a product of the supernatural. Roderick is aware of this, saying ‘it’s smarter than I thought’. He says to Faraday that he has to ‘keep the source of the infection away from my mother and sister’, showing that he bears the burdens of the supernatural because as ‘man of the house’, he has a duty to protect his female family members. However, the power of the supernatural escalates throughout the novel, resulting in both Mrs Ayres’ and Caroline’s demise.

 The tension in the novel both novels escalate throughout as the supernatural gains more power, showing the effect that it has on the characters. In ‘The Little Stranger’, Caroline ends up ‘plunging down in the moonlight’ towards the end of the novel, only shortly after Mrs Ayres’ death, showing the high escalation in the power of the supernatural. The close time scale between Mrs Ayres’ and Caroline’s deaths shows the high escalation in tension. This happens after Faraday gains more power and control over the family, going from being unexpected- ‘neither Mrs Ayres nor Caroline was expecting me’ to being relied on as he arranges Mrs Ayres funeral- ‘began to make a list of all the things that must be done’. Thus, as Faraday gains more power within the Ayres family, the supernatural threat increases. Wilde follows a similar rising tension in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, as Dorian becomes more consumed by the portrait. It has a power over Dorian, with him saying through his free indirect speech that his sins would ‘defile it, and make it shameful. Yet the thing would still live on’. The use of FIS allows us to see Dorian’s inner thoughts and feelings, therefore showing his distress over the portrait. Dorian is concerned of the portrait being found as it would be ‘shameful’ because of Victorian Hypocrisy and strict morals of the time that would not allow for the amount  of sin that Dorian commits, especially as an upper-class gentleman. Wilde uses Dorian’s concerns over the portrait to show his own views on Victorian morals and Aestheticism. While Aestheticism states that art should be beautiful and Wilde says in his preface ‘All art is meaningless’, Victorian morality attempted to place meaning and morality into art. Dorian’s concerns over the portrait being found show Victorian hypocrisy, as he isn’t concerned about committing the sins, but is about being caught. Wilde makes a criticism on Victorian society through this and his presentation of the supernatural. Dorian ends up meeting his downfall because of the painting as it worsens and grows more ‘grotesque’. He says that he must ‘kill this monstrous soul-life…he would be at peace’. He believes that with his sins gone, peace will come as the painting has grown so ‘grotesque’ and powerful. However, he ends up meeting his demise, as the Ayres also do after the increase in supernatural power.

The writers also show power imbalances through relationships between characters, particularly men and women. In ‘The Little Stranger’, Caroline and Faraday’s relationship can show this as Faraday aims to gain control over Caroline, in order to own Hundreds Hall. Caroline recognises this, saying ‘I think it’s the house you want’. Faraday wants the house because he seeks social mobility, and the Ayres are vulnerable to him due to class changes that have made him lose power. As a doctor, the Ayres trust him and his logic, allowing him to gain power over them, particularly Mrs Ayres and Caroline after Roderick’s departure as, in a patriarchal society, they would have to rely on men for survival, as the women also would in ‘Dorian Gray’, especially in their declining position. These factors of power that Faraday has allows him to gaslight Caroline in their relationship to thinking that he doesn’t want the house, saying ‘My darling, I think you’re tired’, after Mrs Ayres’ death when Caroline doesn’t want to get married. However, Caroline is aware of his manipulation, saying ‘sometimes I think you want to keep me tired’. Waters aims to show a woman in a changing post-war society where women have more power than before and don’t need to be as reliant on men. This differs in ‘Dorian Gray’, as Sibyl Vane, Dorian’s fiancée early on in the novel, has to rely on Dorian and men once she is married. This relates to separate spheres- women not being able to be married and work. Dorian has power over Sibyl, as Faraday also does over Caroline, because he is a higher-class man, and she is a higher-class woman. Sibyl says ‘Prince Charming rules life now’. The fact that she calls him ‘Prince Charming’ shows his higher station over her as he is a ‘prince’. Sibyl would no longer be able to act once she marries Dorian, so he would ‘rule’ her life. However, Dorian has fallen in love with Sibyl because of the roles she plays, not because of her, so when she acts badly, Dorian is no longer in love with her, saying that she is ‘ruined’. Sibyl cannot recover from this rejection and ends up committing suicide. Throughout this novel, Wilde uses flower imagery to present Sibyl’s character. However, when Dorian rejects her, she is described as a ‘trampled flower’, as her image has been ruined and she cannot recover due to the reliance that women had on men. While Caroline can recover from the imbalance of power between her and Faraday as she is in a post-war and changing society, Sibyl can’t survive without Dorian because of the imbalance between genders.

To conclude, the authors show the imbalance of power between the characters and the supernatural, as well as men over women. This is because of social concerns and constructs seen in the times of the novels.

Menace in Little Stranger and The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Hello all,

Below is an exemplary essay contributed by Sophie Russell of the English blog team from our recent mocks. It was originally awarded an A with green pen additions in bold.

Compare the ways in which the writers present menace in ‘The Little Stranger’ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’

In ‘The Little Stranger’ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, Waters and Wilde use menace to show social concerns of the time. In ‘Dorian Gray’, these concerns are mainly around the fin de siècle- they fear change such as social change and the loss of class hierarchies, but Victorian hypocrisy allows them to hide. In ‘The Little Stranger’, they also fear change around class. These menaces are mainly manifested in the supernatural. They can be hidden but eventually, they are something that will destroy. As these menaces are revealed, tension and destruction in both novels escalate.

In both novels, menaces can be contained and shielded from society because of social structures of the time. In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, Wilde uses menaces to show Victorian Hypocrisy of the time. Dorian’s evil and Hedonistic ways can be hidden away, as the portrait can bear his sins while he never changes. Thus, no one believes that Dorian can be a menace, as ‘sin is a thing that writes itself upon a man’s face. It cannot be concealed’. This is ironic to the reader as we know that this is false. Dorian lives a Hedonistic lifestyle, saying that because of the portrait, he can ‘follow his mind into secret places’- he can hide all of his sins. This Hedonism is prompted by Lord Henry, who influences Dorian by saying things like ‘The only way to get rid of sin is to wield it’. Lord Henry can hide his threatening nature to Dorian beside his social class, as he is very high class and therefore powerful- Dorian succumbs easily to Dorian’s temptation- ‘He was dimly conscious that entirely fresh influences where at work within him’. Henry’s manipulation is the first rising of tension in the novel, as it is the first threat. However, as Dorian is so easily influences by Henry, it can be argued that he has always had this menace within him as Basil says in the first chapter ‘he seems to take a real delight in giving me pain’- right from the beginning, Dorian shows signs of being wicked, so this menace could’ve been hidden all along but repressed. This is similar with Dr Faraday in ‘The Little Stranger’, shown through his narrative. Faraday appears to be a kind, well-respected doctor, but through his narration, we can see his inner thoughts, such as ‘I felt the faintest stirrings of a dark dislike’- here we can see a threat that Faraday may pose to the Ayres family as ‘dark dislike’ suggests something evil. It is suggested throughout the novel that Faraday may be the ‘little stranger’ that is ’haunting’ the Ayres. At the end of the novel, it says that the ‘little stranger’ may be ‘spawned from the troubled unconscious of someone connected with the house itself’. The reader sees that Faraday does have a connection to the house, as it says in the first chapter that he ‘wanted to possess a piece of it’. Faraday poses a threat to the Ayres family if he is ‘the little stranger’ as they are already deteriorating because of social and class change. Faraday is working class and grew up that way, but seeks to dominate the house. Waters does this to show class concerns of a post-war society, as the gentry families like the Ayres were dying out. Waters suggests that Faraday has a split-self, a typical Gothic trope. This makes him a threat to the Ayres as they don’t know his true self and that he may be a menace towards them. The Gothic genre itself was created because of uncertainties around change, seen in both texts. Dorian Gray also has a split-self, with one half being the painting. However, Dorian is aware of this, and Faraday is not. Dorian wants to hide the portrait, and locks it in the attic, his old schoolroom. ‘Now it was to hide something that had a corruption of its own’- The attic acts as a Gothic Prison, a place of secrecy of hiding, particularly as ‘it hasn’t been opened in nearly five years’. The portrait is another menace, ‘a corruption’, which Dorian hides away. ‘Corruption’ is synonymous with destruction, so here Dorian directly says through his free indirect speech that the portrait is destructive. It is because of this that Dorian can perform his sins, so both Dorian and the portrait act as a menace. While Dorian consciously hides the portrait away and his sins, Faraday’s is subconscious. He seeks for a higher social standing, and so acts as one would, criticising the Ayres for their loss of class- ‘almost as if speaking to someone of her own class’. However, he is rejecting of a supernatural presence for most of the novel, and instead uses logic- ‘It is clearly due to strain’. So if the hauntings are due to his ‘tormented subconscious’, he is unaware of it and doesn’t actively hide it, whereas Dorian does.

Waters and Wilde also show menaces as a force of destruction and terror. In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, destruction is seen mainly through imagery. The portrait deteriorates into a ‘hideous face’ and described by Basil through his free indirect speech as filling him with ‘disgust and loathing’. Previously, Basil sees Dorian as ‘He is all my art to me now’, as Dorian is so beautiful. This relates to Aestheticism, which is the belief that art should be beautiful. The contrast between the descriptions of Dorian at the start as ‘scarlet-lipped’ and ‘golden haired’ compared to the grotesque imagery of the portrait nearer the end as ‘hideous’ and a ‘horror’ shows the destruction of Dorian’s self, as the portrait ‘wields his sins’. Lord Henry claims that the world ‘needs a new Hedonism’, but when Dorian fulfils this, he causes a lot of destruction. Basil asks Dorian ‘Why is your friendship so fatal to young men?’ as many of Dorian’s old friends have been caught in scandals because of him. Dorian can hide his sins behind Victorian hypocrisy, and this ends up as corruptive, showing Wilde’s own criticisms of Victorian hypocrisy as destructive. However, in ‘The Little Stranger’, the Ayres are deteriorating because of class changes, which is negative for them as it makes them vulnerable, but positive for the majority of society as it strives for more class equality. While Wilde criticises Victorian hypocrisy, Waters shows social change as a positive thing for the majority of society, such as Faraday as he can social climb, but not for the Ayres. All the Ayres end up with unfortunate endings: Mrs Ayres and Caroline dead, Roderick in a mental hospital. Roderick is tormented by a supernatural force that manifests itself in the house, such as the fire in his room and the mirror ‘shuffling towards him’. He is so stressed about the house because he fears that they will lose it because of all the class changes. So, the house manifests as a threat towards him to represent his problems around social change. The menace towards Roderick shows his concerns and ends up causing his demise. For Caroline, what causes her downfall may be Dr Faraday, as he has different intentions in his marriage with Caroline, wanting the house itself. Caroline recognises this, saying ‘Sometimes I think it’s the house you really want’. However, Faraday manipulates Caroline, shown though his differing narration and how he presents himself, such as ‘you look lovely’ compared to ‘not quite becoming’. Ultimately, Caroline recognises Faraday’s manipulation- ‘sometimes I think you want to keep me tired’. Although Caroline manages to confront her menace, she still ends up harmed, representing the inevitability of their destruction as the Ayres can’t ‘keep up with a rapidly changing world’. The house itself, Hundreds Hall, ends up deteriorating. At the end of the novel, Faraday still visits Hundreds and says that it is ‘hopelessly overgrown’ and a ‘wounded, blighted beast’. This personification of the house shows that it has been ‘wounded’ by the events, but also that it is a ‘beast’, showing that it is also a threat, as it was to Roderick. Faraday says that Hundreds was ‘destroyed by its own failure to keep up with a rapidly changing world’, showing that social change had been a threat to the house too, as now it is abandoned and a ‘wounded, blighted beast’. The many threats towards the Ayres and Hundreds have caused its downfall, as has the portrait for Dorian, and Dorian for the portrait.

To conclude, menaces are presented as something that can be hidden, but end up destructing everything because of social change, such as the fin de siècle and changes in social class, which links back to the creation of the Gothic genre as a whole. These menaces escalate in threat towards the characters throughout both novels as they are revealed, correlating with the destruction that the menace have caused.