“Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed.”
“I am tired of myself tonight. I should like to be somebody else.”
There is only one thing worse in the world than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
All from Oscar Wilde’s, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890)
Do you tell the truth on Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram? Or, if you use these or similar social media platforms, do you polish and clean the image of yourself that you present to the world? Maybe you went on holiday and had a big argument with your partner, but posted only beautiful photos in which you are both smiling. Maybe you posted a picture of your tastefully arranged living-room, but your bedroom and kitchen are in a total mess.
Perhaps you are living a life similar to Dorian Gray. In Oscar Wilde’s novel, Dorian Gray begins to live an immoral life of decadence. But he remains young and beautiful, and all of his decadent actions instead affect the face of a portrait of himself that he has hidden in his attic. Every ugly action he commits makes the portrait look uglier, but the public sees only his untouched, perfect face. In other words, he can present one face to the world and keep his true face hidden away.
Although the novel was written in the 19th century, this is not dissimilar to our modern ability to present a beautiful face to the world through our social media postings, whilst the reality is very different. There was a story in the news this week about a Chinese vlogger called Lisa Li who had more than a million followers. She posted videos and pictures of herself enjoying beautiful travel experiences and eating gorgeous food. But when Lisa’s landlord heard that the apartment she rented was extremely dirty, the landlord tried to contact her to ask for the apartment to be properly cleaned. When Lisa could not be contacted, the annoyed landlord invited the media in to the apartment. They found a filthy set of rooms with moldy food and dog excrement covering the floors. Lisa’s hidden self-portrait had been revealed.
Another theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray also seems applicable to modern social media. One of the characters claims that there is no such thing as an immoral book. For him, it doesn’t matter if the effect of writing the book is to damage innocent people’s reputations, or to cause pain and misery. All that matters is that the book is beautifully written. On Twitter, a huge amount of comments are negative or hurtful towards others. Many people have decided that there is no such thing as an immoral tweet. All that matters is that it is in some way funny, or attracts attention.
Just never forget that, like Dorian Gray and Lisa Li, your private face will be exposed someday.
Vocabulary:
sin – immoral actions; crimes against god
to be concealed – to be hidden
decadence – moral decline; excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury
an attic – a small top room in a house
a landlord – the owner of a rented property
filthy – extremely dirty or unclean
excrement – physical waste produced by the body
to be exposed – of a hidden thing, to be uncovered or revealed
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