The Decay of Lying
"The Decay of Lying – An Observation" is an essay by Oscar Wilde included in his collection of essays titled Intentions, published in 1891. This is a significantly revised version of the article that first appeared in the January 1889 issue of The Nineteenth Century.
Wilde presents the essay in a Socratic dialogue between Vivian and Cyril, two characters named after his own sons.[1] Their conversation, though playful and whimsical, promotes Wilde's view of Aestheticism over Realism.[2][3] Vivian tells Cyril of an article he has been writing called "The Decay of Lying: A Protest". According to Vivian, the decay of Lying "as an art, a science, and a social pleasure" is responsible for the decline of modern literature, which is excessively concerned with the representation of facts and social reality. He writes, "if something cannot be done to check, or at least to modify, our monstrous worship of facts, Art will become sterile and beauty will pass away from the land." Moreover, Vivian defends the idea that Life imitates Art far more than vice versa. Nature, he argues, is no less an imitation of Art than Life. Vivian also contends that Art is never representative of a time or place: rather, "the highest art rejects the burden of the human spirit [...] She develops purely on her own lines. She is not symbolic of any age." Vivian thus defends Aestheticism and the concept of "art for art's sake". At Cyril's behest, Vivian briefly summarizes the doctrines of the "new aesthetics" in the following terms:
- Art never expresses anything but itself.
- All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.
- Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life. It follows as a corollary that external Nature also imitates Art.
- Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.
The essay ends with the two characters going outside, as Cyril asked Vivian to do at the beginning of the essay. Vivian finally complies, saying that twilight nature's "chief use" may be to "illustrate quotations from the poets."
As Michèle Mendelssohn points out, "in an era when sociology was still in its infancy, psychology wasn’t yet a discipline, and theories of performativity were still a long way off, Wilde's essay touched on a profound truth about human behaviour in social situations. The laws of etiquette governing polite society were, in fact, a mask. Tact was merely an elaborate art of impression management."[1]
See also
- "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" by Mark Twain, 1880.
References
- Wilde, Oscar. The Decay of Lying in Intentions (1891)
- Ellmann, Richard, ed., The Artist As Critic (Random House, 1969)
- Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde (Random House, 1987)
- ^ a b Mendelssohn, Michèle (16 October 2017). "How Oscar Wilde's life imitates his art". Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World.
- ^ Gal, Michalle (2014). "Aestheticism". Encyclopedia of aesthetics. Michael Kelly, Oxford University Press (2nd ed.). Oxford. pp. 48–56. ISBN 978-0-19-974711-5. OCLC 890143187.
Clearly moving in "The Decay of Lying" toward a theory of the artwork as constituting a separate ontological sphere, Wilde outlined four doctrines of the "new aesthetics": (1) that art "has an independent life, just as thought has and develops purely on its own lines"; (2) that "All bad Art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals "; (3) that "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates life. "; and that "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things is the proper aim of art".
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Guter, Eran (2010). Aesthetics A-Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-7486-3006-6. OCLC 703219679.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/38px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)
- "The Decay Of Lying" at Online-Literature
Decay of Lying public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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- "The Decay of Lying"
- "The Soul of Man Under Socialism"
- "The Critic as Artist"
- "De Profundis"
- "The Canterville Ghost"
- "The Portrait of Mr. W. H."
- The Ballad of Reading Gaol
- Charmides
- "The Harlot's House"
- Poems in Prose
- The Sphinx
- Constance Wilde (wife)
- Cyril Wilde Holland (son)
- Vyvyan Wilde Holland (son)
- Merlin Holland (grandson)
- William Wilde (father)
- Jane Elgee Wilde (mother)
- Willie Wilde (brother)
- Oscar Wilde Centre (academic centre)
- Merrion Square home
- Tomb and gravesite
- A Conversation with Oscar Wilde (London sculpture)
- Memorial triptych sculpture, Dublin
life and works
- Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde
- Biographies of Oscar Wilde
- Themes and derivatives of Salome
- Oscar Wilde (1936 play)
- Oscar Wilde (1960 film)
- The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960 film)
- The Importance of Being Oscar (1960 play)
- Oscar (1985 miniseries)
- Wilde (1997 film)
- Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (1997 play)
- The Judas Kiss (1998 play)
- Oscar (2013 opera)
- The Happy Prince (2018 film)
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