Christa Giles

anqueroutes, d’un vieux juge tombé, a la
suite d’attentats compliqués, dans le préau
d’une maison de force! 169
This flower, or Pierrot, becomes a creature ˝d’ignominie et
de souffrance.˝ 170 Through the humiliation of his position,
through the recognition of suffering and evil, the Pierrot-
like dandy becomes related both to the Christ figure, and
the satanic, and the alienated artist. This ˝Méphisto
simiesque˝ 171 is associated with the moon, which suggests
sterility, and by extension with art which, according to
Wilde, is ˝superbly sterile.˝ 172 The Pierrot, in effect,
symbolizes both the narcissism and/or martyrdom of the
artist. The Pierrot/dandy who exists both within and
outside society is both spectator and participant, alienated
not only from life but from himself.
Dorian Gray is perhaps the best exemplar of this
alienation as it is translated into concrete terms: the man
and his double – the portrait. The idea of the multiplicity of
man’s selves and the belief that man could be both beast
and angel, Satan and Christ (as Durtal in Là-bas)
preoccupied both Huysmans and Wilde. The apparent
contradiction of man’s many-sidedness finds its expression
in art, which in both Wilde’s and Huysmans’ belief was the
expression of personality. The internal division necessitates
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