Christa Giles

with his criminal inclinations. Thus in true Sadeian fashion
the corruption of unspoilt youth is one mode of revolt, one
proof of power. Yet the dandy manages to function within
society while secretly infringing upon its laws. The Prince
of Darkness is a gentleman who masks his rage, contempt,
and despair beneath a blasé exterior. Dorian’s beauty
symbolically functions as ˝a mask,˝ 198 and he not only
destroys Sibyl Vane but is also perceived to be a generally
pernicious influence, significantly ˝fatal to young men.˝ 199
The dandy’s ˝exclusive love of domination˝ 200 leads him to
employ sex and violence to control others. Of course,
aggression against authority – often a source of erotic
release – is in some degree a perverse assertion of he self.
The abnormal or the perverse becomes through its
artificiality a demonstration of free will. For: ˝La
dépravation, c’est à dire l écart du type normal est
impossible à la bête, fatalement conduite par l’instinct
immuable.˝ 201
Most of these ideas can be seen in embryo in De
Sade’s work. Crime and satanism become in his world an
assertion of human freedom, an attempt to break through
externally imposed restraints. The central idea, as we have
seen, is that, as nature is bad, artificiality must be virtue;
and, by extension, different types of artificialities
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