Superficial, existing or occurring at or on the surface. The superficial nature of society is the idea that society focuses on the appearances of others, rather than who they actually are as a person. The idea of a superficial society occurs in both, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In both novels, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Beautiful and Damned, the main characters seem to praise beauty above all, disregarding everything else that makes a person who they are. Likewise, a lot of problems that the main characters have seem to be ignored, or go unnoticed, because they feel the need to maintain their image, whether that be physical appearance or social status. The main characters in both novels are unhappy with their superficial lives, but realize this when it is far too late. The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Beautiful and Damned portray the theme of a society that is superficial in nature.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian, and everyone he knew, praised beauty above all, ignoring all other aspects of a person. Dorian’s youth and beauty is admired by most of the people in London, especially his close friends. His immoral personality and sinful actions he commits are disregarded by London’s society because he continues to remain young and beautiful. Dorian sold his soul in order to preserve his youth and beauty, not realizing the consequences of his actions. Dorian wished that “...it were only the other way! If the picture could change. And I could be always what I am now!” (Wilde, 30). Little did he know, his wish would come true and his portrait would age in his place. Dorian always seems to have a certain power over the people in his life, because of his attractiveness, regardless of the countless amount of sins that he commits. He was able to get away with practically everything, including murder. The fact that no one attempted to stop him from spiraling out of control, only led him to spiral more, committing more and more sins every day. Dorian was very focused on his own physical appearance, that his personality got lost somewhere along the way. He completely changed into someone that he was not and struggled to regain who he used to be.
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In The Beautiful and Damned, the two main characters, Anthony and Gloria continue to inflate their own self worth because they are such attractive people, instead of praising their moral personalities or just who they are as human beings. The couple continued to value physical appearances over anything else, like skills, abilities, experiences, morals, or beliefs. Their main focus was their youth and beauty. Their high social class feeds into their obsession with their image, as they are expected to maintain their physical appearance and youth. Anthony, who had failed in his career as a writer, was “one of those men devoid of the symmetry of feature essential to the Aryan ideal, he was yet, here and there, considered handsome - moreover, he was very clean, in appearance and in reality, with that especial cleanness borrowed from beauty” (Fitzgerald, 14). Anthony, described as being handsome rather than kind or honest, married the beautiful Gloria, to maintain his youth and attractiveness because she made him feel younger and more handsome. Anthony also likes to spend his money on materialistic and luxurious things. He has expensive taste, so his clothing and furniture are beautiful of course, but a waste of his money, since he has no incoming income. It does not seem to be a concern for him though. He is just proud to have things in his life that are physically appealing to the eye.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian meets the young and beautiful Sibyl Vane. Her youth and beauty speak to Dorian as he watches her perform in the theatre. It is almost like Dorian falls in love with her beauty and physical appearance, rather than who she actually is. Dorian talks about Sibyl like the only good thing about her is her ability to act, put on a good show and look pretty for her audience. Dorian says to Lord Henry that “[He] has seen her in every age and in every costume. Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination. They are limited to their century” (Wilde, 55). When Sibyl’s acting takes a toll because of her love for Dorian, he ends things with her because he can no longer love her if she is not a good actress. He was focused on the superficial nature of her, rather than who she actually was as a person.
In The Beautiful and Damned, Gloria was more concerned with her appearance, rather than her personality or who she was as a person. She is ready to die at the young age of 30. Gloria waited too long to become an actress. She finds that she is not as young and beautiful as she used to be, and therefore cannot get any leading roles. She feels as if she has no future because all her youth and beauty have faded away. Gloria feels that she is no longer young or pretty enough to have a future. She wasted most of her youth wishing that she was younger, and in turn she was never successful in her career. Gloria used her looks to get through her life, “while it seemed to him that the average débutane spent every hour of her day thinking and talking about what the great world had mapped out for her to do during the next hour, any girl who made a living directly on her prettiness interested [Anthony] enormously” (Fitzgerald, 33). Gloria never had to work for money, she was always able to earn a living by just being young and beautiful.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian was unaware that the actions he was taking would have such a toll on his life. He was so focused on staying young and beautiful that he did not realize that he was becoming such an immoral human being. He did not realize that what he was doing was wrong. He was out of touch with reality. Dorian’s constant concern for his physical appearance and youth clouded his judgement and took over his life, but he did not realize that this was a problem. “What was that loathsome red dew that gleamed, wet and glistening, on one of the hands, as though the canvas had sweated blood?” (Wilde, 178), Dorian had realized that he now had blood on his hands in the portrait of him after killing Basil. Even though he had just killed his friend, he was still focused on his portrait, and his appearance, rather that the fact that his friend was now dead, and it was his fault.
In The Beautiful and Damned, Anthony’s and Gloria’s marriage was falling apart. They were quite oblivious to this, but it was falling apart because they were so focused on their appearance and social status, that they forgot why they were married in the first place. They argued constantly, mostly about money. Gloria never had to work a day in her life, and Anthony was a failed writer, waiting to inherit millions of dollars from his grandfather. Neither of them were willing to work for a living, which caused a lot of problems. They were struggling financially, but they still had enough money to throw fancy, socialite parties with all their friends because they wanted to maintain their image and social status. They were too focused on their physical appearance and social image that they did not bother to even attempt to fix their money problems. “Things had been slipping perceptibly. There was the money question, increasingly annoying, increasingly ominous; there was the realization that liquor had become a practical necessity to their amusement…” (Fitzgerald, 218), but instead of trying to fix their problems, they just created more by avoiding them. They kept having people over, kept drinking, did anything to keep their minds off their slipping marriage and financial situation.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, towards the end of the novel, Dorian realizes that he is unhappy with his life. His constant worry to stay young and handsome have driven him to insanity. He has committed murders, and done other horrible things. When he wished that his portrait would age instead of him, he was not expecting his wish to come true. However, it did and now he was stuck living his life, still young and handsome as ever. He never aged and his beauty never faded. He thought he would be happier if he could stay young and beautiful forever, but that was not the case. At this point in the novel, Dorian “...loathed his own beauty, and flinging the mirror to the floor crushed it into silver splinters beneath his heel. It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for” (Wilde, 226). At the very end of the novel, when Dorian attempted to destroy the painting because it was a reminder of every sinful action he committed, he only ended up killing himself, leaving the portrait to return to its natural state of youth and beauty.
In The Beautiful and Damned, Gloria and Anthony are both unhappy with their superficial lives, but they realize this when it is far too late. Anthony fails in his writing career because he knows that he is going to inherit millions of dollars from his grandfather anyways. He does not want to work for his money, he just wants it to be handed to him on a silver platter. Anthony was handsome and young, but also immature. He did not realize that if he wanted to achieve the American Dream then he had to work for it. He was more focused on the superficialities in his life, like beauty, youth and social image. Gloria never had to work for her money, she made a living off her appearance - her beauty and youth. However, when she had aged 10 years and was no longer as young and beautiful as she used to be, she realizes that she can no longer make a living from her appearance. She waited too long to jump start her acting career, and in turn, she could no longer get leading roles because her beauty and youth had faded. Anthony and Gloria struggle to have a successful marriage, because they both do not understand the effort they need to put in to maintain one. Their whole lives, they never had to work for anything and it really shows when they constantly fight and are unable to solve their financial problems. Gloria and Anthony were both too focused on their beauty and youth to even care enough to put effort into their marriage, or even their careers. Gloria felt that if she was no longer beautiful, then she had nothing left. “‘Oh, my pretty face,’ she whispered, passionately grieving. ‘Oh, my pretty face! Oh, I don’t want to live without my pretty face! Oh, what’s happened?’ Then she slid toward the mirror and, as in the test, sprawled face downward upon the floor - and lay there sobbing. It was the first awkward movement she had ever made.” (Fitzgerald, 314).
In both literary works, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Beautiful and Damned, the authors portray a society that is superficial in nature. The main characters praised beauty above all, disregarding everything else that makes a person who they are. A lot of problems that the characters have are ignored, or go unnoticed, because they feel that maintaining their appearance, whether that be physical appearance or social status, is more important. Near the end of both of the novels, the main characters are unhappy with their superficial lives, but when they realize this, it is too late to do anything about it.
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