Violence in Decadence

Violence in Decadent literature is often used in uncanny ways. Instead of showing violence as something bad or scary, Decadent writers sometimes use it to get a message across to the reader, sometimes in artistic ways. They describe violent acts in detailed, poetic language, not only to shock the bourgeois but also to explore how beauty and cruelty can be connected. These stories often focus on characters who are bored with normal life and want to escape rules and responsibilities. For the characters, violence becomes a way to feel something powerful or to express their emotions. Death and pain are sometimes even linked to pain and desire, showing extreme feelings can become strange or unusual. Violence in the terms of Decadent literature isn't always about hurting others, instead it focus on what happens when people care more about beauty and pleasure than about what is morally right or wrong.

Aestheticization of Violence

In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Oscar Wilde presents violence as closely connected to beauty and aesthetic experience rather than to traditional morality. When Dorian murders Basil Hallward, the act is not framed as a conventional crime, but as a symbolic effort to remove the burden of guilt and preserve Dorian's idealized self. The scene is rendered with detailed and stylized language, highlighting how violence can be transformed into a form of artistic expression.

A similar sensibility appears in Joris-Karl Huysmans’s À Rebours (1884), particularly in Des Esseintes’s treatment of a tortoise in Chapter 5. Des Esseintes has the animal's shell encrusted with jewels to match his decorative interior, ultimately leading to the creature’s death under the weight. Although not an act of explicit violence, the episode reflects a form of aesthetic cruelty: the transformation of a living being into an object of visual perfection, regardless of the consequence. This moment exemplifies the Decadent ideal of “art for art’s sake,” where beauty and style are pursued at the expense of life, nature, or ethics.

According to literary scholar Lisa Downing, this kind of aestheticized violence is common in Decadent literature, where acts of cruelty are often “motiveless” and used to subvert conventional moral structures (Downing, 2004, pp. 189–190). In both Wilde and Huysmans, violent or extreme behavior becomes a means of exploring sensation, transgression, and the limits of aesthetic autonomy.

Idealization

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, idealization itself becomes a violent force—one that slowly erodes Dorian’s sense of self and morality. From the very beginning, Dorian is not seen as a person but as a symbol. Before he even speaks, he is spoken about—idolized by Basil Hallward as a muse and artwork, and eagerly sought after by Lord Henry as a subject for philosophical experimentation. Basil pours his soul into Dorian’s portrait, admitting he’s painted more than a likeness; he’s painted an obsession. For Basil, Dorian is perfection incarnate, the living embodiment of beauty, and his devotion blinds him to Dorian’s flaws, reducing him to a beautiful object rather than acknowledging him as a full, flawed human being.

Lord Henry’s role is more calculated. With his intoxicating words and charm, he seduces Dorian into believing that youth and beauty are life’s highest values. He tells Dorian that his good looks grant him power and privilege, and that he must seize every pleasure before age steals it all away. Dorian, shaken by this philosophy and terrified of decay, wishes to remain young forever—offering his soul in exchange for eternal beauty, leaving the portrait to bear the weight of his sins.

But as Dorian clings to this image of perfection, the real violence begins. Under Lord Henry’s guidance, he learns to treat people as art—admiring them for their allure, then discarding them when they show human depth. When Sibyl Vane ceases to be a brilliant actress and reveals her true self, Dorian is disgusted. He calls her worthless without her art and rejects her love, which drives her to suicide. Instead of mourning her, Lord Henry reframes her death as a dramatic performance, telling Dorian she was never truly real. Dorian, still shaken, listens—and accepts it.

Even Basil, the man who loved him most purely, is not spared. When Basil confronts Dorian about the rumors of his cruelty, he begs him to confess, to reclaim his soul. But Dorian, too far gone and still trapped by the ideal Basil once created, kills him. Afterward, he describes the scene with a chilling detachment, reducing Basil’s corpse to a broken, meaningless thing—just as others had once reduced Dorian to a beautiful face.

Ironically, Lord Henry, the man who fueled Dorian’s downfall, refuses to believe Dorian could be guilty of any real crime. “People like you don’t commit crimes,” he insists, because in his mind, beauty is incompatible with guilt. Dorian is haunted by this contradiction—by the disconnect between how others see him and what he knows he has become.

In the end, the portrait—the true reflection of his soul—becomes unbearable. Twisted and hideous, it mirrors every act of cruelty he’s committed. Dorian, desperate to free himself from the torment of his own image, tries to destroy the painting. But in doing so, he kills himself. His body is found old and withered, while the portrait is restored to its original beauty.

The tragedy of Dorian Gray is not just that he succumbs to temptation, but that he is never allowed to be anything but perfect. Everyone around him projects ideals onto him—idolizing, grooming, and using him as a mirror for their own desires. In the end, he becomes a product of those projections, shaped and destroyed by the violence of being idealized rather than understood.

Death and Sexuality

The Leper by Charles Swinburne

The Leper by Charles Swinburne has a violent ambiance to the poem as the narrator (the servant) fetishizes the death of his lover that only became his lover out of vulnerability and views her decaying corpse as beautiful. The lady who died of leprosy experiences moral violence as her “lover” does not give her a funeral or a proper resting place. Instead, he watches her decay as he expresses himself, experiencing “thrills and burns” whilst anticipating kissing her. Swinburne aestheticizes death by crossing the moral limits of the relationship between the living and the dead. The violence of death lies in the fetish/kink that the servant develops for an un-living identity.

Lisa Downing in her essay, “Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Aesthetic Violence and Motiveless Murder in French Decadent Fiction” states “The potential for union in sexuality is reduced to an imaginary economy of sadistic fetishism, the self has no capacity for truth other than in death…”(Downing 201). The servant had felt attraction to the lady prior to her contamination of leprosy but developed an intense, almost grotesque and erotic feeling for her dying body. He fetishized her suffering as she slowly died, although she asks to be left alone “I pray you let me be at peace” he insists on invading her vulnerability out of the pleasure that he gains from her.

The unattainability that the lady traited when she was in health was one of economic differences to her servant. Her decay let him in, and he took this opportunity to violently feed his cravings. Death served him entry into a realm that wouldn’t have happened in reality if the lady had remained alive. The Leper freakishly normalizes the notion of death and life having a sensual connection through a violent story of so-called love.

The Lady of Shallot by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Lady of Shalott is about the Lady Shallot standing at her tower, who is cursed to constantly weave. Upon seeing Sir Lancelot pass by, reflected through a mirror, she’s moved to stop weaving. Knowing that the curse is soon to dawn upon her, she makes a move to get on a boat and ride towards Camelot. She dies before arriving and is stated to be beautiful (amidst death) by Lancelot.

While decay is only prominent in the final stanza, showcasing the immediate ending of it (death), it still showcases a progression for Lady Shallot to arrive to hear death as seen by the boat. What the decay in the poem embodies is the rejection of love and sexuality.

As by Wolfdietrich Rasch's Journal Article, Literary Decadence Artistic Representations of Decay, while not directly about the poem, analyzes how decay is viewed within Decadence. Decay is the fascination of a downfall, no matter the subject. It's to reject the initial value and/or desirability of the subject, finding awe in its more decrepit or 'inferior' state. It presents a yearning for an end, typically noted as 'oblivion'. It's also a means to gain agency or variety within oblivion/decay, as to yearn for it would be to obtain it into something tangible.

Lady of Shallot ends with Sir Lancelot expressing awe over the carcass of Shallot. Given that the lady was enticed by the prospect of indulging in sexuality, the violence comes in the form of her death. It's a consequence from deviating from weaving/staying in the tower, and thus her virginity is preserved through death. In spite of this, her innocence is still used post-death through Sir Lancelot, who can freely express their own sexuality in a public space by commenting on the Lady of Shallot's corpse's beauty. It reduces the lady into being an object of sexual desire for others while being someone who can't fulfill their own sexual needs.

Escapism

The Lotos-Eaters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

In The Lotos-Eaters by Tennyson, decadence oozes from the lines as one reads through the poem! It all commences from the beginning when the mariners find a magical island and are brought to its attention because of its beauty and describe the scenery with such admiration. Tennyson writes, “And meadow, set with slender galingale; A land where all things always seem’d the same!” (Lines 23-24). These men were so easily enamored with the beauty of the island and left their duties and responsibilities thrown in the wind. They divulge themselves to the first opportunity they see will liberate them from their duties and seek pleasure in this new island. Introduced to this new fruit/drug and this new escape route they can take from the people living on this island, Tennyson shares the decadent filled feelings of these overworked mariners. And that is by coming to the conclusion of living a free life of pleasure and luxurious relaxation with ideas and thoughts such as: “Should life all labour be?” (Line 87). Tennyson creates a narrative for the lotos-eaters to argue for relief from work asking for some rest, and if labor is all there is to life alongside death? All in all, the author portrays these lotos-eaters to divulge in decadence by aestheticizing escapism as the solution to their life problems and finding more to life than death and labor. According to Catherine Lewis’s master's thesis titled Sin is the Only Real Color-Element in the Modern Life”: Aesthetic, she states “Victorian men constantly struggled with the ongoing internal quarrel of meeting societal expectations versus fulfilling their own desires.” (Lewis 91). Lewis provides insightful information as to why these men are seen in a decadent light, they struggle with the societal expectation of working hard and when offered an escape, they see that as their only chance to fulfill their desires and do it excessively to the point of no return.

The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

 In The Picture of Dorian Grey, escapism plays a huge role in shaping Dorian Grey’s tragic journey. Dorian uses aesthetics as a means of escapism to avoid the moral consequences of his actions instead of facing the inevitable reality of aging and the consequences of his reckless choices. Dorian runs from them by using his portrait as a supernatural shield. He remains outwardly youthful and beautiful, while his portrait ages and becomes more grotesque, reflecting the true corruption of his soul. This way he can continue living a life of indulgence without the fear of consequences and aging, hiding his guilt and inner ugliness behind the facade of his flawless face. The portrait becomes a symbol of his attempt to escape the weight of his humanity, allowing him to stay detached from the moral decay that’s happening inside him. Dorian's escapism is further fueled by his relationship to aesthetics. Dorian adopts the philosophy that beauty is the highest ideal, believing it provides the ultimate form of freedom from societal constraints (Wilde pg.91). His aesthetic obsession is not only seen with his obsession with his looks but in his own everyday life, like his own home and the people he surrounds himself with and in some cases using substances to escape as well. In the end Dorian can’t run away from his internal faults, and it eventually causes his demise.

References

• Downing, L. “Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Aesthetic Violence and Motiveless Murder in French Decadent Fiction.” French Studies, vol. 58, no. 2,1 April. 2004, pp. 189-203. https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/58.2.189.
• Hales. John Wesley. "The Leper." Once a Week Magazine, 1860.
• Kaminsky, Alice R. “The Literary Concept of Decadence.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies, vol. 4, no. 3, 1976, pp. 371–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23536184. Accessed 23 May 2025.
• Lewis, T. Catherine. (2016) Sin is the Only Real Color-Element in the Modern Life”: Aesthetic Crimes and Escapism in Victorian Literature. [Master’s Thesis]. University of Wisconsin; 2016. 111 p. 91-111p. https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/75213/Lewis%2c%20Catherine.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
• Lord Tennyson, Alfred. "The Lotos-Eaters." London; New York, E. Macmillan and Co, 1832.
• Rasch, Wolfdietrich. “Literary Decadence Artistic Representations of Decay.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 17, no. 1, 1982, pp. 201–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/260451. Accessed 23 May 2025.
• Sheehan, Paul. “A Malady of Dreaming: The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Modernism and the Aesthetics of Violence, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 78–102.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139207042.005
• Lord Tennyson, Alfred. "The Lady of Shallot." London; New York, Dodd, Mead and Co. 1832.
• Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900. "The Picture of Dorian Gray." London; New York, N.Y.: Penguin, 2003
• Robinson, David E. “The Gothic Genre, Classical Allusion, and Other Influences in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Literator, vol. 42, no. 1, 2021, a1737. https://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v42i1.1737
• Stern, Simon. “Wilde’s Aesthetic of Crime.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 68, no. 286, 2017, pp. 756–772. https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgx035