Northrop Frye's Displacement and Oscar Wilde's the Picture of Dorian Gray

European Journal of Scientific Research
ISSN 1450-216X / 1450-202X Vol. 155 No 4 March, 2020, pp.388 - 408
http://www. europeanjournalofscientificresearch.com

                   Northrop Frye’s Displacement and Oscar
                      Wilde’s the Picture of Dorian Gray

                                       Layla Farouq Abdeen
           Associate Professor, Head of the Department of English Language and Literature
               The World Islamic Sciences and Education University – Amman-Jordan
                                  E-mail: Layla.abdeen@wise.edu.jo
                         Tel: 00 962 79 70 4 33 88; Fax: 00 96 2 6 55 26 228

                                                Abstract

             According to Northrop Frye, one of the most influential myth critics, some of the
     major sources of literature are either mythology, folktales, or the Bible. What Frye wants to
     prove in Anatomy of Criticism is that literature is based consciously and unconsciously on
     mythical structures that encompass essential elements of story-telling. Frye states that
     modern writers base their modern stories on mythical structures. However, he argues that a
     one-to-one correlation between the archetypal myth and the displaced story is not to be
     expected because when the structure of the myth proper is adopted, a number of technical
     challenges arise. Frye says that these technical challenges are overcome by what he calls
     “displacement”. The aim of this article is to shed light on Frye’s theory about literature’s
     relationship with classical mythology and how there is a single pattern of significance in
     the seasonal cycle of the year, the solar cycle of the day, and the organic cycle of life, out
     of which myth constructs a central narrative around a figure, who is partly a god or an
     archetypal human being based on the study of characterization, plot, and theme in Oscar
     Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

     Keywords: Myth, structure, and displacement.

1. Introduction
Northrop Frye recognizes that literature requires two kinds of powers; the first is “to create” by the
writer, while the other is “to understand” by the reader. Frye wants to prove that literary criticism is a
science, but because literature is not a “pure” science, it cannot resort to experiments and equations.
Therefore, logic is sought as the most powerful tool to verify the validity and credibility of such a
statement. Frye is interested in examining the consistency of logic in order to prove that his theory does
hold. He focuses on structure in particular because it is the sole distinctive element in anything whether
an organic being as a human, or a physical object as a table, or an abstract object as an argument, or an
aesthetic work as a literary story.
        In Anatomy of Criticism, his magnum opus, Frye explains that because the presence of a
mythical structure in realistic fiction poses some technical challenges to attain plausibility, certain
devices are employed to overcome such challenges. These devices may be given the general name of
“displacement” (Frye,1957, p.136). A good deal of displacement is required to make a story realistic
and consistent and it is only after a comparative study of the story type had been conducted that the
mythical structure within it begins to emerge. Displacement is used in the modern story in order to
make it plausible simply because modern thinking does not accept any action without rational
explanation.

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2. Objective
Some readers of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray have noted that there are references to
Graeco-Roman myths. But none of the scholarly critics has viewed The Picture of Dorian Gray in
terms of Frye’s mythical displacement. Frye’s myth criticism illuminates relationships between the
present and the past, it highlights ways of thinking that appear to be recurrent (if not permanent) in
Western culture. This particular kind of criticism looks for larger narratives, recurrent themes, and
archetypes.
        Therefore, this article will attempt to focus on the structure of The Picture of Dorian Gray and
how it is parallel to a classical myth. This, in its turn, increases the appreciation of the story as an
aesthetic work since new interpretations are offered linking it with momentous themes of life as pride
and arrogance. These themes are of everlasting interest to both genders despite individual differences
among us.

3. Review of Related Literature
The Western world, up to the twenty-first century, took an interest in classical mythology that existed
three millennia ago. This is observed through the adoption of a continuous line of influence and
inheritance (Geoffrey, 1999, p.3). Mythology for most of the Western world is Greek mythology
(Jameson, 1961, p.221). In actuality, the ancient Greeks were an amazingly creative people, who
looked at the stars and visualized pictures of something like a lion, a swan, or a scorpion. They also
looked at the sun and imagined that it was a fiery chariot that is driven daily across the sky. To them,
whatever had motion was alive (Hamlyn, 1959, p.8). Consequently, classical myths have not ceased to
exist simply because they are a rich source of inspiring material.
        In literature, Frye uses the term “displacement” to mean indirect mythologizing whereas in
psychoanalysis the term is used to give new meanings and values to our knowledge of general human
behavior (Brill, 1938, p.3). Displacement is not produced by a psychological kind of arbitrariness; it
rather adheres to rational paths and that one’s indifferent childhood memories “owe their existence to a
process of displacement. It may be shown by psychoanalysis that in reproduction they represent the
substitute for other really significant impressions, whose direct reproduction is hindered by some
resistance” (ibid, p. 62). This shows that displacement in psychoanalysis is related to recurring
experiences that took place either sometime in the past or in dreams, in which an idea would be
substituted with others of relevant associations. This also indicates that the term “displacement”,
whether used in literature or in psychoanalysis is an echo of previous situations leading to an
archetype.
        In literature, an archetype in Anatomy is defined as: “A symbol, usually an image, which recurs
often enough in literature to be recognized as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole”
(Frye, 1957, p. 365). In psychoanalysis, an archetype is the basic element of the conscious mind that is
hidden in the depths of the psyche (Jacobi, 1959, p.37). As a result, this process of retelling stories
allows the existence of a flexible balance between the archetypal myth and the modern story (Agten,
2019, p.1).

4. Discussion
Frye is of the opinion that literature is based, consciously and unconsciously, on mythic structures that
embody essential principles of storytelling. He argues that one myth is not better than the other if both
myths share the same structure with the displaced story. He states in The Educated Imagination that
genuine imagination beings with the process of “identifying the human and nonhuman worlds in all
sorts of ways” (Frye, 1969, p.38-39). The genre of the novel does the same in the sense that: A writer’s
desire to write can only have come from previous experience of literature, and he will start by imitating

390                                                                                  Layla Farouq Abdeen

whatever he has read, which usually means what the people around him are writing. This provides him
with what is called by a convention, a certain typical and socially accepted way of writing (ibid 40).
         The four essays in Anatomy focus mainly upon Western literature, whose main sources are
classical mythology, folktales, and the Bible. Frye defines his goal when he says that his aim is to
“give a rational account of some of the structural principles of Western literature in the context of its
Classical and Christian heritage” (Frye, 1957, p.133). He is concerned about the way literature is
taught, believing that “[t]he teaching of literature needs a bit more theory” (Frye, 1969, p.109).
         In Fables of Identity, literature is viewed to be an order of words, which builds on structural
models of experience frequently found in the classics. Literature utilizes recurrent structures that have
their origins in primitive cultures. Frye borrows the word mythos from Aristotle, who uses it in the
sense of plot, whereas the former uses “myth” to mean a story or a certain type of story used to account
for the world (Frye, 1957, p.22). Even though there is no complete correlation between the original
myth and the displaced story, there are parallel structures that function as archetypes that keep
recurring in literature. In Fables, the myth is “the central informing power that gives the archetypal
significance to the ritual and archetypal narrative to the oracle. Hence the myth is the archetype”
[author’s emphasis] (Frye, 1957, p.15). Frye considers myth to offer a margin of seriousness because it
tends to tackle issues relevant to grave topics and matters of interest to anyone such as love, social
relations, ethics, and moral values; and it attempts to explain and justify natural phenomena as well as
ritual.
         In other terms, myths were created by the primitive man to explain certain rituals like birth,
marriage, and harvest. Myths were originally “religious narratives that transcend the possibilities of
common experience and that [they] express any given culture’s literal or metaphorical understanding of
various aspects of reality” (Leeming, 2005, p. xi). Thus a myth, through the variation of events and
details, could be told and retold; and that once it loses its connection with belief, it becomes entirely
and purely literary (Frye, 1957, p.31-32).
         In view of this closer relation between myth and literature, numerous literary works can be
shown to derive from specific myths with which they share similar constructions. But one ought to
bear in mind that it is not logical to expect a complete correlation between a modern story and the myth
it is based upon. Variations are bound to appear due to a number of factors, such as the modern setting
and the audience of the new story; making it a credible version of the myth shaped by the formal cause
that is the structure, which holds the literary work as a whole together.
         Since myth proper cannot be completely implemented as in romance where certain aspects as
superhuman powers or magic are allowed, a kind of analogy or association is made to link these non-
realistic aspects in myth with realistic ones in the modern story. In Fables, it is indicated that modern
writers base their literary works on specific myths, but in doing so they make use of techniques such as
logic to make their stories realistic (Frye, 1957, p.36). Frye states that “[a] myth is a simple and
primitive effort of the imagination to identify the human with the non-human world, and its most
typical result is a story of a god. Later on, mythology begins to merge into literature, and myth then
becomes a structural principle of story-telling” (ibid, p.45).
         It is stated in Fables that in the direct experience of a work of literature, we tend to experience
what we may call “persuasion of continuity” illustrated in the power that makes us continuously flip
the pages of a novel or by the power that keeps us glued to our seats in the theatre. Despite the fact that
we may be aware of every word or image, we are basically aware of larger events, scenes, and
groupings that make up what we call a story (Frye, 1957, p.21-22). In this respect, what remains in the
minds of the audience through distinctive imagery is the basic structure of the story.
         For Frye, myth is a form of verbal art that deals with the world that man creates rather than the
world that man contemplates. He says in The Stubborn Structure that:
         Myth is the structural principle of literature that enters into and gives form to the verbal
disciplines where concern is relevant. Man’s views of the world he wants to live in, of the world he
does not want to live in, of his situation and destiny and heritage, of the world he is trying to make and

Northrop Frye’s Displacement and Oscar Wilde’s the Picture of Dorian Gray                             391

of the world that resists his efforts, forms in every age a huge mythological structure. (Frye, 1970,
p.18)
        As the art of storytelling involves repetition of certain standard structures that keep recurring
under various guises, the archetype of the story of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is the
myth of Narcissus as both stories have parallel structures. The myth of Narcissus is one of the most
known Greek myths, in which Narcissus is the son of River god Cephisus and nymph Lyriope.
Narcissus was known for his beauty and was eventually loved by others due to his extraordinary
physique. Just like Narcissus, Dorian was desired by others. To illustrate, Lord Henry contemplates:
        Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue
eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the
candor of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself
unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshiped him (26-27).
        According to Ovid’s Greek epic Metamorphoses, Narcissus is a beautiful youth, who rejects
every match and, eventually falls in love with his own reflection in the water leading to his death as a
means of punishment. Similarly, Dorian is a handsome young man, who is fascinated with his beauty,
and recognizes its preservation in his portrait:
        Dorian made no answer, but passed listlessly in front of his picture and turned towards it. When
he saw it he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his
eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time. He stood there motionless and in wonder, dimly
conscious that Hallward was speaking to him, but not catching the meaning of his words. The sense of
his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before. Basil Hallward's
compliments had seemed to him to be merely the charming exaggeration of friendship. He had listened
to them, laughed at them, forgotten them. They had not influenced his nature. Then had come Lord
Henry Wotton with his strange panegyric on youth, his terrible warning of its brevity. That had stirred
him at the time, and now, as he stood gazing at the shadow of his own loveliness, the full reality of the
description flashed across him (41-42).
        According to Freud's “On Narcissism: An Introduction”, Freud considers narcissism “the
libidinal complement to the egoism of the instinct of self-preservation” (2012, p.73-74) corresponding
with a withdrawal of interest from the outside world. This is exactly the reality that Dorian constructs.
He engulfs himself in his own residence, without much interaction with society or the external
environment. This results in his deliberate alienation, which adds to the state of separation he chooses
for himself. Consequently, Dorian starts to suffer from an identity crisis leading to his inevitable
destruction at the time that his portrait will withstand the test of time (Lipjankic, 2017). Therefore,
having discovered the discrepancy between the fantasy of his perfect image in the portrait and the
reality of aging in life, Dorian eventually commits suicide as he could not tolerate the effects of the due
course of time on him just like anyone else. This comes as a means of punishment to him toward the
end of the story correlating once more with the structure of the archetypal myth of Narcissus.
        In Anatomy, fictions are classified into five mimetic modes in accordance with the hero’s power
of action and his relationship with other characters as well as toward his environment (Frye, 1957,
p.33). Moreover, the sequence of these modes demonstrates increasing displacements (Hamilton, 1990,
p.68). The term “mimetic modes” means that the story to be discussed is similar in terms of structure to
an archetypal myth. Through displacement, stories that follow the same structure of the original myth
vary in details in relation to the characters’ abilities, shifting them from powerful and influential gods
and goddesses to powerless and ordinary people. The term “mode” can be used to refer to a certain
category as long as the limits of its reportorial implications are kept in mind (Fowler, 1982, p.107).
        In Northrop Frye in Modern Criticism, it is stated that Frye has come up with a revolutionary
theory by observing a downward movement from a particular work to the world at large. It is explained
that this movement is an echo of the downward movement toward displacement because stories
become more realistic as literature flows from unencumbered myth to mimetic modes with the promise
to return (Krieger, 1966, p.11). Based on this downward movement, Frye divides his fictional modes
into five categories that are: Mythic, romantic, high mimetic, low mimetic, and ironic.

392                                                                                 Layla Farouq Abdeen

To define the general characteristics of each mode, in the mythic mode, the hero is divine. He is
superior in kind to other men and the environment. This type of hero is found in myth proper as a god
or a goddess. In the romantic mode, the hero is human, but he is superior to other men and the
environment by being aided with magic or special powers. Frye argues in Anatomy that this kind of
hero normally appears in legends and folktales. In the high mimetic mode, the hero is superior to other
men but not to the environment. He is a leader, who displays authority, eloquence, and passion. This
kind of hero is mainly found in epics and tragedies. The low mimetic hero is one of us because he is
subject to the same weakness that we encounter and struggle with. Frye finds this kind of hero in
comedies and realistic fiction. The hero of the ironic mode is inferior to us as he suffers from either a
certain kind of defect, which might be physical, psychological, mental, or moral. This hero appears in
stories of frustration and absurdity (Frye, 1957, p.33-34).
        In light of these five modes, Frye relates their structural classification to five structures of
meaning. He conducts this by developing what he calls “mythoi or generic plots” into the
representation of the rising movement of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. After Frye establishes
these four categories in which both nature and literature coincide, he divides these generic plots into a
pair of comedy and romance contrasting them with another pair of tragedy and irony. Frye poses that
the mythos of spring is comedy, the mythos of summer is romance, the mythos of autumn is tragedy,
while the mythos of winter is irony and satire. Frye then correlates the elements of each season with the
hero and his desires, which he achieves or does not achieve.
        Frye in Fables also links the ability of the hero with the energy of the sun. Because he believes
that the true hero of any story is the sun, he associates the rise of the sun in dawn or early morning with
spring and birth or youth; as in creation myths or myths of the birth of the hero. He associates the time
of zenith or noontime, when the sun is at its utmost energy, with summer and marriage or triumph; as
in the apotheosis myths or myths of the entry into paradise in comedy. He relates the sun at the time of
sunset or evening time with autumn and death; as in the fall myths or myths of the isolation of the hero
in tragedy. He combines the darkness or night time that exists after the departure of the sun with winter
and dissolution; as in the myths of the return of chaos in satire (Frye, 1957, p.15-16).
        Accordingly, the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray belongs to the low mimetic mode as
Dorian is a somewhat average character, who happens to be superficial for he believes in the idea of
eternal youth. This depicts his lack of maturity, growth, and balance as he remains toward the end of
the story unable to recognize the idea of aging on himself. Being in such a state of denial actually
underscores his naivety for he is hopeful of preserving his beauty through an aesthetic work. The story
depicts Dorian as an isolated man living in the world he constructs for himself away from society. The
story with its gloom and misery is associated with the seasonal cycle of autumn. It is analogous to the
condition of the sun when it sets since the story ends with death as Dorian, just like Narcissus, is
eventually punished for his pride and shallowness.

5. Conclusion
Frye is credited with establishing an important approach to literature and in presenting a solid theory
about its structure. He expands his theory to a much more comprehensive view of literature linking
natural movements together with literary archetypes through “displacement”. Frye correlates the
seasonal cycle of the year with the solar cycle of the day with the organic cycle of life on one hand
together with the types of myth and their archetypes on the other.
        In view of this closer relation between myth and literature, numerous literary works can be
shown to derive from specific myths with which they share similar constructions of structure. In fact,
Frye constructs a coherent systematic approach in discovering the meaning in a structure of imagery
with conceptual implications. Finally, he applies these structures of imagery on the narratives and,
consequently, produces a coherent understanding of literary texts that may have once been more
difficult to grasp and appreciate.

Northrop Frye’s Displacement and Oscar Wilde’s the Picture of Dorian Gray                      393

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