This timeless saying has been reeling around my head for a long while now, basically since I read The Picture of Dorian Gray. This saying has so much gravity for three little words but it captures the very real adult feeling of; the loss of innocence.
Art and fashion is obsessed with youth and youth embodies this look that is untouched by life. Life leaves its marks on all of us mentally but most importantly visual and this is where this obsession stems from. It has been like this for many centuries and in Oscar Wilde’s novel it has this very sinister underlining message that ignorance is bliss. The whole dramatic speech by Lord Henry, “Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations.” Suddenly become Dorian Gray’s downfall. Only Dorian Gray’s portrait was marred by his sins, which today I would coin as life experience, and that “Life had come between them.” Although Dorian Gray was still youthful looking, he has lost his inner youth of innocence. This innate thirst we humans have for knowledge actually inflicts us remarkably without us really considering it for a second, yes we bear the scars and lines of our life, the more we know the more we worry and this affects our appearance. I believe this is what Oscar Wilde puts across to the reader, “Yes, life had decided that for him – life, and his own infinite curiosity about life... The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all.” This is the narrator’s voice, it is not coming from a character so as a reader and a critic I get a strong sense that Wilde is voicing a similar concept to the phrase, ignorance is bliss.
The more I read and the more I learn, the more it frightens me. My youth was spent much on being young and enjoying this blissful world given to me and in a way it was the most happiest and frustrating situation to be in. I wanted to rush it... I wanted to be an adult and have my independence but independence can be a lonely place. Alone with my thoughts, reading more and learning more, gaining more life experience, coming to conclusions about life. It is not worth the rush. Life is temperamental and this came to me like a smack to the head when watching Ultimate Big Brother’s Jade Goody snippet. This was a young girl who seemed blissfully unaware of the dramatic aspects of life, she was there to enjoy it and that is why we could warm to her. I know she had an unorthodox upbringing but she never showed that publically and we loved her for it, she lived for the moment, something a lot of us cannot do. It wasn’t until she hit the brutalities of life that it became her downfall and anxieties about the future hit home. This life experience scarred her terribly and she was no longer the Jade we knew and this stress and anxiety is what life makes us face.
Of course life is full of wonders and excitement, all these joys can be known and just living expects us to feel all these emotions, but it is at a cost. We human beings are the most complex animal and we are burdened with this dilemma of knowing too much that it scares us, but so well evolved that we are able to enjoy all that life has to offer. Therefore my advice to anyone is to spend as long as you can in that youthful state and enjoy it while it lasts... I know I will.
Percy
