DecadenceWhat is the Decadent Movement?
The Decadent Movement was a literary movement in the late 19th century that was truly an amalgamation of previous movements. Supposedly initially influenced by Gothic writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, the movement came to also encompass the Symbolism and Aestheticism movements.
A neat definition of the literature of the movement can be seen in Richard Long and Iva Jones’ article, “Toward a Definition of the ‘Decadent Novel.’” They write, “…the ‘literature of decadence’ involves the transference of the artistic focus from the larger and more general concerns of life, the subject and starting point of art, to special and rarified ones” (Long and Jones 246). Essentially, what this means is that the Decadent movement considered craft and an intense focus on art for art's own purpose to be of the utmost importance. Critical opinion of the movement, though, was primarily negative in nature at first as critics considered the movement vulgar and ungodly. Oscar Wilde was one of the main contributors to the movement and came to embody it through his lifestyle and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which can be considered one of the primary texts of the movement as it exemplifies nearly every aspect of it. “In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray we have a quintessential example of the aesthetic novel. There is the supreme consciousness of art objects, a portrait being the key to the whole. There is the implicit theme of sexual perversion. There is the constant evocation of the exotic and the strange. Finally, there is the basic theme of alienation from the general pattern of life, indicated in Dorian Gray’s pursuit of his own ends” (Long and Jones 247). What did the Decadent Movement mean for society?
The Decadent Movement was, in essence, a reflection or foil of society, or at the very least aspects of it. The movement was a response to the straight-laced and stuffy social norms that dominated the previous era and was thus seen as hedonistic. Works produced from this movement included themes of non-normative sexuality, sexual freedom, and a rejection of gender roles, but the main purpose of the texts was to illustrate the importance of art as an absolute necessity to life. In total, Decadents were literary rebels who drew upon previously established movements to convey the importance of "art for art's sake."
“The ‘decadent novel’ usually involves explicitly or implicitly, a rejection of present-day civilization…The ‘decadent novel’ novel usually contains overtones of sexual perversion, but without explicitly treating the theme of the homosexual neurosis…” (Long and Jones 246). |
The WesternWhat is the Western?
The Western, as a genre, came about due to Westward expansion in the United States and due to social circumstances arising from this expansion. Consider the typical time period, the general location, or the very name of the genre: it all points to the western half of the United States.
But what elements are associated with a Western that makes the genre truly resonate? It is not enough to narrow the genre down to the setting: consider Star Trek. It is often argued to be a Western, yet it takes place in the future, in space, and with hi-tech gadgets as pivotal parts of the storytelling. So what truly makes a Western a Western? The Western spirit lies not in the location or time, but rather the circumstances in the story. It features strange new worlds for any protagonists, often overwhelming circumstances or dilemmas to overcome, and an in-depth look into sentient morality. In this way, Star Trek offers clear Western themes, despite the setting: it involves a crew of explorers journeying into foreign territory for the purposes of social expansion; it features regular challenges based on peculiar circumstances to confront the show's protagonists; the question of morality and philosophies on existence pop up regularly in the show. These are the elements that truly codify a Western. What is the importance of the Western? The Western represented pivotal elements of European US culture: expansion, growth, individualism, and, for male-identified characters, a specific idea of what masculinity entailed. While these elements play into many negative elements of the Western (racist dynamics like white "Savior" versus indigenous people, a reinforcement of masculinity, the creation and implementation of the bootstraps mentality into the American psyche), it also analyzes some important aspects relevant to a modernizing society (the creation of advanced civilization, what happens to the lone, hyper-masculine outsiders when civilization comes to the west, how does the lone outsider change ideas of morality, and, most importantly, what is the impact of lawlessness on otherwise civilized people). With these aspects in mind, the Western, like the Decadent movement, was a reflection of our society at the time. Racism, sexism, and individualism, being ingrained in the Western, were also all ingrained into society, so a Western often (whether it means to or not) reflects these social images. Important, in relation to our analysis of Breaking Bad is the idea of the renegade hero, specific to the Western, and how Walter White plays into this image. "A 'renegade hero' is a character who opposes the ruling class of a town or region. The character is often male, but not necessarily. The renegade hero's mission is to uphold a set of moral principles that [they] value more than the laws of the region. These moral principles tend to differ from character to character, but they all seem to be a product of class division. That is to say, the renegade hero forsakes the written laws because they favor the wealthy. Instead, [they] attempt to re-appropriate misbegotten wealth..." (Schack 6). |
But how can these two characters be so similar?
Given our two very different genres, the Decadent and the Western, how are Dorian Gray and Walter White so similar as characters? The answer can be found in how the characters operate in their specific contexts and their goals within these worlds. Dorian Gray, obsessed with beauty, desires only to maintain his beauty and the reputation associated with his beauty in the decadent society. Walter White, obsessed with self-sufficiency and with making something exceptional in the world, has his pride as the primary fault driving him. With this in mind, you can see from their main driving characteristics their differences in genre as well.
What does the Decadent value? An element of the strange, an appreciation of art, and a delving into strange and exotic ideas (for the time period it was written in). With this in mind, Dorian is the perfect character for this genre--he is, literally and figuratively, a work of art and--and his villainy and downfall, though paralleling Walter's downfall in many ways, is unique to Decadent circumstances.
What does the Western value? Individualism, self-sufficiency, "pulled up from the bootstraps" male characters existing in a realm of lawlessness. Given the context of the 2000's, where can a Western best be written and how? Faced with mounting medical debts (a real world concern in the US today) Walter's pride drives him to use his chemistry training to create the purest methamphetamine. In this way, Walter's villainy rises from a Western ideal--individualism--and Walter offers the best protagonist for this context.
The important connection between these genres in this context is the downfall of the protagonists and how, in this way, the protagonists are self-critiques of the genres they are in. Both genres analyze morality, both protagonists start, essentially, morally good, but end their bodies of work as morally evil. With this in mind, the ideal of art and beauty as well as the ideal of pride and a "renegade hero" are revealed to be scams of a sort; they look into morality, but, by their nature, either obsession leads to a twisted morality and a new idea of morality crafted by the protagonists in question for their specific goals.
What does the Decadent value? An element of the strange, an appreciation of art, and a delving into strange and exotic ideas (for the time period it was written in). With this in mind, Dorian is the perfect character for this genre--he is, literally and figuratively, a work of art and--and his villainy and downfall, though paralleling Walter's downfall in many ways, is unique to Decadent circumstances.
What does the Western value? Individualism, self-sufficiency, "pulled up from the bootstraps" male characters existing in a realm of lawlessness. Given the context of the 2000's, where can a Western best be written and how? Faced with mounting medical debts (a real world concern in the US today) Walter's pride drives him to use his chemistry training to create the purest methamphetamine. In this way, Walter's villainy rises from a Western ideal--individualism--and Walter offers the best protagonist for this context.
The important connection between these genres in this context is the downfall of the protagonists and how, in this way, the protagonists are self-critiques of the genres they are in. Both genres analyze morality, both protagonists start, essentially, morally good, but end their bodies of work as morally evil. With this in mind, the ideal of art and beauty as well as the ideal of pride and a "renegade hero" are revealed to be scams of a sort; they look into morality, but, by their nature, either obsession leads to a twisted morality and a new idea of morality crafted by the protagonists in question for their specific goals.