Theme Of Ageing In Oscar Wilde

Age or the process of ageing is a phenomenon which goes unnoticed in theory, but incorporates a part of the unconscious of every human being. It starts from the birth of a baby who is one day old to its subsequent birthdays, the attaining of youth and the actions to not reveal one’s age, the temptation to know other’s age and finally the second childishness. Ageing is an inevitable physical manifestation, which is an important sociological factor. The importance of the process of ageing is bound to substantially increase in the coming years as the current demographic dividend of the most populous China and India will subsequently age. This will lead to a population composition in the shape of an inverted pyramid with a smaller base of youth

It was the advent of Caxton’s printing press, the publishing of Shakespeare’s folio and the subsequent ‘mechanical reproduction’ in Benjamin’s words that ignited this. The author or the creator who had failed to achieve immortality now tried to gain that bliss vicariously by the act of naming their work along with one’s own name. The id’s desire is satiated by superego by this process.
In addition to that, the yearning for perpetual youth can lead to the same ‘hysteria’ that Julia Kristeva has talked about in another context. In Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Dorian is unable to even withstand the fact that his picture is ageing though he is still the same. What happens afterwards is the development of pure hysteria which is in contrast to all the dandyism that the book had celebrated till

It is appalling that generation gap is used to enervate almost one half of human population. The world is currently witnessing a demographic change. The old people are already in a majority in Russia, France, Spain and other countries. The Asian countries including India are witnessing a demographic dividend presently and African countries would have it fifty years from now. But what follows that will be an inverted pyramid with high dependency ratio. The need of the hour is to rephrase this word called dependency ratio by breaking all the boundaries created around the old. Only their self sufficiency can boost even the nations’ GDP, speaking in economic terms. Old people generally have this clichéd phrase that they do not feel old though their hair has grayed and their skin has wrinkled. Thus as Ira Raja says, ageing is just a masque which conceals the normal psyche. But it should not be misunderstood that old age is a homogenous entity. It is a larger set which might be further othered on lines of gender, class, race and other social and cultural parameters. Only the judicious breaking down of these stereotypes upon stereotypes can bring them to the