Advent is not simply only a time to reflect on the birth of Our Lord, the Word made Flesh, but also a time to reflect on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Hell, and Heaven. Over these four weeks of Advent, join me as I follow along with meditations of St Francis de Sales, as he reflected on the Four Last Things in his classic work, Introduction to the Devout Life. For each, I’ll post a link for you to follow along as well as some of my own thoughts.
The Four Last Things: Hell
I don’t love reading novels. Believe me, I wish I did, but I’ve always struggled to read fiction. That being said, from time to time, I enjoy the odd novel, and my favourite of these is undoubtedly Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. The story is a sad one, and revolves around (as you might expect) Dorian himself, who is a well-to-do young man new to London-town. At first, he lives the sort of life an upperclassman would be expected to live, and had a great many friends who were infatuated with his beauty. Two such friends are of particular note as far as the story goes: the first is Lord Henry Wooten, who wittily espoused an hedonistic philosophy that he would never dare to live himself; and the other was an artist, Basil Hallward, who in his admiration of Dorian’s beauty painted a portrait of him that was very well received.
One night, after Basil’s portrait was completed, the three were speaking about the painting, and Lord Henry remarked that it was such a shame how Dorian’s real beauty would soon fade while his portrait was ageless. Tormented by the fact that he would lose his beauty, Dorian thoughtlessly bartered his soul in exchange for beauty that wouldn’t perish, which seemed to shock even Lord Henry, although he wouldn’t realise the true consequences of this hellish trade-off for some time.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
Lord Henry Wooten in The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
In the wake of these events, Dorian’s lifestyle began to resemble more and more the hedonistic philosophy put forward by Lord Henry. He was sexually promiscuous, drank deeply of everything, and frequented the opium dens of Victorian London. It didn’t leave a scratch on him, but it did tarnish his portrait, which, on account of Dorian’s deal with the Devil, began to reflect the ugliness of his sins. In time, it became so disfigured that when Basil saw it, Dorian murdered him. Dorian’s hedonism also led to the death of another: the suicide of a young woman to whom he was engaged, whose heart he broke when he ended the engagement for want of more pleasures.
It wasn’t long after these events transpired that Dorian left London only to come back nearly a decade later in a depressed state, for his want of pleasures left him feeling empty. That was until he fell in love with Lord Henry’s daughter. Lord Henry, sensing something was amiss, discovered the awful truth: that Dorian had bartered his soul and that he killed Basil. But amidst the errors of his life, Dorian’s conscience awakened in him, and to atone for his actions, he destroyed Basil’s portrait, thus ending his life. When the body was found, people saw only Basil’s portrait of Dorian as it first was, and the corpse of a hideously disfigured and unrecognised man.
Despite its obvious extremities, the life of Dorian Gray is not so unlike many of our own lives that we cannot draw a comparison. On the one hand, people may worry about the temporal effects of their hedonism (e.g., disease, etc), but take away the consequence in this life, and how easy would it be to live a life of unbridled pleasure? We don’t think often enough about the hereafter: the proof is in that we all sin. Nevertheless, the hereafter is important to consider when we make decisions, as it plainly apparent from our meditation today on Hell.
Today we read about hellfire: an eternal torment well beyond anything any of us would care to experience, but the truth is that one need not go so far to get a glimpse of Hell. Much like Heaven, there are impressions of Hell all around us in the ways that people live. In this world, we are at an impasse: to live well according to the best of our ability, or to live a life in vain. But luckily, life is full of second chances for us to put ourselves back on a better path. For as Dorian eventually discovered, the treasures of this world that he so coveted were in fact empty. Perhaps we could indulge ourselves in this way, but not for long. We will be left wanting, and if there’s any doubt in this matter, remember that not even Lord Henry truly believed in what he was saying, so choose those things that are eternally satisfying.
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