Oscar Wilde's "Manic Pixie Dream Girl": A Modern Analysis of MPDG, Sybil Vane

Sybil Vane, the original Manic Pixie Dream Girl from the mind of Oscar Wilde. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, she is the possessor of Dorian's affections until her (spoiler alert!) rightfully dramatic demise.

Article Edited: December 23rd, 2022

"There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen." - Mary Shelley

Sybil Vane: the soprano doomed to swoon, Dorian Gray's dream girl of Victorian London.

Welcome to another chapter in the "categorizing classic" series on Alias Indiana! Today we're going wild(e)... (wink wink)

Before we explore WHY Sybil fits this term, let's look into the history behind this label:

The Dawn Of The "Manic Pixie Dream Girl":

The term was originated when Nathan Rabin analyzed Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown, back in 2007 (when I was four years old, suffice to say, I didn't read this review at the time of it's publication...) The trope was soon adopted greatly in the media of the time, specifically during analysis of film through the lens of gender. Although the term is relatively new, the character outline has stood the test of time.

Here's the original Rabin quote:

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl “exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” - Nathan Rabin

If you, dear reader, have read this book... you would also describe the "love" (or belladonna complex) surrounding Sybil Vane as 100% "fevered". Imagine the ferocity of Romeo & Juliet paired with the sensual pairing of a painter's muse and a sweet (but definitively lovesick) actress.

By Wilde's design, Sybil Vane definitely fits the set standards of Rabin's Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG), let's look at some famous quotes to understand why:

Sybil is immediately described by Dorian in very young terms.

"Oh, she was so shy, and so gentle. There is something of a child about her." - Dorian Gray

Oh yes, just as every young lover would wish to be described by their partner, like a child.

"She seemed quite unconscious of her power" - Dorian Gray

This particular quote reminds me of the commonly named iconic MPDG, Clementine from Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004). Kate Winslet's role is an iconic one, not only because of her rainbow-coloured hair throughout the course of the film - also for her friendly + naïve demeanor. Her purpose is to change the life course of Jim Carrey's character, then exit with little reward on her end.

Both women seemingly existed to advance character arcs of the men in their tales.

Here is a quote from Sybil herself:

"The painted scenes were my world. I knew nothing but shadows, and I thought them real. You came—oh, my beautiful love!—and you freed my soul from prison. You taught me what reality is. To-night, for the first time in my life, I saw through the hollowness, the sham, the silliness of the empty pageant in which I had always played." - Sybil Vane

As Rabin emphasizes, Sybil is only a monument to pass by on Dorian's greater journey into madness, trapped inside the eternal painting of his marred beauty. She "loves" him so much that her career suffers, forsaking the untouchable talent that Dorian expects from her. In this moment, he sees beyond the MPDG character, no longer finding beauty when she presents her flaws. She was a mere illusion of a woman, not actually conscious in the eyes of Dorian. He was enamoured by the idea of her, but not interested in the flesh & blood.

All their love was bound to end eventually, when Sybil passes away from poisoning herself... after Dorian breaks up with her. One may think the character arc of the MPDG might end as she draws her last breath but... not so fast.

Within Lord Henry's final words on the life (and death) of Sybil Vane, the trope pushes through without any curtain of subtlety.

"The girl never really lived, and so she has never really died. To you at least she was always a dream, a phantom that flitted through Shakespeare’s plays and left them lovelier for its presence, a reed through which Shakespeare’s music sounded richer and more full of joy." - Lord Henry

First, she was described as a child... now a lifeless flute.

Oh, the joys of loving & being loved within the pages of a "classic"!

If anything, this central quote proves her waiflike existence more than any other.

In Wilde's novel, she exists only to die. The death quickly acts as a catalyst, propelling Dorian down an even deeper path towards destruction.

She isn't recognized beyond her role as Dorian's love, she was simply left in the dust as the (temporary & fickle) muse of a muse.

Modern MPDG

Despite the use of this term in this article, it is worthwhile to mention that Rabin recently condemned and apologized for his "creation" of the term. The coined phrase came from Rabin but encapsulated the misogynistic caricatures of women used by many writers before his Dunst review. These characters have existed in the suppression of women far before Rabin, but his apology still holds merit and deserves to be addressed.

Though the caricature was not formed by Rabin, he was still responsible for creating the name under which these characters fall under by "pinning the tail" on the misogynist,

if you will.

Let's take a look at a more recent quote from Rabin:

"Let’s all try to write better, more nuanced and multi-dimensional female characters: women with rich inner lives and complicated emotions and total autonomy, who might strum ukuleles or dance in the rain even when there are no men around to marvel at their free-spiritedness" - Nathan Rabin ('14)

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Regardless of the condemnable misogyny behind these types of character arcs, these characters still definitely exist. Sybil's life and loss were placed in the novel to act as a stepping-stone on Dorian's path, just pushing him towards his own destiny via the destruction of her own.

If the endless use of these harmful tropes aren't called out by the consumers of this content (whether reader or viewer or listener), the issue will never be resolved.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl in literature, music, and film still act as these everlasting "reeds" (in the words of Lord Henry) from which the internal fantasies of men play themselves through, amplified by their receptive audiences.

If a male character cannot motivate himself to realize his own mistakes, it sadly seems to take a bonafide MPDG to lead him to make the change he cannot make within himself.

Well, at least according to the personal hand of Oscar Wilde (and many, many more).

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Yours in Academia,

Alias Indiana, The Book-Built Blog.