Oscar Wilde

1854 - 1900

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)

Plot Overview
IN A LONDON HOME , a well-known artist Basil Hallward meets Dorian
Gray. Dorian is a cultured, wealthy, and impossibly beautiful young
man who immediately captures Basils artistic imagination. Dorian sits
for several portraits, and Basil often depicts him as an ancient Greek
hero or a mythological figure.
The artist shows his portrait of Dorian to his friend Lord Henry
Wotton, Basil confesses that the painting disappoints him because it
reveals too much of his feeling for Dorian. Basil Hallward gives Dorian
the portrait as a present and introduces him to Lord Henry, but he
fears that his friend Henry might have a damaging influence on the
impressionable, young Dorian. Lord Henry is, in fact, a famous wit who
enjoys scandalizing his friends by celebrating youth, beauty, and the
selfish pursuit of pleasure.
Under the influence of Lord Henry the young Dorian becomes a
disciple of the new Hedonism and he curses Basils portrait because,
one day, it will remind him of the beauty he will have lost.
In a fit of distress, Dorian sells his soul to the devil so that all his
desires might be satisfied; the painting will bear the burden of age and
infamy while he will stay young forever.

Dorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, a young actress who performs in a theatre in Londons slums. Dorian adores her acting, but
when Sibyl decides that she can no longer act because she so in love with the young dandy, Dorian cruelly breaks his engagement
with her. The following afternoon Lord Henry brings the news that Sibyl has killed herself.
Meanwhile, Dorian hides his portrait in a remote upper room of his house, where no one can watch its transformation. From now on
Dorian sinks ever deeper into a life of sin and corruption. He lives a life devoted to experiences and sensations with no regard for
conventional standards of morality or the consequences of his actions.
In the London society Dorians reputation becomes worse and worse but his peers nevertheless continue to accept him because he
remains young and beautiful.
Day by day, the figure in the painting grows increasingly wrinkled and hideous. On a dark, foggy night, Basil Hallward arrives at
Dorians home to talk about the young mans reputation. The two argue, and Dorian shows Basil the now-hideous portrait, Hallward
is horrified and begs him to repent. Dorian says that it is too late for repentance and kills Basil in a fit of rage.
One day Dorian, after killing Sibyls brother who wanted to revenge his sister death, picks up the knife he used to stab Basil
Hallward and attempts to destroy the painting considered as the real representation and witness to his spiritual corruption. There is
a crash, and when his servants enter the room they find the portrait, unharmed, showing Dorian Gray as a beautiful young man. On
the floor lies the body of their masteran old man, horribly wrinkled and disfigured, with a knife plunged into his heart.

Character List
Dorian Gray -

He is a handsome, impressionable, and wealthy young gentleman.

Under the influence of Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian becomes extremely concerned with the transience (decay) of his beauty and
begins to pursue his own pleasure above all else.
He devotes himself to having as many experiences as possible, whether moral or immoral, elegant or sordid.

Lord Henry Wotton -

He is a nobleman and a close friend of Basil Hallward. He is urbane (well-mannered) and witty

and is perpetually armed and ready to criticise the moralism and hypocrisy of Victorian society.
He is always in search of new experiences that stimulate the senses without regard for conventional morality. His pleasure-seeking
philosophy of new Hedonism plays a vital role in Dorians development.

Basil Hallward -

He is an artist, and a friend of Lord Henry. Basil becomes obsessed with Dorian after meeting him at a

party.
He thinks that Dorian possesses a beauty so rare that it can help him realize a new kind of art; through Dorian, he finds the lines of
a fresh school.
Dorian also helps Basil realize his artistic potential, as the portrait of Dorian that Basil paints proves to be his masterpiece.

Sibyl Vane -

She is a poor, beautiful, and talented actress. Dorian falls in love with her but he is mainly attracted by her

talent while Sibyl feels true love for him and for life. When she realises the falseness of affecting emotions on stage she decides to
give up acting. As a result Dorian breaks Sibyls heart and leaves her driving her to suicide.

The allegorical meaning

The story of the novel is profoundly allegorical. It is a 19 th-century version of the myth of Faust, the story of the man who
sells his soul to the devil to have all his desires satisfied.
The picture represents Dorians soul that records the signs of experiences, the corruption, the horror and the sin while
Dorians face and body stay timeless and beautiful. In other words the picture stands for the dark side of Dorians personality, his
double, which he tries to forget by locking the picture in a room.
At the end errors and sins must be faced and the moral of the novel is that reality cannot be escaped and every excess
must be punished. When Dorian destroys the picture, he cannot avoid the punishment for all his sins, that is, death.
The horrible, corrupting picture could be seen as a symbol of the immorality and bad conscience of the Victorian middle
class, while Dorian and his pure, innocent appearance are symbols of bourgeois hypocrisy.
Finally the picture, restored to its original beauty, illustrates Wildes theories of art: art survives people, art is eternal.

Themes
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The Purpose of Art

The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in 1890 and it was described as immoral. In revising the text the following year,
Wilde included a preface, which serves as a useful explanation of his philosophy of art.

The purpose of art is to have no purpose.

is quite useless

All art

The Victorians believed that art could be used as a tool for social and moral education, as illustrated in works by writers such as
Charles Dickens and George Gissing.
The aestheticism movement, famous thanks to Walter Pater, wanted to free art from this responsibility.
Oscar Wilde was one of the aestheticists and lived the double role of the rebel and the dandy.
He was against bourgeois morality, every word in his art seemed designed to shock the ethical certainties of the middle class ( the
rebel).

Art need not possess any other purpose than being beautiful.
for art's sake

Art

Wilde believed that only art as the cult of beauty could prevent the murder of the soul. He thought that people must spend their life
as a "work of art ", living any moment with happiness and pleasure (the dandy).
The dandy is an aristocrat and his elegance is a symbol of the superiority of his spirit. He uses his wit to shock and is an
individualist who demands absolute freedom. Life is meant for pleasure and pleasure is an indulgence in beauty. The dandys main
interests are beautiful clothes, good conversations, delicious food and beautiful lovers.
Wilde affirmed There is no such thing a moral or immoral book: Books are well written or badly written. That is all.
The artist, according to Wilde, is an alien in a materialistic world. The artist writes only to please himself and not to communicate
his theories to the other people.
Wilde may have succeeded in freeing his art from the confines of Victorian morality, but he has replaced it with a doctrine that is, in
its own way, just as restrictive.

The Supremacy of Youth and Beauty

The first principle of aestheticism, the philosophy of art by which Oscar Wilde lived, is that art serves no other purpose than to offer
beauty.
Throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty reigns. It is a means to revitalize the senses. It is also a means of escaping the
brutalities of the world.
Dorian devotes himself to the study of beautiful thingsmusic, jewels, rare tapestries. In a society that prizes beauty so highly,
youth and physical attractiveness become valuable commodities.
Beauty and youth is of utmost importance in the novel. The novel suggests that the price one must pay for them is exceedingly high
and Dorian gives nothing less than his soul.
As in the novel Lady Narborough notes to Dorian, there is little (if any) distinction between ethics and appearance: you are made
to be goodyou look so good.

PREFACE (added to the 1891 version)

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The artist is the creator of beautiful things.

To reveal art and conceal the artist is arts aim.

The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth-century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

The nineteenth-century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect
use of an imperfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be be proved.
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling,
the actors craft is the type.
All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a
useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.

Key Facts
FULL TITLE The Picture of Dorian Gray
AUTHOR Oscar Wilde
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Gothic; philosophical; comedy of manners
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN 1890, London
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION The first edition of the

novel was
published in 1890 in Lippincotts Monthly Magazine. A second
edition, complete with six additional chapters, was published the
following year.
PUBLISHER The 1891 edition was published by Ward, Lock &
Company.
NARRATOR The narrator is anonymous.
POINT OF VIEW The point of view is third person, omniscient.
The narrator chronicles both the objective or external world and
the subjective or internal thoughts and feelings of the
characters. There is one short paragraph where a first-person
point of view becomes apparent; in this section, Wilde becomes
the narrator.
TONE Gothic (dark, supernatural); sardonic; comedic
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) 1890s
SETTING (PLACE) London, England
PROTAGONIST Dorian Gray
MAJOR CONFLICT Dorian Gray, having promised his soul in
order to live a life of perpetual youth, must try to reconcile
himself to the bodily decay and dissipation that are recorded in
his portrait.

Questions
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The book
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

When was The picture of Dorian Gray written?

What is it about?
Who is Dorian Gray?
Who is Basil Hallwarth?
Who is Lord Henry Wotton?
What happens to the portrait?
Who does Dorian kill? Why?
Why does Dorian want to free himself of the portrait?
The meaning

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Why is the novel considered an allegorical story?

What is the picture symbol of?
Who is the dandy?
What is the moral of the book?
Who is the artist according to Oscar Wilde?
Can you explain the concept of Art for arts sake?
Is Art eternal for Oscar Wilde?
Who is Oscar Wilde?