THE PICTURE OF DORIAN
GRAY
Plot Overview
In the stately London home of his aunt, Lady Brandon, the well-known
artist Basil Hallward meets Dorian Gray. Dorian is a cultured, wealthy,
and impossibly beautiful young man who immediately captures Basil’s
artistic imagination. Dorian sits for several portraits, and Basil often
depicts him as an ancient Greek hero or a mythological figure. When
the novel opens, the artist is completing his first portrait of Dorian as he
truly is, but, as he admits to his friend Lord Henry Wotton, the painting
disappoints him because it reveals too much of his feeling for his subject. Lord Henry, a famous wit who enjoys scandalizing his friends by
celebrating youth, beauty, and the selfish pursuit of pleasure, disagrees, claiming that the portrait is Basil’s masterpiece. Dorian arrives at
the studio, and Basil reluctantly introduces him to Lord Henry, who he fears will have a damaging influence on the impressionable, young
Dorian.Basil’s fears are well founded; before the end of their first conversation, Lord Henry upsets Dorian with a speech about the transient
nature of beauty and youth. Worried that his most impressive characteristics will fade away day by day, Dorian pledges his soul if only the
painting could bear the burden of age and infamy, allowing him to stay forever young. Over the next few weeks, Lord Henry’s influence
over Dorian grows stronger. The youth becomes a disciple of the “new Hedonism” and proposes to live a life dedicated to the pursuit of
pleasure. He falls in love with Sibyl Vane, a young actress who performs in a theater in London’s slums. He adores her acting; she, in turn,
refers to him as “Prince Charming” and refuses to heed the warnings of her brother, James Vane, that Dorian is no good for her. Overcome
by her emotions for Dorian, Sibyl decides that she can no longer act, wondering how she can pretend to love on the stage now that she has
experienced the real thing. Dorian, who loves Sibyl because of her ability to act, cruelly breaks his engagement with her. After doing so, he
returns home to notice that his face in Basil’s portrait of him has changed: it now sneers. Frightened that his wish has come true and that
his sins will be recorded on the canvas, he resolves to make amends with Sibyl the next day. The following afternoon, however, Lord Henry
brings news that Sibyl has killed herself. Dorian hides his portrait in a remote upper room of his house, where no one other than he can
watch its transformation.Lord Henry gives Dorian a book that describes the wicked exploits of a nineteenth-century Frenchman; it
becomes Dorian’s bible as he sinks ever deeper into a life of sin and corruption. He lives a life devoted to indulge into new
experiences and sensations with no regard for conventional standards of morality or the consequences of his actions. Eighteen years
pass. Dorian’s reputation suffers in circles of polite London society, where rumors spread regarding his scandalous exploits. His peers
nevertheless continue to accept him because he remains young and beautiful. The figure in the painting, however, grows increasingly
wizened and hideous. On a dark, foggy night, Basil Hallward arrives at Dorian’s home to confront him about the rumors that plague his
reputation. The two argue, and Dorian eventually offers Basil a look at his (Dorian’s) soul. He shows Basil the now-hideous portrait, and
Hallward, horrified, begs him to repent. Dorian claims it is too late for penance and kills Basil in a fit of rage.The night after the murder, Dorian
makes his way to an opium den, where he encounters James Vane, who attempts to avenge Sibyl’s death. Dorian escapes to his country
estate. He resolves to amend his life but cannot muster the courage to confess his crimes, and the painting now reveals his supposed desire
to repent for what it is—hypocrisy. In a fury, Dorian picks up the knife he used to stab Basil Hallward and attempts to destroy the painting.
There is a crash, and his servants enter to find the portrait, unharmed, showing Dorian Gray as a beautiful young man. On the floor lies the
body of their master—an old man, horribly wrinkled and disfigured, with a knife plunged into his heart.
1
THE MYTH OF FAUST
The story is allegorical and it can be
interpreted as a 19th century version of
the myth of FAUST , the story of a man
who sells his soul to devil so that all his
desires can be satisfied.
The picture represents Dorian’s soul ,
which records the signs of experience,
the corruption , the horror and the sins
concealed under the mask of Dorian
timeless beauty.
PATER’s INFLUENCE
THE DOUBLE
The theme of the double is
largely present in this story.
The picture is not an
autonomous self: it stands for the dark
side
of Dorian’s personality, his
double he tries to forget locking it in
the attic.
The final stabbing of the
picture can signify the triumph of art
over life ( it is not possible to live a life
as a work of art) : it is the picture that
survives in the glory of beauty.
But it can also means that it is
impossible to lead a life pursuing
sensual and beautiful sensations
without
taking
any
moral
responsibility
Finally
the
horrible
corrupting picture can be seen as a
symbol of the immorality and bad
conscience of the Victorian middle
class hidden behind an appearance of
innocence and outward respectability.
Oscar Wilde holds a mirror to the
Victorian middle class forcing it to
confront its own reality.
Walter Pater is regarded as the high priest of the Aesthetic Movement , the
Movement of the last decades of the century , born in France with Théophile Gautier .
The conclusions of his Studies in the History of the Renaissance is that the secret
of happiness is in the absorption of beauty . Life should copy art and not the opposite , as
nature’s imperfect design is far inferior if compared to the perfection of Art.
The basic principles of his philosophy are his relativism and his individualism: the
personal experience is the only criterion of judgement . Theories are useless, only
impressions are real . But impressions are fleeting, personal , elusive . The true end of life
is not the fruit of experience but experience itself, that is the capacity of experiencing the
greatest number of impressions. The finest sensations are to be found in art which , on
the other hand, must not have any moral or didactic aim .
He portrays the solitary aesthete who keeps separated from the vulgarity of the
outside society.
The reasons why the aesthetic trend spread so largely are not difficult to
detect:
the craving for excess;
the fondness of irresponsibility;
the interest in exoticism , represented the reaction to the repression of the
instincts imposed by the Victorian mentality. The principle that art has no moral
implication was the revolt against the heavy moral standards which were only exterior
observances.
The individual rebelled against the tyranny of the overpowering public opinion
and demanded to assert himself unrestrainedly , indulging in any caprice of imagination.
OW was not the kind of man who would keep himself isolated from the vulgar
society because he was eager for publicity, he looked at the world as a stage on which he
intended to play a leading role: his eccentric behaviour , his refined and sophisticated
manners , his brilliant and paradoxical conversation made him famous .
2
THE WILDEAN DANDY
Wilde totally adopted “ the aesthetic ideal” as he affirmed that his life was a work of art.
He lived in the double role of the dandy and the rebel .
The Wildean dandy is an eccentric aristocrat whose elegance and refined manners is a
symbol of the superiority of his spirit with respect to the vulgar and common morality of the
bourgeois Victorian society .
The Wildean dandy used his wit to shock the vulgar materialistic middle class who devoted
themselves to material progress .
The dandy , on the contrary is not part of masses but he is an individualist , who demands
absolute freedom of leading a life of sensations because the more sensations the dandy could absorb ,
the more perfect his personality would be.
So life is identified with pleasure ( the philosophy of a new Hedonism) and pleasure was an
indulge in the beautiful .
Wilde perceived the dandy and the artist as alien beings in a materialist world which
couldn’t understand them.
His pursuit of beauty leads to be isolated and ostracised in the Victorian society and after his
years of prison for the accusation of homosexuality he turned out a broken man: his vicissitudes
proved that only art survives people, art is eternal.
DORIAN GRAY
At the opening of the novel, Dorian Gray exists
as something of an ideal: he is the archetype of male
youth and beauty. At the beginning of the novel he
captures the imagination of Basil Hallward, a painter,
and Lord Henry Wotton, a nobleman who transforms
the impressionable Dorian into a pleasure-seeker.
Dorian is exceptionally vain and becomes
convinced, in the course of a brief conversation with
Lord Henry, that his most salient characteristics—his
youth and physical attractiveness—are fleeting. The
thought of waking one day without these attributes
makes Dorian makes the wish to be as youthful and
lovely as the his portrait Basil has painted of him, and
he wishes that the portrait could age in his stead.
So Dorian adopts the tenets of “the new
Hedonism” and resolves to live his life as a pleasureseeker with no regard for conventional morality.
As Dorian’s sins grow worse over the years, his
portrait grows more hideous. Dorian seems to lack a
conscience, but the desire to repent that he eventually
feels illustrates that he is indeed human.
Despite the beautiful things with which he
surrounds himself, he is unable to distract himself from
the dissipation of his soul.
His murder of Basil marks the beginning of his
end as he cannot shake the thought that he has killed
his friend.
Dorian’s guilt tortures him relentlessly until he
is forced to do away with his portrait.
In the end, Dorian fails to live by his own
moral code.
THE PURPOSE
of
ART
The purpose of art is to have no
purpose.
In order to understand this claim fully,
one needs to consider the moral climate of
Wilde’s time and the Victorian sensibility
regarding art and morality.
The Victorians believed that art could
be used as a tool for social education and moral
enlightenment, as illustrated in works by writers
such as Charles Dickens . The aestheticism
movement, of which Wilde was a major
proponent, sought to free art from this
responsibility. The aesthetes were motivated by a
contempt for bourgeois morality—a sensibility
embodied in Dorian Gray by Lord Henry, whose
every word seems designed to shock the ethical
certainties of the middle class—and by the
belief that art need not possess any other purpose
than being beautiful.
3
LIFE AS A WORK OF ART _ Life should be as
beautiful as a work of art. It should be the
spiritualisation of the senses. Man fears the
“worship of the senses” because he is afraid of not
being able to dominate them and because he has
them in common with animals .
The new HEDONISM should create an
alternative model of existence which would save
man from the dominance of Puritanism by
teaching him to appreciate every single
experience.
Sybil Van exists through the life of the heroines
she performs. She is never her real self as she has
made her life into a work of art.
THE NOVEL & THE SOCIAL WORLD -On the
social scene a new hero appeared: the dandy . With
his unconventional behaviour and his foppish way of
dressing the dandy made himself as different as
possible from the middle class philistine. His witty
remarks unmask the Victorian hypocritical
conventions.
Paradoxes challenge the accepted values of society.
The dandy mocked the “honourableness” of work
of a money-oriented society . Against the rules of
conformity set by a society obsessed with material
progress and financial profit, the dandy claims the
freedom to live his life differently.
Man should live his life in full, realising his wishes
and dreams. By yielding to temptation , nothing
remains of it to embitter our mind (self-denial
poisons our mind) whereas by resisting it , the
repressed wish remains and poisons us.
YOUTH and BEAUTY are values which the dandy
held against the Victorian materialistic society ,
which had reduced everything to mere objects.Under
th influence of religion , man represses his
instinctual desires considering them immoral. He
becomes a split being , losing the sense of unity
between soul and body.Man should abandon this
situation of separateness and return to one of
wholeness.
The dandy despised the Victorian society because
he considered it hypocritical, vulgar and
materialistic ( Lord Henry Wotton’s words “ The
ignorant, the common and the vulgar. These are the
sickly aims , the false ideals, of our age”) As Lord
Henry Wotton says, “ People know the price of
everything, and the value of nothing”.
WILDE’S AESTHETICISM
Wilde epitomised the ideals of the Aesthetic
Movement of the last decades of the century: he
challenged the conventions of his time by cultivating
an extravagant style of living.
The search for Beauty in life was a constant
in the Aesthetic movement that refused the didactic
function of art , advocating the principle of “ Art for
art’s sake”
The contrast between art-life should be
solved by making life as a work of art and by exalting
the external form which can guarantee beauty. As Lord
Henry states “ only shallow people do not judge by
appearances …the true mystery of the world is the
visible, not the invisible” .
Wilde’s aestheticism was an attempt to cut
free from the moral restraints and prejudices of
Victorian society opposing “ a new Hedonism”
Wilde refuses to subordinate ART to moral,
didactic and religious ends , maintaining that ART has
no other end but ITSELF: “ Art’s for art’s sake”
QUESTIONS:
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4
Bertha Mason in JANE EYRE , Mr. Hyde in THE STRANGE
CASE OF DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE and the picture in THE
PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY can be considered mirrors of
the protagonists’ subconscious feelings . Illustrate the theme of
the double making references to the three different novels.
Why is Lord Henry a central figure in the novel The picture of
Dorian Gray?
Wilde can be considered the epitome of Aestheticism . Give
reasons
Can you define the Wildean dandy making references to the
philosophy of the new Hedonism ‘
READ the text DOCUMENT 4 p.258 in your textbook and
explain what literary, philosophical and artistic influences
contributed to mould his vision of life.
Do you think that Oscar Wilde’s life is strictly interrelated with
his artistic output? Explain.