The Picture of Dorian Gray Part Two
Discussion/Presentation
J.S.W.
“Basil Hallward is what I think I am;
Lord Henry what the world thinks me;
Dorian what I would like to be- in other ages perhaps.”
-Oscar Wilde
Critical Reception of The Picture of Dorian Gray
• In The Daily Chronicle: “It is a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French Decadents- a
poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of mortal and
spiritual putrefaction”
• Wilde wrote letters of rebuttal to people who attacked the novel
• In the preface (which was added to the novel AFTER its first publication in the literary
magazine): “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.”
• perhaps directly referring to the people who attacked the novel for its immoral qualities
• In response to the quote “It may be suggested that [Wilde] derives pleasure from treating a
subject merely because it is disgusting”: “Good people, belonging as they do to the normal,
and so, commonplace, type, are artistically uninteresting. Bad people are, from the point of
view of art, fascinating studies.”
• In response to the complaint that the novel has no moral: “And the moral is this: All excess,
as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment. The painter, Basil Hallward,
worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most painters do, dies by the hand of one in
whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurd vanity. Dorian Gray, having led a life of
mere sensation and pleasure, tries to kill conscience, and at that moment kills himself. Lord
Henry Wotton seeks to be merely the spectator of life. He finds that those who reject the
battle are more deeply wounded than those who take part in it. Yes; there is a terrible moral in
Dorian Gray.”
• In response to critics who misunderstood Dorian’s characterization: “[Dorian Gray] is
extremely impulsive, absurdly romantic, and is haunted all through his life by an exaggerated
sense of conscience which mars his pleasures for him and warns him that youth and
enjoyment are not everything in the world.”
• “My story is an essay on decorative art”
• “Each man sees his own sin in Dorian Gray- what Dorian Gray’s sins are no one knows. He
who finds them has brought them.”
• In 1986, Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick wrote Between Men, which laid the “intellectual groundwork for
sharply focused examinations of homosexual perspectives in Wilde’s novel” (Gillepsie 27)
• this triggered the appearance of many essays exploring homosexuality in Wilde’s work
Focus Point #1: the title, The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Contemplate it beyond its simplistic allusion to the Portrait
• Note that it is not the “Portrait” of Dorian Gray but the “Picture”
• Everyone has they own conceived image of Dorian Gray- Henry, Basil, Sybil, etc.
• Similar to Des Esseints’s opinion in Against Nature that simulation is better than that which is
original, this picture is a simulation, something that is not authentic but rather a representation
of that which is real
• Do we agree with Des Esseints that simulation is better than the real thing?
• Is the picture more true to Dorian than Dorian is true to himself?- it reflects Dorian’s soul
better than Dorian’s physical shell does
• Yet there is still great mystery and ambiguity to the portrait
• the mystery of the extra blood on the portrait at the end- what do we think this means?
• “And why was the red stain larger than it had been? It seemed to have crept like a
horrible disease over wrinkled fingers. There was blood on the painted feet, as though
the thing had dripped- blood even on the hand that had not held the knife” (158)
• Basil looks in the picture and sees himself; Henry looks into it and sees a “young Adonis...
made of ivory and rose leaves,” Dorian looks at it and sees his own fleeting possession of
youth and beauty
• so the picture is not at all definitive; it can be examined/perceived differently
• There is no definitive essence of the portrait, just as there is no definitive essence of Dorian
himself
• (see next focus point)
Focus Point #2: Wilde’s Purposeful Ambiguity
• Central Question: Between Chapters 11 and 12, there is major gap in time, and a huge
development in terms of Dorian’s indulgent behavior. Though we as readers know that Dorian
has committed deeds resulting in the complete decay of his soul, as manifested in his portrait, we
do not know the details of what he has done. For what reason does Wilde keep the misdeeds so
vague?
• page 113: “Your name was implicated in the most terrible confession I ever heard”
• We have no idea what confession was made
• page 113: “Dorian, you don’t know what is said about you”
• Neither does the reader
page
120: Dorian reads a letter that he tears up in annoyance- we do not know what accusation
•
has been made
• Who is Dorian Gray, and how are we meant to feel about him?
• Basil does not understand Dorian, believing his beauty to signify his inner goodness
• Henry does not understand Dorian, believing him incapable of committing murder, believing
him to have a life of infinite beauty, leisure and youth
• We do not understand Dorian- though we know his soul is wicked, we cannot fully dislike him,
and we hope for his redemption. We do not want him to be murdered by James Vane.
Close reading Passage: Discuss Wilde’s language of sensuality between Alan Campbell and Oscar
Wilde on Page 122- 123.
• repetition of word “intimacy”
• ambiguous: “whether or not a quarrel had taken place between them, no one ever knew”
• “Campbell felt dominated by him” page 126
Focus Point #3: Similarities to Against Nature
• James Joyce on The Picture of Dorian Gray : “some chapters are like Huysmans, catalogued atrocities,
lists of perfumes and instruments. The central idea is fantastic”
• Against Nature discussed during Oscar Wilde’s trials
• Voyeurism- We watch both Des Esseintes and Dorian Gray during their most private moments
• Fetishization
• Des Esseintes fetishizes objects such as flowers, fabrics, perfumes, etc.
• Dorian Gray decides to do the same
• In Dorian Gray, the fetishization is not on objects but rather on people
• Basil fetishizes Dorian
• Henry fetishizes Dorian
• Dorian fetishizes Sybil
• Staurt Mason: “The object of the one as of the other is to create around him an unreal world and
to live in an atmosphere of strange and ever-shifting sensation”
• Dandyism and fashion
• Similarities between Lord Henry and Des Esseintes
• social experiments: Des Esseintes experiments with his influence on the young boy in the
orphanage; Lord Henry experiments with his influence on Dorian Gray- BOTH understand
the negative impact their influences will have, but they continue regardless
• Hetty: “Do you think this girl will ever be really contented now with any one of her own
rank?... She will be wretched” (151)
• The dangers of too much self-introspection
• sickness that comes about from being alone- both Des Esseintes and Dorian are deeply
lonely characters
• Back to the idea of simulation: “We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the
secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible” (143)- Lord Henry
• Des Esseintes as a later version of Dorian Gray
• Dorian- “I wish I could love... But I seem to have lost the passion, and forgotten the
desire. I am too much concentrated on myself. My own personality has become a burden
to me. I want to escape, to go away to forget.”
• exactly what Des Esseintes had wanted when he decided to leave Paris
Religion
•
• Dorian Gray: “It was rumoured of him once that he was about to join the Roman Catholic
communion; and certainly the Roman ritual had always a great attraction for him” (100)
• Against Nature: Catholicism as the perfect object for fetishism; the aesthetic sphere of
Catholicism
• Dorian and Des Esseintes both enjoy the sensuality of religion; in Ch 11 of Dorian
Gray- “he loved to kneel down on the cold marble pavement... the fuming censers...
grave boys, in their lace, and scarlet” (101)
Strange
Re-Entrance of Religion at the end of the novel
•
• “Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement.
There was a god who called upon men to tell their sins to earth as well as to heaven”
• is Dorian really considering God and heaven, or does he simply wish for an escape
• assuming that the act of murder (destroying the portrait, which is in itself a life)
would grant him some sort of redemption
• the ending; the dichotomy between art and life- is art a reflection of life or life a
reflection of art?
• CLOSE READING PASSAGE: PAGE 158 TO 159- what can we make of the
ending?
Bibliography
Gillespie, Michael Patrick. The Picture of Dorian Gray : "what the World Thinks Me". New
Twayne Publishers , 1995.
York:
Satzinger, Christa. The French Influences On Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Salome.
Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994.
Wilde, Oscar, and Michael Patrick Gillespie. The Picture of Dorian Gray : Authoritative Text,
Backgrounds, Reviews and Reactions, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.