The Picture of Dorian Gray

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An Introduction

Guiding Questions

• How does the novel comment on morality and immorality?
• What does the novel say about the connection between beauty and reality?
• What does the novel reveal about racial and class prejudice in Wilde's era?
• What is the nature of friendship in this novel?
• What is the significance of sin and redemption in this novel?
• What is the role of innocence in this novel?
• What role does aestheticism play in this novel?

Vocabulary

• Aestheticism
• Aphorism
• Epigram
• Gothic
• Faust / Faustian
• Apotheosis
• Physiognomy
• Epicureanism

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Background

Victorian England

Using the following resource, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SLTrc7xOA-GDGTkTKZUbfphTLst11L2J?usp=sharing

develop your contextual knowledge of Victorian England in respect of the following areas:

• Victorian era literature and art
• Social life
• Ethics and morality
• Gender roles

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The Victorian Gothic

• The religious and scientific upheavals of the nineteenth century triggered a fascination with ghost stories and tales of terror, from those of Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) in the United States to the work of the medievalist M. R. James in England (1862–1936).
• They all tapped into the Gothic tradition established in the previous century. Gothic novels, often set in the remote past, featured ghosts, mysteries and dreams in exotic castles and forests. Extreme emotions were expressed in extreme language, and there was a strong erotic element.

The Victorian Gothic

• The Victorians gave the Gothic a new lease of life by locating it in the modern world. The most famous being Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ and Stevenson’s ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.

Aestheticism

• 19th-century literary, artistic, and cultural movement.
• Aestheticism advocates the principles of art for art’s sake: Art is an end in itself; art need not serve moral, didactic, or political ends; art should not be judged by non-aesthetic criteria.
• Represented a revolt against the materialism of Victorian middle-class culture and the effects of industrialization and mass production i.e. an attempt to transcend the ugliness of society.

Decadents and Symbolists

• In the 1870s, the term ‘decadents’ was coined to describe a school of writers and artists who focused on the artificial and urban rather than the natural.
• By about 1885 they were referred to as ‘symbolists’.
• The Decadents stretched the definition of beauty to encompass the grotesque, the dissident and the marginal. They considered that, rather than offering moral comment, the artist should embrace intensity of experience for its own sake.

Realism vs Romance

• Wilde was working in a period of debate about the style and function of the novel, and in particular its relationship to realism.
• The novels of the mid-century had begun to explore in depth the relationship between people and their social, political and material circumstances

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

General Introduction

The Basics

• Full Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
• When Written: Some time between 1889, when the story was commissioned, and 1890
• Where Written: London
• When Published: It was initially published in a magazine called Lippincott’s Monthly in July of 1890.
• Literary Period: Aestheticism
• Genre: Aestheticism, Philosophical Fiction, Gothic Fiction
• Setting: London
• Climax: Dorian becomes so tormented by the portrait that he stabs it with a knife, but when the scene is discovered, it is Dorian himself who lies dead on the floor.
• Antagonist: Dorian and the other characters are surrounded by antagonistic influences, which seem to be a part of day to day life in the high society of London. These influences, fashion, classism, obsessions with aesthetics and reputation are embodied by Lord Henry Wotton, making the man and his ideas seem like the main antagonist of the book.
• Point of View: An omniscient narrator; this narrator guides us in the past tense between one place and another, able to show us the interior workings of the main characters

The Basics

• Succes de scandale
• The novel can be read in a number of ways - parable on the corruption of the soul, a study of psychological collapse, a document of society at the time, comedic novel, pure work of art
• The theme of double life of outward respectability, or caring about one’s reputation, while transgressing society’s moral codes is central to the plot.
• Socio-economic and topographical divides are not rigid or absolute, particularly for the wealthy.
• High life and low life are often conflated - they are not disparate but congruent - Dorian passes easily from one to the other.
• Henry’s epigrams and aphorisms provide a glimpse into the world Wilde occupied and critiqued - where a guilty past or present is the norm. As a result, though Dorian represents an extreme of the combination of cultivation and corruption, he is representative of his age.
• This duplicity and leading a duplicitous life was explored later in 1886 in Robert Lois Stevenson’s ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.
• Dorian resembles his mother physically, while the transformed portrait starts to resemble the whisked grandfather - Dorian is a product of heredity.

The Basics

• Physiognomy plays an important part in this novel.
• Works of art act as subjective mirrors - however more moral than physical
• Wilde believed that “the sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct and separate”. This is found in his depiction of Dorian. Dorian brings his moral life to the portrait, confusing art with life and ethics with aesthetics. For Wilde, Dorian’s greatest sin is his aesthetic heresy - what should have been a great work of art is transformed into a horrifying record of corruption.
• Another example of the disastrous effects of life on art and of confusing ethics with aesthetics is found in the tragedy of Sybil. Life, in the form of the real passion she feels for Dorian, ruins her art.
• For Wilde, art is destroyed by life and morality.
• In addition to this, it is a study of conscience and corruption. Dorian believes the portrait can free him from the consequences of his actions. But he is never free! Despite his unbridled passion and hedonism, he cannot escape his fascination with the portrait, constantly examining his ‘soul’ obsessively. Dorian believes he has destroyed conscience, but ironically it destroys him.

The Author

• Research the biography of Oscar Wilde by watching the following videos:
• https://youtu.be/XXbpox7l8r0
• https://youtu.be/njSSCBjnsbU
• And reading the articles here:
• https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1mSiE4R1pK4KkD9znutNkbjAbILJwDiyV

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Based on your research, answer the following questions:

• How is the biography of the author connected to key themes and characters of the novel?
• How is the historical context in which the work was written connected to its predominant themes?
• What has made Wilde’s legacy live on in the world of art and writing?

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Themes

London

• Expresses expresses the ambivalent relationship of British Victorians to their capital.
• Shows a place divided: the rich inhabited the West End and the working class, the East End.
• The novel does not include the middle-class suburbs. This is deliberate because the London of this story is an image of Dorian’s own divided nature: he embodies the best and the worst of the society in which he lives.

London

• Dorian is a flaneur - a man who leisurely wanders the streets observing life.
• Sibyl’s theatre is on the border of the East. It is a place where a rich man can be a spectacle for others or can take pleasure in observing the the inhabitants.
• Birth grants access to a rigidly exclusive London.

London

• It is significant that other classes feel inhibited by this exclusive world, even when they have a perfect right to the space e.g. when Sybil and James walk in Hyde Park.
• The interiors inhabited by the rich are carefully described. Such detail does not merely make the settings more vivid but shows the endless possibilities for choice available to the wealthy.

London

• However, these choices are controlled by a fierce social network which may deny access to privileged space altogether if the rules are flouted e.g. Lord Henry’s sister has a box at the opera at her disposal; later, when she is socially disgraced, her territory shrinks.
• The inhabitants of the East End have little access to the grander parts of the West, except as workers. Dorian, however, has the freedom of the East End.

London

• Dorian’s East End is not just a geographical location but a state of mind - it is an urban hell.
• This London eventually becomes for Dorian a truer reality than his own world of art and privilege.
• It provides an intensity of experience that allows him to forget his personal terrors. However, it also reminds the reader that the ugly face of poverty shown here was a reality, one to be feared if no social change was forthcoming.

Duality

• The idea that we have another ‘self’, that we are not a single identity with clear boundaries.
• Dorian’s relationship with his other self, the painting, is complex.
• This “other”becomes the key to his double life.
• As the contrast between them grows, it is a source of “terrible delight”.
• The painting records and reflects both his internal and his external reality.

Duality

• Throughout the story Dorian is confronted with mirror images of himself, or acts as a mirror to others.
• Basil tries constantly to present Dorian with the image of the virtuous man he might be.
• Dorian consciously mirrors the hero of the book given to him by Lord Henry.
• Lord Henry lives vicariously through Dorian - Dorian acts out the “fiery-coloured life” that Lord Henry will not risk - a mirror of his desire.

Duality

• The people Dorian destroys are also images of what he might have been in different circumstances.
• Sibyl Vane, has beauty and talent but lacks the power he derives from his gender, his status and his portrait
• Adrian Singleton and Alan Campbell, both golden boys, disintegrate because they lack his magical immunity.

Duality

• Though Dorian can accept or reject all these mirrors, he fails to realise that he cannot survive without his double.
• He sees the portrait as having a twin role.
• It is his conscience, but it is also the one bit of evidence left against him when all traces of the murder of Basil have been obliterated.

Duality

• Dorian thinks that by destroying the evidence he will also be free of the inner voice that tells him to confess.
• But the double is a powerful entity and it has to be confronted. It can destroy, but not be destroyed. And it cannot be ignored.

Youth and Beauty

• In a society that prizes beauty so highly, youth and physical attractiveness become valuable commodities.
• Lord Henry claims to value beauty and youth above all else. Through his influence, Dorian adopts this attitude and leads to the wish that ultimately damns him.
• Dorian distances himself, from the horrors of his actions by devoting himself to the study of beautiful things.

Youth and Beauty

• Dorian’s downfall is that he focuses on superficial beauty. He prizes physical appearance over the state of his soul.
• Dorian’s pursuit of beauty is a pursuit of beauty defined by pure aesthetics rather than a humanitarian definition.

Youth and Beauty

• Beauty is linked to death.
• Sybil – she is immortal on stage and her suicide gives her eternal beauty
• Dorian – eternal beauty through the supernatural power of the portrait
• Time will always destroy beauty and youth, but it needs to be destroyed because it is terrible in the real world.
• As Dorian's soul shrivels and he begins to seek and admire ugliness, he comes to see his own beauty as an awful reminder of lost innocence.

Art and Imitation

• “All art is quite useless”
• Wilde uses his novel to explore his personal philosophy of aestheticism.
• Henry almost becomes his mouthpiece – his aphorisms challenge the traditional thinking of the time.
• Doesn’t the portrait then contradict aestheticism? After all, it reflects the self and is altered by immorality.
• No, because Wilde is warning that we must avoid assigning art a moral responsibility.

Art and Imitation

• However it is paradoxical because it is a cautionary tale of the dangers of literature being cautionary tales!
• The downfall of many is that they attach too much significance and meaning to art.
• For example, the portrait shapes perspectives and these perspectives shape actions and morality and give it power.
• For example, Dorian loves Sybil for the characters she portrays rather than the person she is.

Art and Imitation

• A debate about art, illusion and reality runs through the story, although it is never formalised into discussion. Characters in the novel include actresses who live as though they are constantly on stage, and a painter who values a friendship predominantly because the relationship improves his ability to paint. Dorian himself consciously bases his life and actions on a work of art: a book given to him by Lord Henry.

Influence

• Dorian is influenced by the portrait, the yellow book and Lord Henry
• Dorian is influenced by society and its preoccupation with surface beauty - he becomes devoid of any conscience or moral compass, but his face keeps him in the good favour of society because he appears innocent and pure in his features.

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Influence

• Basil is influenced by Dorian – changed by his romantic feelings for him and ultimately his ability to paint
• Sybil is influenced by Dorian and by love so that she is no longer able to act
• Other impressionable young men are influenced by Dorian by being led astray

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Men and Women

• Men take centre stage.
• Women as accompaniments rather than partners in meaningful relationships.
• Strong homosexual undertones.
• The sexual attraction evident between Dorian, Lord Henry, and Basil is integral to their characters.

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Symbols & Motifs

• White and red – represent the extremes of purity and innocence vs immorality and sin
• Flowers - related to beauty and the ephemeral nature of beauty
• The portrait – represents all the themes and is the main antagonist of the novel
• Opium dens – symbolize the degradation of Dorian’s psyche and soul
• The yellow book – symbolizes the cultural and social influence of society

Characters

Dorian

• Archetype of beauty and youthfulness
• Superficial and self-absorbed
• His vanity causes him to make the "deal with the devil”
• Manipulated by Lord Henry - adopts his "new hedonism" - and he in turn manipulates others
• Sybil's death as the start of his decline - seeing her death not as a tragedy but as an artistic ideal

Dorian

• Surrounds himself with beauty in order to try and distract himself from the sordidness of his soul
• The murder of Basil represents the beginning of the end
• The picture is the visual representation of the degradation of his soul

Basil

• Concerned with reputation and good character, but also with creating and capturing beauty
• Tries to guide Dorian in the ways of morality and decency
• Dorian changes the way he views art - he ultimately gives it too much significance
• He becomes emotionally invested in Dorian
• His devotion to Dorian ultimately leads to his death

Lord Henry

• Where Basil captures Dorian's beauty artistically, Henry unlocks and awakens its meaning and significance for Dorian
• Master of paradox
• Despite espousing hedonism, his existence is somewhat staid
• Intelligent, witty and cynical - epigrams and aphorisms
• Poisonous influence on Dorian
• Unlike Dorian and Basil, he is static

"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."

Style

Aestheticism

• Wilde’s novel exemplifies the aesthetic movement’s mantra: art for art’s sake.
• Prioritises beauty, form, and style over morality or conventional plot development.
• Lord Henry becomes the voice of aestheticism, promoting the pursuit of pleasure, beauty, and sensation above all else.
• The novel deliberately foregrounds surface over depth to mirror society’s obsession with appearance.

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Use of language to reveal beauty

• Wilde elevates language into an art form itself. His prose is lyrical, ornamental, and carefully structured.
• Sentences are crafted with balance and elegance, often poetic in rhythm and tone.
• Descriptions and dialogue are designed not just to convey information but to seduce and charm the reader.

Fusion of fantasy and realism

• The supernatural element of the portrait allows Wilde to blend realistic social critique with a fantastical premise.
• This combination enables Wilde to explore psychological and philosophical questions beyond the constraints of realism.

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Dialogue over action

• The novel is driven by conversation rather than events.
• Wilde uses extended dialogues—often philosophical or epigrammatic—to reveal character, ideology, and conflict.
• Action becomes secondary to thought and speech; Wilde favours how something is said over what is done.

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Descriptive and Dialogic

• Alternates between vivid, picturesque descriptions (especially of settings and Dorian’s beauty) and sharp, witty dialogue.
• Indirect characterisation dominates—characters are revealed through what they say and how they say it.
• Wilde avoids discursive commentary, letting the reader infer meaning and motivation.

Figurative and poetic language

Wilde’s writing is rich in:

• Simile and metaphor for visual and emotional impact
• Hyperbole and innuendo for irony or humour
• Parallelism to create rhythm and reinforce themes
• These devices add texture, vividness, and often ambiguity to the prose.

Aphorisms / Epigrams

• Lord Henry’s dialogue is laden with epigrams—concise, witty, and often paradoxical statements.
• These create a satirical edge and challenge moral conventions.
• Wilde uses paradoxes to expose societal hypocrisy, e.g. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”
• Lord Henry is the quintessential “Prince of Paradox”, using contradiction to destabilise traditional values.

Visual and sensory imagery

• Wilde’s picturesque descriptions highlight society’s obsession with outer beauty.
• Synaesthesia (mixing of sensory experiences) is used to unsettle and disorient the reader, reflecting Dorian’s psychological unraveling.
• Frequent use of morbid and grotesque imagery (e.g. the portrait’s decay) explores the tension between beauty and corruption.

Vivid but laconic character descriptions

• Characters are often introduced through brief but powerful descriptions that capture their essence.
• Wilde’s economy of language in these moments reflects his ability to distil complex personalities into striking images or phrases.

Symbolism and shiting focus

• Wilde often shifts attention from characters to symbolic objects (like a cinematographic cut), underlining themes or emotional shifts.
• For example, the portrait symbolises Dorian’s conscience and becomes a visual representation of the soul’s degradation.

Narrative voice and perspective

• The novel uses a third-person omniscient narrator, but one that maintains a subtle distance from characters.
• Rather than free indirect discourse, Wilde writes in language consistent with a character’s thoughts but keeps it in the third person, encouraging critical judgment from the reader.
• Occasional shifts to first-person plural (e.g. “we”) draw the reader into shared reflection, connecting narrative and audience.

Intertextuality and literary allusions

• The novel quotes and references other works deliberately:
• Gautier’s Enamels and Cameos
• The King James Bible
• Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
• Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott
• These intertexts deepen meaning and add layers to characters’ inner lives.
• The use of misquoted or inappropriate allusions often signals emotional repression or self-deception.
• Wilde uses intertextuality not to show off, but to educate the reader, aligning them with the author’s role as creator and interpreter of meaning.

Moral detachment and critique of sentimentality

• Wilde rejects the overt sentimentality of earlier Victorian literature (e.g. Dickens) for a more detached, ironic tone.
• The reader is invited to observe, reflect, and critique rather than be emotionally manipulated.
• This detachment aligns with Wilde’s belief that art should not teach moral lessons, even while his own novel inevitably critiques social and ethical decay.

Dark insight into human nature

• Wilde’s aestheticism does not shy away from the darkness of the human psyche.
• Themes of narcissism, hedonism, vanity, and the lust for immortality reveal an unflinching look at universal human desires.
• The deterioration of Dorian’s soul becomes a powerful metaphor for the moral consequences of unchecked self-indulgence.