Redulla, Jerome 12 – HUMSS Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: A Book Critique

The story is about a young man named Dorian Gray who becomes the subject of a
painting by artist Basil Hallward. The artist, like everyone else, is taken aback by Dorian’s
beauty. While he is being painted he meets a friend of the artist, Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry
has a view on life that enthralls Dorian Gray; his view being that the only things worth pursuing
in life are beauty and fulfillment of the senses. Dorian realises that one day his beauty will fade
and expresses a desire that it be the painting that ages, not him. He gets his wish and his life
becomes a series of debauched events and frivolous luxury. The portrait shows all these acts as
Dorian remains unchanged.

I must admit prior to reading this book I did not know much about it or Oscar Wilde. I
knew the basic storyline of a man whose portrait ages instead of him, and I knew that Oscar
Wilde was an Irish poet/storyteller who was seen as scandalous and immoral at the time for his
homosexuality.

The novel starts out with one of the three main characters, Lord Henry Wotton, going to
visit his good friend and artist Basil Hallward. He finds him painting a young man by the name of
Dorian Gray and becomes instantly taken with him. Mr Wilde never holds back with his
descriptions of how beautiful Dorian Gray is. When Lord Henry first meets him he describes
him as “wonderfully handsome, with finely-curved scarlet lips, frank blue eyes and crisp gold
hair”. I’m sure most would agree that it is Lord Henry who starts Dorian Gray on his downward
spiral, but it is also when he first lays eyes on the portrait and “The sense of his own beauty
came on him like a revelation”. It is then that he starts to realise there will be a day when his
beauty fades, “the grace of his figure broken and deformed”. So he expresses a desire to “sell
his soul” so that it is the painting that ages rather than him. And of course, he gets his wish.

This for me, is when the novel really gets good. Dorian Gray, fuelled by a “poisonous”
French decadence novelª, a present from Lord Henry, goes on a downward spiral of every vice
and act of debauchery he can get his hands on. I won’t go into too much else of the plot as I
don’t want to give the story away of what happens to the various characters. There is an
actress he “falls for” and her brother who become involved in the story and, of course, the main
characters of Basil and Lord Henry. I found myself much hating Lord Henry and feeling very
sorry for Basil (or “poor Basil” as I called him).

Overall I enjoyed the dark gothic nature of this book, having never really read anything
like this before and I’m now keen to read more! I know the book was used in Mr Wilde’s trial
where he was accused of “gross indecency with other men” but by today’s standards the
homoerotic nature running through the book is very subtle.

I was interested to find out how Mr Wilde saw himself in the book, if at all, and found a
quote from Oscar which said “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world
thinks me: Dorian is what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps”. I guess that sums up the
three different characters in the book and when you read the book it definitely gives you an
insight into Mr Wilde himself.