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Chris Nielson ENGL 2620

The Portrait of Imperial Grey
In the Portrait of Dorian Grey, the audience is presented with a young man who is

wonderfully virtuous and beautiful but over the course of the story, his loses his virtue and,

eventually, his beauty to the pursuit of beauty, strangely enough. Within this very paradoxical

pursuit is an example of the effects of imperialism upon the Imperialist conqueror.

Dorian Grey starts his fall into madness when his friend Lord Henry decides to teach him

to value beauty above all else, for beauty, he argues, “is a form of genius” (Wilde, 16) and is

therefore, higher than all other facts and truths in the world. Princes have it and princes should

guard it while they have it. The language of Lord Henry is reminiscent of a neighboring country

who is engaged in the practice of Imperialism but isn’t totally converted, even as he condemns

the whole world for not following all the way through. The words of Lord Henry convince

Dorian Grey, just as the neighbor convinces the non-imperialist nation to consider and follow in

his tracks. Dorian starts slowly and there is nothing seemingly with his actions, for he falls in

love with a beautiful girl and becomes engaged to her as part of his pursuits to try and worship

beauty. Thus, in a similar way, there was a stance held by many nations that the imperialism

they followed through on was, at least at first, for the good of all involved and so it was not only

right but the job of the “civilized” to correct the “savage.” Yet, while there was a feeling of

benign wellbeing towards those who they sought to rule, it’s also true that this quickly was

overtaken, even as the opinions of Dorian were overtaken. For it was not long before, after the

failing of the virtues of the girl Dorian loves cause him to no longer be interested in her, which

causes her to commit suicide. At this point and a little bit before, the metaphor requires some
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reconsidering and moving around of ideas to make this comparison be clearer, but it is true

that, as the imperialist country moves cautiously and self righteously into the territory of its

new conquest, believing and declaring itself to be of the most virtuous intentions, there does

come a point where the imperialist removes all virtuous intention, and its only motivations are

that of greed and selfishness. It is on this point that Dorian reflects that of the imperialist

country, in that he says that the woman he loves no longer holds on any interest for him due to

her losing her ability to act. Finally, there is the moment when the country’s façade, which it

clings to desperately, is proven to be worthless by the brazen actions that it continues to take.

The best example of this is that of King Leopold and the Congo, which Leopold continued to say

until the end of his life, that he was improving and helping to progress. But the truth is that he

was only exploiting and enslaving the very people that he claimed before the whole world he

was helping and supporting. Thus, in the same way, Dorian, towards the end of his life, or the

point upon which he declares himself to be a man, despite his youth not disappearing, claims

that all the horrible rumors about what he has done and said were, in fact, for the benefit of

some higher power that he, like Lord Henry, saw as being “about things of which [they] know

nothing.” (Wilde, 110) a sentence that all imperialist powers echoed out in their excuses upon

hearing their reputations ruin and seeing their deeds hit the light of day.

Should the pattern of this metaphor continue to hold water, then it makes sense that

the fate of Dorian Grey at the end of this book should mirror that of the imperialist countries

and their ends. The ending occurs when Dorian’s sin-logged consciousness finally hits rock

bottom after murder, theft, lies, exploitation, numerous affairs, and so on finally causes him to

realize the monster that he has become, and to decide that his life is no longer worth living as
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his pursuit of beauty has no longer been worth the work and it also goes beyond his reach due

to tolerance of continued sating of beauties, virtues, vices, and so on. Thus, he ends his life by

stabbing his portrait that holds all of his results of sin, even as his sin-free face withers to match

the portrait’s ghastly visage. Thus, his soul is stabbed by his own hand and in so doing, he

becomes honest again of his sins and actions.

Thus is the same true with that of the Imperialists. After years of claiming virtue, even as

the scent of sin follows them in their wake, the country finally lays the seeds of their downfall,

whether by intention or by accident, the seeds are laid and finally bear fruit, resulting in many

countries around the world sharing many cultural traits as their old conquerors, but standing

apart and free from their old masters.

In conclusion, one can draw a number of comparisons between the Imperialist powers

of the 19th century and the Picture of Dorian Grey, with each playing off as having signs and

symptoms of the other. The imperialists carry the burden of their sins while showing a face of

purity to the world while Dorian Grey justifies his actions with the claim that the higher

authority, he follows is the highest authority one can ever follow. One could argue that perhaps

Oscar Wilde intended it to be this way as a sort of pointing finger of scorn towards the morality

and mindset of the global society. Perhaps he intended it to be some kind of critique, like the

ones that Mark Twain was famous for, or perhaps he wished to express his feelings, since he

was a homosexual and felt that this book was a way for him to share what he wanted to do

with his attractions, but understood and respected society’s demands for him to be the way he

was. Either way, it’s all conjecture and the ideas are ours to profit from, should we decide to do

so.
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Works cited:

Wilde, O., Mansfield, E. and Thielman, J., 1908. The picture of Dorian Gray. Paris: Charles Carrington ...