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 these,
his most impressive characteristics, are fading day by day, Dorian curses his portrait, which he
believes will one day remind him of the beauty he will have lost. In a fit of distress, he pledges
his soul if only the painting could bear the burden of age and infamy, allowing him to stay
forever young. After Dorian’s outbursts, Lord Henry reaffirms his desire to own the portrait;
however, Basil insists the portrait belongs to Dorian.

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 for his likeness in the painting to bear the ill effects of his behavior 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. At Lord Henry’s urging, Dorian decides to consider her death a sort of artistic
triumph—she personified tragedy—and to put the matter behind him. Meanwhile, 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 garnering 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.

In order to dispose of the body, Dorian employs the help of an estranged friend, a doctor,
whom he blackmails. 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. While entertaining guests, he notices James Vane peering in through a window, and he
becomes wracked by fear and guilt. When a hunting party accidentally shoots and kills Vane,
Dorian feels safe again. 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.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Summary

The story begins in the studio of painter Basil Hallward, who is entertaining his old
friend, the relentlessly philosophical Lord Henry Wotton. Basil confides to Henry that he is
working on a portrait, the finest he has ever done, depicting a beautiful youth, Dorian Gray,
who has had an extraordinary influence on him. The influence is so great, in fact, that he refuses
to exhibit the picture, for fear of the secret passion it reveals.

Surprised by this passion in Basil, Henry wants to meet this Dorian Gray, and as luck
would have it, Dorian arrives at the studio before Basil can remove Lord Henry. Basil warns
Henry that he is not to damage Dorian. He is very serious and protective over the young man. As
it turns out, he has a right to worry. Lord Henry brings out his finest display of philosophical
chatter for Dorian and the boy is in awe of the new ideas he’s introduced to, of hedonism and
aesthetics.

Basil excitedly finishes his portrait, and it is agreed that it is the best thing he’s ever done. After
hearing Lord Henry’s warning that his beauty and youth will fade, Dorian has an extreme
response to the portrait. The passing of time and the certainty of his own aging terrify him and he
wishes that he could trade places with the portrait, maintaining his youth while the paint alters
with time. Basil offers to destroy the portrait, and Henry offers to keep it for himself, but Dorian
has a fascination for it and decides he must have it.

Inspired by Lord Henry, Dorian begins to seek every experience of life. He goes to parts of
London that some people of his social stature never see, and finds a shabby theater, performing
Shakespeare. Here, he falls in love with Sybil Vane, a beautiful young actress who embodies
Shakespeare’s heroines. Her brother, Jim Vane, does not approve of the match, and tells their
mother to do a better job of protecting Sybil while he is away at sea, but Sybil is in love with her
‘Prince Charming’ and is determined to marry him.

Tragedy strikes when Sybil’s new love for Dorian causes her acting to become completely
lifeless. Now that she has found real love, she explains, the idea of Romeo is nothing to her.
Dorian is heartbroken. He finds he cannot love Sybil without her art, and calls off the
engagement. When he returns home, Dorian notices that his portrait has changed somehow. It
has grown a cruel expression. Could it be that his wish has come true? Dorian is terrified and
pledges to make it up to Sybil, but before he can, he receives word that she has killed herself.

Dorian becomes haunted by the portrait and hides it, locked in the top room of his house. But he
continues to be affected by Lord Henry’s theories, living for the art of experience and pleasure.
He loses his remorse. Influenced especially by a particular book about a beautiful boy just like
him, he fills his life with decadence and dangerous explorations. His reputation sours, but he is
so charming and wealthy that he is still welcome in the highest circles. However, when
confronted by Basil about the rumors surrounding him, Dorian reveals the portrait to him and is
so filled with rage by Basil’s horrified reaction that he stabs and kills him.

Dorian blackmails a man called Alan Campbell to cleanly dispose of Basil’s body. Dorian then
escapes to opium dens, seeking to forget what he has done and the portrait, but while there, he is
attacked Jim Vane, who is looking to avenge his sister’s death. Dorian’s impossible youthfulness
saves him, but the image of Jim haunts him even when he goes to stay in the country with his
friends. On a hunting trip, a man is killed accidentally and it turns out to be Jim Vane, ensuring
that Dorian's crimes will never be discovered.

Dorian vows that he will become good but he will not turn himself in. When the portrait reveals
this hypocrisy, Dorian’s hope is lost. In a fit of rage, he grabs a knife and goes to destroy the
painting. A terrible cry is heard and when found by the servants, Dorian is lying dead on the
floor, old and hideous, while the painting hangs in its original, beautiful state.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Study Guide

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde's first and only novel, is a faustian story of a
man who trades the purity of his soul for undying youth. It was written in 1889 and first
published in the literary magazine Lippincott's Monthly in July, 1890 (Drew ix). This was a
shorter version, without the preface or chapters 3, 5, or 15-18, which were added for later
publication in 1891. These additional chapters, which are now indespensible aspects of the work,
introduce the character of James Vane, the vengeful brother of one of the victims of Dorian's
many careless affairs. At the time it was published, the novel elicited a sensational amount of
negative criticism, with detractors condemning its homosexual undertones and seeming embrace
of hedonistic values. The preface was written as a response to the unkind critics of the first
edition, blaming them for failing to grasp Wilde's belief that art should be appreciated on purely
aesthetic terms, without consideration of morality.
The central idea behind Wilde's reinterpretation of the Faust myth appeared several years before
he began writing the novel, in the form of a spoken tale that the author would tell to friends,
especially young admirers. Wilde was well aware of the story's debt to older tales of selling one's
soul, youth, beauty, and power, freely admitting that it was a notion "that is old in the history of
literature, but to which I have given a new form" (Drew xiv). This "new form" brings the idea of
duplicity, of leading a double life, to the forefront of the tale, a theme that is much more
dominant in Dorian Gray than it is in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus or Goethe's Faust,
which is a typical characteristic of Wilde's work. This theme is explicitly explored, for instance,
in the author's most celebrated play, The Importance of Being Earnest.
As Wilde's notoriety grew, mainly as a result of this novel's infamy, his enemies continued to use
the homosexual undertones and seemingly immoral hedonistic values of Dorian Gray as an
argument against his character. Such criticisms continued throughout his ruinous court
appearances in 1895. At the time, any sort of homosexual act was a serious criminal offense in
England. The first published version of the book from Lippincott's Monthly contained much
more obvious allusions to physical love between Dorian and Lord Henry, and Dorian and Basil.
Wilde had made a point of reducing these references in the revision, but the original version of
the novel provided much fuel for his opponents' arguments.
After the trials, Wilde was briefly imprisoned, and his literary career never recovered. He moved
to the European mainland and lived under an assumed name until his death, in a Paris hotel, in
1900. Wilde cited this novel as being primarily responsible for his ruin, speaking of "the note of
Doom that like a purple thread runs through the cold cloth of Dorian Gray" (Drew xxvii).
Only decades after Wilde's death would the work truly become respected as a literary
masterpiece.
Despite the critical preoccupation with the book's seeming approval of alternative
lifestyles, Dorian Gray is a novel that offers much more to both intellectual and artistically
sensitive readers. It is primarily concerned with examining the complex relationships between
life, art, beauty, and sin, while presenting a compellingly cynical portriat of high society life in
Victorian-era London. It examines the role of art in social and personal life while warning
against - despite Wilde's claims of artistic amorality - the dangers of unchecked vanity and
superficiality.
The Picture of Dorian Gray Summary
Dorian Gray meets Lord Henry Wotton at the studio of Basil Hallward, who is using
Dorian as a model for his latest painting. Lord Henry tells Dorian about his epicurean views on
life, and convinces him of the value of beauty above all other things. The young and
impressionable Dorian is greatly moved by Lord Henry's words. When Basil shows them the
newly completed painting, Dorian is flooded with awe at the sight of his own image, and is
overwhelmed by his fear that his youth and beauty will fade. He becomes jealous that the picture
will be beautiful forever while he is destined to wither and age. He passionately wishes that it
could be the other way around. Lord Henry is fascinated with Dorian's innocence as much as
Dorian is impressed by Henry's cynically sensual outlook on life. They become fast friends, to
Basil's dismay. He fears that Henry will be a corrupting influence on the young, innocent Dorian,
whom he adores.
Dorian and Lord Henry become fast friends, often dining together and attending the same social
functions. Henry's influence has a profound effect on the young man, who soon adopts Henry's
views as his own, abandoning ethical restraints and seeing life in terms of pleasure and
sensuality. Dorian falls in love with the beautiful Sibyl Vane, a poor but talented young
Shakespearean actress. They are engaged to be married until Dorian brings Henry and Basil to a
performance, where her acting is uncharacteristically - and inexplicably - terrible. Dorian
confronts Sibyl backstage, and she tells him that since she is now truly in love, she no longer
believes in acting. Disgusted and offended, Dorian breaks off their engagement and leaves her
sobbing on the floor. When he returns home, he discovers that the figure in his portrait now bears
a slightly different, more contemptuous facial expression.
Dorian awakens late the next day feeling guilty for his treatment of Sibyl, and writes an
impassioned love letter begging her forgiveness. Soon, however, Lord Henry arrives, and
informs Dorian that Sibyl committed suicide last night. Dorian is shocked and wracked with
guilt, but Henry convinces him to view the event artistically, saying that the superb melodrama
of her death is a thing to be admired. Succumbing to the older man's suggestion, Dorian decides
that he need not feel guilty, especially since his enchanted portrait will now bear his guilt for
him. The picture will serve as his conscience, allowing him to live freely. When Basil visits
Dorian to console him, he is appalled at his friend's apathy towards Sibyl's death. Dorian is
unapologetic and annoyed by Basil's adulation of him.

Paranoid that someone might discover the secret of the painting, and therefore the true nature of
his soul, Dorian hides the image in his attic. Over the next several years, Dorian's face remains
young and innocent, despite his many selfish affairs and scandals. He is an extremely popular
socialite, admired for his fine taste and revered as a fashionable trend-setter. The picture,
however, continues to age, and grows more unattractive with each foul deed. Dorian cannot keep
himself from looking at the picture periodically, but he is appalled by it, and is only truly happy
when he manages to forget its existence. He immerses himself in various obsessions, studying
mysticism, jewelry, music, and ancient tapestries. These interests, however, are all merely
distractions that allow him to forget the hideousness of his true soul.

One night, Basil visits Dorian to confront him about all of the terrible rumors he has heard. The
painter wants to believe that his friend is stll a good person. Dorian decides to show him the
portrait so that he can see the true degradation of his soul, but when Basil sees it he is horrified,
and urges his friend to repent for his sins. Basil's reaction enrages Dorian, and he murders the
artist with a knife. To dispose of the body, he blackmails an estranged acquaintance, Alan
Campbell, a chemist who is able to burn the body in the attic's fireplace. Alan has already been
driven into isolation by Dorian's corrupting influence, and this action eventually compels him to
commit suicide.
Not long after, Dorian visits an opium den and is attacked by James Vane, Sibyl's brother,
who has sworn revenge on the man that drove his sister to suicide. 18 years have passed since the
event, however, yet Dorian still looks like a 20-year-old youth. James thinks that he is mistaken,
and Dorian escapes before his would-be murderer learns the truth. Over the next several days
Dorian lives in fear, sure that James is searching for him. While hunting one day, Dorian's friend
Geoffrey accidentally shoots a man hiding on Dorian's property. This stranger is revealed to be
James Vane. Dorian is overcome with relief, but cannot escape the fact that four deaths now
weigh on his conscience.

Deciding to change his life for the better, Dorian commits a good deed by refusing to
corrupt a young girl who has fallen in love with him. He checks the portrait, hoping to find
that it has changed for the better, but when he realizes that the only thing that has changed
is the new, hypocritical smirk on the wrinkled face, he realizes that even his effort to save
his soul was driven by vanity. In a fit of despair, he decides to destroy the picture with the
same knife that he used to kill Basil, its creator. Downstairs, Dorian's servants hear a
shriek, and rush upstairs to find their master dead on the floor, the knife plunged into his
own chest. Dorian's youthful countenance is gone, and his servants are only able to
recognize him by the jewelry on his fingers.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Character List

Basil Hallward
A reclusive painter much respected by the London aristocracy. He admires Dorian to the point of
adulation and paints many portraits of him, finally creating his masterpiece, the titular picture.
Basil introduces Dorian to Lord Henry Wotton.
Lord Henry Wotton
A champion of sensual pleasure, notorious among London's high society for his dazzling
conversation and brazenly immoral views. He values beauty above all else, and is chiefly
responsible for Dorian's corruption.
Dorian Gray
A physically beautiful young man, naive and good-hearted until corrupted by vanity. Dorian
makes a faustian bargain: his body remains young and beautiful, while his portrait alters to
reflect his age and increasingly guilty conscience. He eventually seems to bring corruption, pain,
and death to all inhabitants of the social circles in which he moves.
Lord George Fermor
Henry Wotton's uncle, an idle, impatient aristocrat. Henry calls on him to elicit information
about Dorian's background. He is a portrait of a typical self-centered, elderly aristocrat whose
money allows him to devote his life to purely fanciful and superficial endeavors.
Sibyl Vane
A beautiful, 17-year-old Shakespearean actress, and Dorian's first love. The pair are smitten with
each other and are engaged to be married until Dorian sees her perform badly, and, disillusioned,
treats her with extreme cruelty. Broken-hearted, she commits suicide.
Mrs Vane
Sybil's aging, single mother. Mrs Vane is also an actress, and both she and her daughter struggle
to support their small family through their craft. She is most comfortable when her real life is as
melodramatic as it is on the stage.
James Vane
Sibyl's younger, fiercely protective brother, who leaves England to become a sailor. He is
suspicious of his sister's lover from the start, and swears to hunt the man down if he causes her
any harm. After Sibyl's death, he dedicates himself to finding his sister's "Prince Charming", and
is eventually killed by a wayward hunting bullet while trying to take his revenge on Dorian.
Mr Isaacs
The man who runs the decrepit theater where Sybil performs. The Vanes are deeply in debt to
him. He is a sterotypical portrait of an old Jewish man, whom Dorian and Basil find
contemptible, and whom Lord Henry finds amusing.
Victor
Dorian's faithful first servant, of whom he is unnecessarily suspicious. Victor has been replaced
by another servant by the second half of the novel, although the details of his dismissal are never
disclosed. We are left to surmise that either Dorian's paranoia became too great, or that Victor
eventually grew unable to bear his master's increasingly corrupt nature.
Mr Hubbard
A celebrated London frame-maker whom Dorian calls upon to help him hide the portrait in the
attic. He appears only once in the novel, but stokes Dorian's growing paranoia by being puzzled
when the protagonist adamantly refuses to uncover the painting for him to see it.
Adrian Singleton
A promising young member of society whose life takes a turn for the worse when he befriends
Dorian. Adrian ends up addicted to opium, spending all of his time and money in filthy,
dilapidated drug dens.
Alan Campbell
A talented chemist and musician who is close to Dorian until their friendship comes to a bitter
end as a consequence of Dorian's increasingly bad reputation. Dorian forces him to assist in the
disposal of Basil's body using blackmail, and Alan later commits suicide.
Lady Narborough
The widow of a wealthy man, and the mother of richly married daughters. She hosts a great
many parties, and is very fond of Dorian and Lord Henry.
Sir Geoffrey Clouston
A London socialite and guest of Lady Narborough who shoots James Vane in a hunting accident.
Unlike most of the aristocrats present at the incident, he appears to be quite disturbed by the idea
of having taken a human life.
Lady Alice Chapman
Lady Narborough's decidedly unremarkable daughter, a minor character whom Wilde uses to
display Lord Henry's superficiality.
Duchess of Monmouth
Gladys, a clever and pretty young aristocrat who nearly matches Lord Henry in conversational
wit. She freely and lightly admits to numerous adulterous affairs, and flirts with Dorian at one of
his parties.
Hetty Merton
A beautiful young village girl who falls in love with Dorian and reminds him of Sybil Vane.
Dorian consciously - and hypocritically - refrains from corrupting her in an attempt to begin
living a good life, and to purify his soul. She does not believe Dorian when he tells her that he is
wicked, because he looks so young and innocent. She is the last young woman with whom
Dorian is romantically linked.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Themes

Art as a Mirror
This theme is exemplified by the titular portrait. Dorian Gray's image reflects his conscience
and his true self, and serves as a mirror of his soul. This fact echoes Wilde's statement (found in
the preface) that "It is the spectator...that art really mirrors." However, this theme first appears
earlier in the preface, with Wilde's contention that "the nineteenth-century dislike of realism is
the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass." Realism is a genre of artistic expression that
is said to have shown the 19th century its own reflection. The fear that Dorian expresses when
viewing the painting, and the emotions that he seeks to escape through sin, drug addiction, and
even murder, might be considered an expression of his rage at laying eyes upon his true self. The
idea of reflectivity also recalls a major mythical influence on the novel: the story of Narcissus.
Dorian, like Narcissus, falls in love with his own image, and is ultimately destroyed by it.
The Art of Living (or Living through Art)
This theme is expressed most prominently in the character of Lord Henry, and in the "new
hedonism" he espouses. Lord Henry openly approaches life as an art form, seeking to sculpt
Dorian's personality, and treating even his most casual speeches as dramatic performances. Most
notably, he pursues new sensations and impressions of beauty with the amorality of an artist: as
Wilde writes in the preface, "No artist has ethical sympathies." This latter characteristic is the
one that leaves the deepest impression on Dorian's character. However, although both men fancy
themselves artists at living, their flaw lies in their blatant violation of the rule given in the first
line of the preface: "To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim." Dorian and Lord Henry both
strive to reveal themselves in their "art."

Wilde also explores this theme by blurring the line between life and art. 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.
Vanity as Original Sin
Dorian's physical beauty is his most cherished attribute, and vanity is, as a consequence, his most
crippling vice. Once a sense of the preciousness of his own beauty has been instilled in him by
Lord Henry, all of Dorian's actions, from his wish for undying youth at the beginning of the
novel to his desperate attempt to destroy the portrait at the end, are motivated by vanity. Even his
attempts at altruism are driven by a desire to improve the appearance of his soul. Throughout the
novel, vanity haunts Dorian, seeming to damn his actions before he even commits them; vanity is
his original sin. Dorian's fall from grace, then, is the consequence of his decision to embrace
vanity - and indeed, all new and pleasurable feelings - as a virtue, at the behest of Lord Henry,
his corrupter. In the preface to the novel, Wilde invites us to ponder the inescapability of vanity
in our own relationship to art when he states that "it is the spectator, and not life, that art really
mirrors." If we see ourselves in art, and find art to be beautiful, then it follows that we, like
Dorian, are in fact admiring our own beauty.
The Duplicity of One's Public and Private Selves
This theme is prominent in much of Wilde's work. It plays a central role in The Importace of
Being Earnest, and is prominent throughout this novel, as well. In addition to the protagonist,
many of the novel's characters are greatly concerned with their reputations. Lord Henry
and Basil Hallward both counsel Dorian on how to best preserve his good status in the public
eye. When crimes are committed, it is not personal absolution that anyone is concerned with, but
whether or not the guilty party will be held responsible by the public. In this way, each character
in the novel possesses an awareness of a split identity: one that is defined by the public, and one
that they define themselves. The figure of Dorian is an allegorical representation of this
condition. The portrait is a literal visualization of Dorian's private self, the state of his soul, while
Dorian himself looks perpetually young, beautiful, and innocent.
Much of Wilde's social commentary in the novel springs from his manipulation of this theme.
People's responses to Dorian constantly highlight the overwhelming superficiality of Victorian
London (if not people in general). Because Dorian always looks innocent, most of the people he
encounters assume that he is a good, kind person. Dorian literally gets away with murder because
people are automatically more willing to believe their eyes than anything else.
The Value of Beauty and Youth
Lord Henry claims to value beauty and youth above all else. It is this belief, when imparted to
Dorian, that drives the protagonist to make the wish that ultimately damns him. When Dorian
realizes that he will keep his youthful appearance regardless of whatever immoral actions he
indulges in, he considers himself free of the moral constraints faced by ordinary men. He values
his physical appearance more than the state of his soul, which is openly displayed by the ever-
increasing degradation of the portrait. This superficial faith in the ultimate value of youth and
beauty is therefore the driving mechanism behind the protagonist's damnation. In this way, The
Picture of Dorian Gray may be read as a moralistic tale warning against the dangers of
valuing one's appearance too highly, and of neglecting one's conscience.
It is important to bear in mind that the beauty that Dorian incessantly pursues is a beauty defined
by a purely artistic sensibility, as opposed to a humanitarian one. When faced with the news of
his fiance's suicide, Dorian views the event as satisfyingly melodramatic. His obsession with
aesthetic beauty prevents Dorian from attending to the pangs of his own conscience.
Influence and Corruption
Dorian begins the novel as an innocent youth. Under Lord Henry's influence he becomes corrupt,
and eventually begins corrupting other youths himself. One of the major philosophical questions
raised by this novel is that of where to locate the responsibility for a person's misdeeds. If one
engages in a moralistic reading, The Picture of Dorian Gray can be seen as a lesson in
taking responsibility for one's actions. Dorian often points to Lord Henry as the source of his
corruption. However, when contemplating the plights of others, Dorian lays the blame at their
own feet rather than considering the role that he might have played in their downfall.
Homosexuality
This is the theme that Wilde was alluding to when he wrote of the "note of Doom that
like a purple thread runs through the cold cloth of Dorian Gray" in a letter to his young lover,
Bosie, following his ruinous court appearances. He calls the theme of homosexuality a "note of
doom" because sodomy and homosexuality in general were severly punishable offenses in
Victorian England, and it was under such charges that Wilde was brought to trial.
In the novel, there are strong homosexual undertones in the relationships between the
three central characters (Dorian, Lord Henry, and Basil Hallward), as well as between Dorian
and several of the young men whose lives he is said to have "ruined", most notably Alan
Campbell. In his revision of the novel for its official release, after it appeared
in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Wilde removed all of the most blatant references to
homosexuality. However, the idea of sexual affection between men proved too integral to the
characters and their interactions to be entirely expunged from the novel. This theme has
prompted many critics to read the novel as the story of a man's struggle with his socially
unacceptable proclivities. Indeed, some feel that Wilde was working out his own conflicted
feelings on the subject through the novel.

Biography of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland to prominent

intellectuals William Wilde and Lady Jane Francesca Wilde. Though they
were not aristocrats, the Wildes were well-off and provided Oscar with a fine
education. Oscar was especially influenced by his mother, a brilliantly witty
raconteur, and, as a child, he was frequently invited to socialize with her
intellectual circle of friends.

Wilde entered Trinity College in 1871 and focused his academic

studies on the classics and theories of aestheticism. In 1874, he transferred to
Oxford and studied under the divergent tutorials of John Ruskin (a social
theorist and Renaissance man) and Walter Pater (a proponent of the new
school of aestheticism). Wilde negotiated their conflicting philosophies as his
personal life developed. He also experimented with cutting-edge fashion and
homosexuality.

Upon graduating from Oxford, Wilde had a brief flirtation with

Catholicism, but his independent orientation toward the world prevented an
exclusive attachment to religion. In 1881, he published his first volume of
verse (Poems), and he became famous enough to be satirized in a Gilbert and
Sullivan comic opera. He moved to Chelsea, an avant-garde neighborhood in
London, but his father's death and the family's snowballing debts forced him
to embark on a lecture tour of the United States in 1882. Upon arriving at
customs, Wilde made his now-famous statement: "I have nothing to declare
except my genius." On tour, he dressed in a characteristically flamboyant
style. He advocated for the philosophy of the aesthetic: art should exist solely
for art's sake, or, as he wrote elsewhere, it should be "useless." While on tour
in New York, Wilde also produced his first, unsuccessful play, Vera.
In 1884, Wilde married a shy and wealthy Irishwoman named
Constance Lloyd, and the two moved into a posh house in London. Wilde
briefly edited Woman's World magazine while writing a collection of fairy
tales and a number of essays (collected later as Intentions, 1891), which
elaborated his unique approach to aestheticism, a movement with which he
was rather reluctant to associate himself. While Wilde had been socially and
professionally linked to confirmed aesthetes such as Max Beerbohm, Arthur
Symons, and Aubrey Beardsley, he was an open critic of the kind of
reductive aesthetic philosophy expressed in the famous journal The Yellow
Book. Preferring to explore his own thoughts about art and politics through
idiosyncratic readings of Plato, Shakespeare, and contemporary painting,
Wilde had a social circle which featured a diverse cast of characters, among
them poets, painters, theater personalities, intellectuals, and London "rent
boys" (male prostitutes). His closest friend, however, remained the Canadian
critic and artist Robert Ross, who, at times, handled Wilde's publicity and
acted as Wilde's confidant in his professional and personal affairs.
 Throughout the 1890s, Wilde became a household name with the
publication of his masterpiece novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a Faustian
tale about beauty and youth, as well as a string of highly successful plays,
including Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), the Symbolist
melodrama Salome (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and An Ideal
Husband (1895). His last play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), is
considered the original modern comedy of manners. By this time, Wilde's
extravagant appearance, refined wit, and melodious speaking voice had made
him one of London's most sought-after dinner-party guests.
In 1891, Wilde became infatuated with the beautiful young poet Lord
Alfred Douglas (known as "Bosie"). The dynamic between Bosie and Wilde
was unstable at the best of times, and the pair often split for months before
agreeing to reunite. Still, the relationship consumed Wilde's personal life, to
the extent that the sexual nature of their friendship had become a matter of
public knowledge. In 1895, Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensbury,
accused Wilde of sodomy. Wilde replied by charging Queensbury with libel.
Queensbury located several of Wilde's letters to Bosie, as well as other
incriminating evidence. In a second trial often referred to as "the trial of the
century," the writer was found guilty of "indecent acts" and was sentenced to
two years of hard labor in England's Reading Gaol.

In 1897, while in prison, Wilde wrote De Profundis, an examination of

his newfound spirituality. After his release, he moved to France under an
assumed name. He wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol in 1898 and published
two letters on the poor conditions of prison. One of the letters helped reform
a law to keep children from imprisonment. His new life in France, however,
was lonely, impoverished, and humiliating.
Wilde died in 1900 in a Paris hotel room. He retained his epigrammatic
wit until his last breath. He is rumored to have said of the drab establishment
that, between the awful wallpaper and himself, "One of us has to go." Critical
and popular attention to Wilde has recently experienced a resurgence; various
directors have produced films based on his plays and life, and his writings
remain a wellspring of witticisms and reflections on aestheticism, morality,
and society.
Critical Essays Oscar Wilde's Aesthetics

The philosophical foundations of Aestheticism were formulated in the eighteenth century by

Immanuel Kant, who spoke for the autonomy of art. Art was to exist for its own sake, for its own
essence or beauty. The artist was not to be concerned about morality or utility or even the
pleasure that a work might bring to its audience. Aestheticism was supported in Germany by J.
W. von Goethe and in England by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle.

Benjamin Constant first used the phrase l'art pour l'art (French, meaning "art for art," or "art for
art's sake") in 1804; Victor Cousin popularized the words that became a catch-phrase for
Aestheticism in the 1890s. French writers such as Théophile Gautier and Charles-Pierre
Baudelaire contributed significantly to the movement.

Oscar Wilde did not invent Aestheticism, but he was a dramatic leader in promoting the
movement near the end of the nineteenth century. Wilde was especially influenced as a college
student by the works of the English poet and critic Algernon Charles Swinburne and the
American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The English essayist Walter Pater, an advocate of "art for art's
sake," helped to form Wilde's humanistic aesthetics in which he was more concerned with the
individual, the self, than with popular movements like Industrialism or Capitalism. Art was not
meant to instruct and should not concern itself with social, moral, or political guidance.

Like Baudelaire, Wilde advocated freedom from moral restraint and the limitations of society.
This point of view contradicted Victorian convention in which the arts were supposed to be
spiritually uplifting and instructive. Wilde went a step further and stated that the artist's life was
even more important than any work that he produced; his life was to be his most important body
of work.

The most important of Wilde's critical works, published in May 1891, is a volume
titled Intentions. It consists of four essays: "The Decay of Lying," "Pen, Pencil and Poison,"
"The Critic as Artist," and "The Truth of Masks." These and the contemporary essay "The Soul
of Man Under Socialism" affirm Wilde's support of Aestheticism and supply the philosophical
context for his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

"The Decay of Lying" was first published in January 1889. Wilde called it a "trumpet against the
gate of dullness" in a letter to Kate Terry Lewis. The dialogue, which Wilde felt was his best,
takes place in the library of a country house in Nottinghamshire. The participants are Cyril and
Vivian, which were the names of Wilde's sons (the latter spelled "Vyvyan"). Almost
immediately, Vivian advocates one of the tenets of Wilde's Aestheticism: Art is superior to
Nature. Nature has good intentions but can't carry them out. Nature is crude, monotonous, and
lacking in design when compared to Art.

According to Vivian, man needs the temperament of the true liar" with his frank, fearless
statements, his superb irresponsibility, his healthy, natural disdain of proof of any kind!" Artists
with this attitude will not be shackled by sterile facts but will be able to tell beautiful truths that
have nothing to do with fact.

"Pen, Pencil and Poison" was first published in January 1889. It is a biographical essay on the
notorious writer, murderer, and forger Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, who used the pen name
"Janus Weathercock."

Wilde's approach is that Wainewright's criminal activities reveal the soul of a true artist. The
artist must have a "concentration of vision and intensity of purpose" that exclude moral or ethical
judgment. True aesthetes belong to the "elect," as Wilde calls them in "The Decay of Lying," and
are beyond such concerns. As creative acts, there is no significant difference between art and
murder. The artist often will conceal his identity behind a mask, but Wilde maintains that the
mask is more revealing than the actual face. Disguises intensify the artist's personality. Life itself
is an art, and the true artist presents his life as his finest work. Wilde, who attempted to make this
distinction in his own life through his attempts to re-create himself, includes this theme in The
Picture of Dorian Gray.

The longest of the essays in Intentions, "The Critic as Artist," first appeared in two parts (July
and September 1890) with the significant title, "The True Function and Value in Criticism; With
Some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing: A Dialogue." It is considered to be a
response to Matthew Arnold's essay "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (1865).
Arnold's position is that the creative faculty is higher than the critical. The central thesis of
Wilde's essay is that the critic must reach beyond the creative work that he considers.

The setting of the dialogue is a library in a house in London's Piccadilly area overlooking Green
Park, and the principal characters are Gilbert and Ernest.

Along with the central theme of the importance of the critic, Gilbert espouses the significance of
the individual. The man makes the times; the times do not make the man. Further, he advocates
that "Sin is an essential element of progress." Sin helps assert individuality and avoid the
monotony of conformity. Rules of morality are non-creative and, thus, evil.

The best criticism must cast off ordinary guidelines, especially those of Realism, and accept the
aesthetics of Impressionism — what a reader feels when reading a work of literature rather than
what a reader thinks, or reasons, while reading. The critic must transcend literal events and
consider the "imaginative passions of the mind." The critic should not seek to explain a work of
art but should seek to deepen its mystery.

"The Truth of Masks" first appeared in May 1885 under the title "Shakespeare and Stage
Costume." The essay originally was a response to an article written by Lord Lytton in December
1884, in which Lytton argues that Shakespeare had little interest in the costumes that his
characters wear. Wilde takes the opposite position.

More important within the context of Intentions, Wilde himself always put great emphasis on
appearance and the masks, or costumes, with which the artist or individual confronts the world.

Wilde also raises the question of self-contradiction. In art, he says, there is no such thing as an
absolute truth: "A Truth is that whose contradictory is also true." This sentiment recalls Wilde's
tremendous respect for the thoughts of Walt Whitman. In "Song of Myself," Whitman writes,
"Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain
multitudes)."

"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" first appeared in February 1891. In it, Wilde expresses his
Aesthetics primarily through the emphasis that the essay places on the individual. In an unusual
interpretation of socialism, Wilde believed that the individual would be allowed to flourish under
the system. He thus warns against tyrannical rulers and concludes that the best form of
government for the artist is no government at all.

In this essay, it's easy to see that Wilde loved to shock. If Walt Whitman wanted to wake the
world with his "barbaric yawp," Wilde preferred aphorisms, paradox, irony, and satire. While
Wilde wouldn't want to be accused of sincerity, he was certainly devoted to Aestheticism in his
life as well as his art.

Critical Essays On Tour: Lectures in America 1882

Oscar Wilde was just ten weeks past his twenty-seventh birthday when he boarded the S. S.
Arizona on December 24, 1881, destined for America and a year of lecturing as an expert on art
and literature.

Wilde saw himself as a representative of the Aesthetic Movement and hoped to encourage an
appreciation for beauty in an America that was largely devoted to industrialization. The tour was
promoted to exploit Wilde's reputation as an aesthete. The Arizona arrived in New York on
January 2, 1882. Local newspaper reporters were so eager to get a quote from Wilde that several
of them hired a launch boat to bring them aboard Wilde's ship before it docked. In an interview
the next day, Wilde welcomed his role as defender of the arts: "I am here to diffuse beauty, and I
have no objection to saying that."
The timing of the tour had everything to do with the recent success of a Gilbert and Sullivan
play Patience; or Bunthorne's Bride, which had opened to enthusiastic reviews at the Standard
Theatre in New York in September 1881. Patience satirized the Aesthetic Movement and
presented a character named Bunthorne who personified the popular stereotypes of the aesthete.
The caricature featured long hair, knee breeches, silk stockings, and effete mannerisms.
Bunthorne was fond of gazing at lilies and sunflowers. The play recalled one of many legends
that Wilde delighted in cultivating. Supposedly he had walked down Piccadilly dressed in such a
costume and carrying a flower. Wilde's son Vyvyan later quoted his father's comment on the
story: "Anyone could have done that; the difficult thing to achieve was to make people believe
that I had done it." As usual, perception was more important than reality for Wilde.

Despite an impressive resonant voice, Wilde made no claim of being a great orator; however, he
tried to give the audiences what they expected in appearance as well as a certain degree of
enlightenment. He noted on one occasion that the audience was disappointed that he had worn
ordinary clothing rather than his knee breeches. On January 31, Wilde was to speak at the Music
Hall in Boston. Sixty Harvard students decided to parody Wilde's clothes and manners. When the
auditorium was nearly full, the students, each dressed like Bunthorne, paraded in pairs down the
center aisle to their seats in the front rows, swishing sunflowers and lilies as they went. Wilde,
who had been tipped off, appeared in conventional evening dress. After welcoming the students
and the rest of the audience, he drolly commented, "Caricature is the tribute that mediocrity pays
to genius." This won loud applause from the entire audience. He then sighed a quiet prayer,
"Save me from my disciples," which again evoked enthusiastic applause.

Wilde's appearances were not always so well received. Lecturing on literature or "The English
Renaissance" or "The House Beautiful" or "The Decorative Arts," he sometimes spoke to small
crowds or received mediocre reviews. At other times, he was a huge success, so much so that his
tour, originally scheduled for three months, was extended to ten months. He spoke in more than a
hundred cities and towns throughout the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West, and in several
cities in Canada. He appeared in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco but also in Atchison,
Kansas; Brantford, Ontario; Macon, Georgia; and Galveston, Texas.

Wilde's pose as an aesthete was all the more effective because he himself was a very large man,
more than six feet three inches tall. Although he seldom engaged in sports, he was quite strong
and known as a good boxer. Sir Frank Benson, himself an athlete at Oxford, reported in his
memoirs that only one man in the college "had a ghost of a chance in a tussle with Wilde." On
one occasion, four undergraduates entered Wilde's room and broke up his furniture. Wilde
caught them in the act, booted out one, doubled over a second with a punch, tossed a third in the
air, and carried the fourth to the man's own room, where Wilde invited spectators to join him in
sampling the would-be-ruffian's wines and spirits.
On tour, Wilde took special delight in meeting ordinary people. (Remember that many of the
accounts of these meetings come from Wilde's letters to friends and relatives back home, and he
was never one to allow boring facts to get in the way of a good story.) One of his favorite visits,
a highlight of the trip, was to Leadville, Colorado, high in the Rocky Mountains, and to a silver
mine called "Matchless." Wilde read passages from the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, the
sixteenth-century Italian artist who was an eminent silversmith. Wilde said that the gun-toting
miners were disappointed that he had not brought Cellini with him. When Wilde reported that the
artist was dead, one of the miners asked, "Who shot him?"

Another visit, to the state penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska, produced observations made ironic
by Wilde's own incarceration thirteen years later. Wilde's letter home spoke of the horrifying
existence and the mean-looking men, adding in a letter to Helen Sickert, "I should hate to see a
criminal with a noble face." He did ask the inmates if they read and what they read. It gave him
pause when he discovered that some were devoted to Shelley and Dante. Wilde himself would
later read Dante in prison.

While on tour, Wilde met with various dignitaries and writers, including Walt Whitman and
Henry James. The visit with Whitman, at the poet's home in Camden, New Jersey, was
precipitated by an interview in which Wilde was asked to name his favorite American poets. He
mentioned Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Wilde actually preferred Edgar Allan Poe for
his dark moods and Aestheticism, but Poe was dead. Wilde was enough of a self-promoter to
mention living writers.

The Philadelphia Press interviewed Whitman at length the evening of his introduction to Wilde
(January 19, 1882). Whitman reported that he and Wilde had "a jolly good time" and that Wilde
was genuine, honest, and without affectation. They spoke of Tennyson, Browning, and
Swinburne while sharing a bottle of homemade elderberry wine. Wilde was respectful and on his
best behavior. Later he would qualify his assessment of Whitman's poetry while continuing to
respect him as a philosopher and a man.

Wilde's meeting with Henry James was less successful. The novelist called on Wilde at the
latter's hotel in Washington, D. C., two days after Wilde's visit with Whitman. On this occasion,
Wilde was less than diplomatic. When James expressed nostalgia for London, Wilde chose to be
clever rather than considerate and commented, "You care for places? The world is my home."
Wilde's comment seems particularly inappropriate considering that James was the more
cultivated cosmopolitan. At any rate, James concluded that Wilde was "a fatuous fool" and "a
tenth-rate cad."

Wilde returned to England at the end of the year having concluded a generally successful and
profitable tour. He later (1883–85) conducted a sporadic series of lectures on his impressions of
America to British audiences.
Critical Essays Three Trials: Oscar Wilde Goes to Court 1895

Wilde believed in his way of life so strongly that he eventually spent several years in jail after his
attempts to defend it.

At issue was Wilde's relationship with Lord Alfred ("Douglas"). Wilde was forty years old at the
time of the trials; Lord Alfred was sixteen years his junior but no child, at age twenty-four, and
certainly not an innocent. They first met in the early summer of 1891. Douglas was a devoted fan
of Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, claiming that he had read it either nine or fourteen
times. Lord Alfred was a slight, handsome, impetuous young man who already had a very
difficult relationship with his father. He had homosexual relations with several boys at Oxford
and was blackmailed in the spring of 1892. He was especially irresponsible about money, often
insisting that Wilde spend lavish amounts on him.

Lord Alfred's father, the Eighth Marquess of Queensberry (1844–1900), was irate about the
relationship between his son and Wilde and sought to discredit Wilde. While Douglas was
visiting Algeria, the father hoped to disrupt the opening performance of Wilde's play The
Importance of Being Earnest but was turned away. On February 18, 1895, he left a card for
Wilde at the Albemarle Club, addressed "To Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite," misspelling the
last word. Homosexual activity was illegal in England.

Wilde had several choices. Having been accused, publicly, in writing, he might have cause to
bring a libel suit against the Marquess. The card certainly was seen by the hall porter, Sidney
Wright, who knew that an insult was intended and carefully noted the details of the card's arrival,
although he was not able to deliver it to Wilde for ten days. Wilde wrote to his good friend,
Robert Ross, stating that he felt compelled to pursue criminal prosecution of the Marquess. Ross
wisely advised Wilde to ignore the card and allow Lord Alfred and his father to settle their
differences themselves. Another alternative was for Wilde to visit France for a time and hope
that tempers would cool.

Wilde's biggest problem was that the accusation was true. Wilde had several such relationships
with young men, including Douglas. A written statement is not libelous if it is true. However,
Wilde assured his attorneys that the charge was false. There is some evidence that Wilde tried to
back out of the trial at the last moment, saying that he could not afford it, but Lord Alfred was
adamant in wanting to prosecute his father and promised financial support from relatives.

Queensberry's trial opened at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) on April 3, 1895. The trial
went badly for Wilde. He was asked several questions about The Picture of Dorian Gray and the
relationships between older and younger men in that novel, and he was accused of relations with
other young men, not just Lord Alfred. Sir Edward Clarke, his attorney, advised Wilde to
withdraw, hoping privately (he revealed later) that Wilde could escape the country. Wilde had
several hours during which he could have done so. Ross and others encouraged him to flee, but
he stayed. A warrant was issued for Wilde's arrest since Queensberry's justification forced the
authorities to recognize Wilde's implied guilt. Wilde wrote to the Evening News that he could not
win the case without pitting Douglas against his father in court and chose not to do so — a
calculated response by Wilde.

The second trial began on April 26. Clarke again represented Wilde, this time without fee. The
most dramatic part of the trial involved a poem written by Douglas and titled "Two Loves,"
which ends with the words, "I am the love that dare not speak its name." When asked what that
might mean, Wilde responded with such eloquence that many in the gallery burst into applause,
although some hissed. Wilde alluded to Michelangelo and Shakespeare, among others, as older
men who had "deep, spiritual affection" for younger men in "the noblest form of affection." He
argued that such relationships were much misunderstood in the nineteenth century and the reason
for his being on trial. One dare not speak the name of this noble love, he concluded, because it
was so misunderstood. The speech probably influenced the jury's inability to agree on a verdict.

The third trial, a second attempt to prosecute Wilde (after the hung jury of the second trial),
opened on May 22. Again, friends urged Wilde to flee the country, but he wrote to Lord Alfred
that he "did not want to be called a coward or a deserter." The prosecution benefited from the
previous trial and won. Wilde was found guilty of indecent behavior with men, a lesser charge
but one for which he received the maximum penalty under the Criminal Law Amendment Act:
two years at hard labor.

Those familiar with the history of the period might note parallels between the Dreyfus Affair
(1894–1906) in France and Oscar Wilde's trials in England. Alfred Dreyfus was the son of a
Jewish textile manufacturer; he joined the military and rose to the rank of captain. He was
accused of selling military secrets to the Germans and convicted of treason in December 1894.
The trial was highly irregular, and the conviction was based on insufficient evidence. Much of
the impetus for the trial came from political conservatives, anti-Semitic groups, and publications
such as the newspaper La Libre Parole. They encouraged the public to believe that French Jews
were disloyal. The novelist Émile Zola led other intellectuals and politicians in a campaign on
Dreyfus' behalf. After two more trials and considerate turmoil, Dreyfus eventually was pardoned
and the judgment set aside. Dreyfus had been persecuted for religious and political reasons;
Oscar Wilde was persecuted for being a homosexual.

Themes
Main Ideas Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Purpose of Art

When The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in
1890, it was decried as immoral. In revising the text the following year, Wilde included a
preface, which serves as a useful explanation of his philosophy of art. The purpose of art,
according to this series of epigrams, 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
and George Gissing. The aestheticism movement, of which Wilde was a major proponent, sought
to free art from this responsibility. The aestheticists were motivated as much 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 burgeoning middle class—as they were by
the belief that art need not possess any other purpose than being beautiful.
If this philosophy informed Wilde’s life, we must then consider whether his only novel bears it
out. The two works of art that dominate the novel—Basil’s painting and the mysterious yellow
book that Lord Henry gives Dorian—are presented in the vein more of Victorian sensibilities
than of aesthetic ones. That is, both the portrait and the French novel serve a purpose: the first
acts as a type of mysterious mirror that shows Dorian the physical dissipation his own body has
been spared, while the second acts as something of a road map, leading the young man farther
along the path toward infamy. While we know nothing of the circumstances of the yellow book’s
composition, Basil’s state of mind while painting Dorian’s portrait is clear. Later in the novel, he
advocates that all art be “unconscious, ideal, and remote.” His portrait of Dorian, however, is
anything but. Thus, Basil’s initial refusal to exhibit the work results from his belief that it betrays
his idolization of his subject. Of course, one might consider that these breaches of aesthetic
philosophy mold The Picture of Dorian Gray into something of a cautionary tale: these are the
prices that must be paid for insisting that art reveals the artist or a moral lesson. But this warning
is, in itself, a moral lesson, which perhaps betrays the impossibility of Wilde’s project. If, as
Dorian observes late in the novel, the imagination orders the chaos of life and invests it with
meaning, then art, as the fruit of the imagination, cannot help but mean something. Wilde may
have succeeded in freeing his art from the confines of Victorian morality, but he has replaced it
with a doctrine that is, in its own way, just as restrictive.

Video SparkNotes: Homer's The Odyssey summary

Video SparkNotes: Homer's The Odyssey summary

The Supremacy of Youth and Beauty

The first principle of aestheticism, the philosophy of art by which Oscar Wilde lived, is that art
serves no other purpose than to offer beauty. Throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty
reigns. It is a means to revitalize the wearied senses, as indicated by the effect that Basil’s
painting has on the cynical Lord Henry. It is also a means of escaping the brutalities of the
world: Dorian distances himself, not to mention his consciousness, from the horrors of his
actions by devoting himself to the study of beautiful things—music, jewels, rare tapestries. In a
society that prizes beauty so highly, youth and physical attractiveness become valuable
commodities. Lord Henry reminds Dorian of as much upon their first meeting, when he laments
that Dorian will soon enough lose his most precious attributes. In Chapter Seventeen, the
Duchess of Monmouth suggests to Lord Henry that he places too much value on these things;
indeed, Dorian’s eventual demise confirms her suspicions. For although beauty and youth remain
of utmost importance at the end of the novel—the portrait is, after all, returned to its original
form—the novel suggests that the price one must pay for them is exceedingly high. Indeed,
Dorian gives nothing less than his soul.
The Superficial Nature of Society
It is no surprise that a society that prizes beauty above all else is a society founded on a love of
surfaces. What matters most to Dorian, Lord Henry, and the polite company they keep is not
whether a man is good at heart but rather whether he is handsome. As Dorian evolves into the
realization of a type, the perfect blend of scholar and socialite, he experiences the freedom to
abandon his morals without censure. Indeed, even though, as Basil warns, society’s elite question
his name and reputation, Dorian is never ostracized. On the contrary, despite his “mode of life,”
he remains at the heart of the London social scene because of the “innocence” and “purity of his
face.” As Lady Narborough notes to Dorian, there is little (if any) distinction between ethics and
appearance: “you are made to be good—you look so good.”

The Negative Consequences of Influence

The painting and the yellow book have a profound effect on Dorian, influencing him to
predominantly immoral behavior over the course of nearly two decades. Reflecting on Dorian’s
power over Basil and deciding that he would like to seduce Dorian in much the same way, Lord
Henry points out that there is “something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence.”
Falling under the sway of such influence is, perhaps, unavoidable, but the novel ultimately
censures the sacrifice of one’s self to another. Basil’s idolatry of Dorian leads to his murder, and
Dorian’s devotion to Lord Henry’s hedonism and the yellow book precipitate his own downfall.
It is little wonder, in a novel that prizes individualism—the uncompromised expression of self—
that the sacrifice of one’s self, whether it be to another person or to a work of art, leads to one’s
destruction

Motifs
Main Ideas Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s
major themes.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The picture of Dorian Gray, “the most magical of mirrors,” shows Dorian the physical burdens
of age and sin from which he has been spared. For a time, Dorian sets his conscience aside and
lives his life according to a single goal: achieving pleasure. His painted image, however, asserts
itself as his conscience and hounds him with the knowledge of his crimes: there he sees the
cruelty he showed to Sibyl Vane and the blood he spilled killing Basil Hallward.

Homoerotic Male Relationships

The homoerotic bonds between men play a large role in structuring the novel. Basil’s painting
depends upon his adoration of Dorian’s beauty; similarly, Lord Henry is overcome with the
desire to seduce Dorian and mold him into the realization of a type. This camaraderie between
men fits into Wilde’s larger aesthetic values, for it returns him to antiquity, where an
appreciation of youth and beauty was not only fundamental to culture but was also expressed as a
physical relationship between men. As a homosexual living in an intolerant society, Wilde
asserted this philosophy partially in an attempt to justify his own lifestyle. For Wilde,
homosexuality was not a sordid vice but rather a sign of refined culture. As he claimed rather
romantically during his trial for “gross indecency” between men, the affection between an older
and younger man places one in the tradition of Plato, Michelangelo, and Shakespeare.

Video SparkNotes: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World summary

Video SparkNotes: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World summary

The Color White

Interestingly, Dorian’s trajectory from figure of innocence to figure of degradation can be
charted by Wilde’s use of the color white. White usually connotes innocence and blankness, as it
does when Dorian is first introduced. It is, in fact, “the white purity” of Dorian’s boyhood that
Lord Henry finds so captivating. Basil invokes whiteness when he learns that Dorian has
sacrificed his innocence, and, as the artist stares in horror at the ruined portrait, he quotes a
biblical verse from the Book of Isaiah: “Though your sins be as scarlet, yet I will make them as
white as snow.” But the days of Dorian’s innocence are over. It is a quality he now eschews, and,
tellingly, when he orders flowers, he demands “as few white ones as possible.” When the color
appears again, in the form of James Vane’s face—“like a white handkerchief”—peering in
through a window, it has been transformed from the color of innocence to the color of death. It is
this threatening pall that makes Dorian long, at the novel’s end, for his “rose-white boyhood,”
but the hope is in vain, and he proves unable to wash away the stains of his sins.
Symbols
Main Ideas Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Opium Dens

The opium dens, located in a remote and derelict section of London, represent the sordid state of
Dorian’s mind. He flees to them at a crucial moment. After killing Basil, Dorian seeks to forget
the awfulness of his crimes by losing consciousness in a drug-induced stupor. Although he has a
canister of opium in his home, he leaves the safety of his neat and proper parlor to travel to the
dark dens that reflect the degradation of his soul.

James Vane
James Vane is less a believable character than an embodiment of Dorian’s tortured conscience.
As Sibyl’s brother, he is a rather flat caricature of the avenging relative. Still, Wilde saw him as
essential to the story, adding his character during his revision of 1891. Appearing at the dock and
later at Dorian’s country estate, James has an almost spectral quality. Like the ghost of Jacob
Marley in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, who warns Scrooge of the sins he will have to
face, James appears with his face “like a white handkerchief” to goad Dorian into accepting
responsibility for the crimes he has committed.
The Yellow Book
Lord Henry gives Dorian a copy of the yellow book as a gift. Although he never gives the title,
Wilde describes the book as a French novel that charts the outrageous experiences of its
pleasure-seeking protagonist (we can fairly assume that the book in question is Joris-Karl
Huysman’s decadent nineteenth-century novel À Rebours, translated as “Against the Grain” or
“Against Nature”). The book becomes like holy scripture to Dorian, who buys nearly a dozen
copies and bases his life and actions on it. The book represents the profound and damaging
influence that art can have over an individual and serves as a warning to those who would
surrender themselves so completely to such an influence.
Key Facts
Main Ideas Key Facts

Full Title The Picture of Dorian Gray

Author Oscar Wilde
Type Of Work Novel
Genre Gothic; philosophical; comedy of manners
Language English
Time And Place Written 1890, London
Date Of First Publication The first edition of the novel was published in 1890 in Lippincott’s
Monthly Magazine. A second edition, complete with six additional chapters, was published the
following year.
Publisher The 1891 edition was published by Ward, Lock & Company.
Narrator The narrator is anonymous.
Point Of View The point of view is third person, omniscient. The narrator chronicles both the
objective or external world and the subjective or internal thoughts and feelings of the characters.
There is one short paragraph where a first-person point of view becomes apparent; in this
section, Wilde becomes the narrator.
Tone Gothic (dark, supernatural); sardonic; comedic
Tense Past
Setting (Time) 1890s
Setting (Place) London, England
Protagonist Dorian Gray
Major Conflict Dorian Gray, having promised his soul in order to live a life of perpetual youth,
must try to reconcile himself to the bodily decay and dissipation that are recorded in his portrait.
Rising Action Dorian notices the change in his portrait after ending his affair with Sibyl Vane;
he commits himself wholly to the “yellow book” and indulges his fancy without regard for his
reputation; the discrepancy between his outer purity and his inner depravity surges.
Climax Dorian kills Basil Hallward.
Falling Action Dorian descends into London’s opium dens; he attempts to express remorse to
Lord Henry; he stabs his portrait, thereby killing himself.
Themes The purpose of art; the supremacy of youth and beauty; the surface nature of society;
the negative consequences of influence
Motifs The color white; the picture of Dorian Gray; homoerotic male relationships
Symbols The opium den; James Vane; the yellow book
Foreshadowing The illegitimacy of Sibyl and James, as well as Sibyl’s portrayal of Juliet from
Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, foreshadow the doomed nature of Sibyl’s relationship
with Dorian Gray.

Context
Further Study Context

Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity
College in Dublin and at Magdalen College, Oxford, and settled in London, where he married
Constance Lloyd in 1884. In the literary world of Victorian London, Wilde fell in with an artistic
crowd that included W. B. Yeats, the great Irish poet, and Lillie Langtry, mistress to the Prince
of Wales. A great conversationalist and a famous wit, Wilde began by publishing mediocre
poetry but soon achieved widespread fame for his comic plays. The first, Vera; or, The
Nihilists, was published in 1880. Wilde followed this work with Lady Windermere’s
Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and his most famous
play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Although these plays relied upon relatively
simple and familiar plots, they rose well above convention with their brilliant dialogue and biting
satire.
Wilde published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, before he reached the height of his
fame. The first edition appeared in the summer of 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. It was
criticized as scandalous and immoral. Disappointed with its reception, Wilde revised the novel in
1891, adding a preface and six new chapters. The Preface (as Wilde calls it) anticipates some of
the criticism that might be leveled at the novel and answers critics who charge The Picture of
Dorian Gray with being an immoral tale. It also succinctly sets forth the tenets of Wilde’s
philosophy of art. Devoted to a school of thought and a mode of sensibility known as
aestheticism, Wilde believed that art possesses an intrinsic value—that it is beautiful and
therefore has worth, and thus needs serve no other purpose, be it moral or political. This attitude
was revolutionary in Victorian England, where popular belief held that art was not only a
function of morality but also a means of enforcing it. In the Preface, Wilde also cautioned
readers against finding meanings “beneath the surface” of art. Part gothic novel, part comedy of
manners, part treatise on the relationship between art and morality, The Picture of Dorian
Gray continues to present its readers with a puzzle to sort out. There is as likely to be as much
disagreement over its meaning now as there was among its Victorian audience, but, as Wilde
notes near the end of the Preface, “Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work
is new, complex, and vital.”
In 1891, the same year that the second edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray was published,
Wilde began a homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, an aspiring but rather
untalented poet. The affair caused a good deal of scandal, and Douglas’s father, the marquess of
Queensberry, eventually criticized it publicly. When Wilde sued the marquess for libel, he
himself was convicted under English sodomy laws for acts of “gross indecency.” In 1895, Wilde
was sentenced to two years of hard labor, during which time he wrote a long, heartbreaking letter
to Lord Alfred titled De Profundis (Latin for “Out of the Depths”). After his release, Wilde left
England and divided his time between France and Italy, living in poverty. He never published
under his own name again, but, in 1898, he did publish under a pseudonym The Ballad of
Reading Gaol, a lengthy poem about a prisoner’s feelings toward another prisoner about to be
executed. Wilde died in Paris on November 30, 1900, having converted to Roman Catholicism
on his deathbed.