The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Short Stories - Oscar Wilde - Google Books The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Short Stories 1 Review The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Short Stories is a compilation of short stories by Oscar Wilde, along with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was originally published in 1888 under the title Stories: Oscar Wilde. Some of the short stories within include "The Sphinx Without a Secret," "The Model Millionaire," and stories from the previously-published collections "A House of Pomegranates" and "The Happy Prince and Other Tales." This book is sure to interest Oscar Wilde fans and fans of Victorian literature. OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900) was a celebrated Irish-born playwright, short story writer, poet, and personality in Victorian London. He is best known for his involvement in the aesthetic movement and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as his many plays, such as Lady Windermere's Fan, The Importance of Being Ernest, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and Salom .

During his imprisonment for gross indecency, he wrote De Profundis, and later, The Ballad of Reading Gao. What people are saying - Write a review LibraryThing Review User Review - WYLK - LibraryThing [edit] The characters in the novel are fascinating. Dorian is a beautiful, empty headed boy ripe to be filled with Lord Henry's ever-flowing thoughts and ideas. The lesson to be learned is clear as we ... Read full review LibraryThing Review User Review - maryoverton - LibraryThing The seducer - Lord Henry Wotton: "'I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream - I ...

Read full review Selected pages The Nightingale and the Rose 355 Copyright Common terms and phrases afraid answered asked Basil Hallward beautiful began can’t Canterville Canterville ghost Catherine Wheel charming cheiromancy cried curious dance dear delightful door Dorian Gray Duchess everything eyes face felt ﬁgure ﬁlled ﬁnd ﬁne ﬁngers ﬁnished ﬁre ﬁrst ﬁve ﬂew ﬂoor ﬂowers ﬂung garden gold hair hand happy Happy Prince Harry head heart horrible Hughie Infanta inﬂuence King King’s kissed knew Lady Windermere laughed lips little Hans little Mermaid looked Lord Arthur Lord Henry Lord Henry Wotton lying marriage morning mother murmured never night o’clock once one’s Otis painted passed passion play Podgers portrait Prince Prince Charming rose round seemed Sibyl Vane silver smile soul Star-Child stood strange Swallow Sybil talk tell terrible thee thing thou thought told voice window woman wonderful yellow young Fisherman About the author (2012) Flamboyant man-about-town, Oscar Wilde had a reputation that preceded him, especially in his early career.

He was born to a middle-class Irish family (his father was a surgeon) and was trained as a scholarship boy at Trinity College, Dublin. He subsequently won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was heavily influenced by John Ruskin and Walter Pater, whose aestheticism was taken to its radical extreme in Wilde's work. By 1879 he was already known as a wit and a dandy; soon after, in fact, he was satirized in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience. Largely on the strength of his public persona, Wilde undertook a lecture tour to the United States in 1882, where he saw his play Vera open---unsuccessfully---in New York. His first published volume, Poems, which met with some degree of approbation, appeared at this time. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, the daughter of an Irish lawyer, and within two years they had two sons. During this period he wrote, among others, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), his only novel, which scandalized many readers and was widely denounced as immoral.

Wilde simultaneously dismissed and encouraged such criticism with his statement in the preface, "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all." In 1891 Wilde published A House of Pomegranates, a collection of fantasy tales, and in 1892 gained commercial and critical success with his play, Lady Windermere's Fan He followed this comedy with A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and his most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). During this period he also wrote Salome, in French, but was unable to obtain a license for it in England. Performed in Paris in 1896, the play was translated and published in England in 1894 by Lord Alfred Douglas and was illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley. Lord Alfred was the son of the Marquess of Queensbury, who objected to his son's spending so much time with Wilde because of Wilde's flamboyant behavior and homosexual relationships.

In 1895, after being publicly insulted by the marquess, Wilde brought an unsuccessful slander suit against the peer. The result of his inability to prove slander was his own trial on charges of sodomy, of which he was found guilty and sentenced to two years of hard labor. During his time in prison, he wrote a scathing rebuke to Lord Alfred, published in 1905 as De Profundis. In it he argues that his conduct was a result of his standing "in symbolic relations to the art and culture" of his time. After his release, Wilde left England for Paris, where he wrote what may be his most famous poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), drawn from his prison experiences. Among his other notable writing is The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891), which argues for individualism and freedom of artistic expression. There has been a revived interest in Wilde's work; among the best recent volumes are Richard Ellmann's, Oscar Wilde and Regenia Gagnier's Idylls of the Marketplace , two works that vary widely in their critical assumptions and approach to Wilde but that offer rich insights into his complex character.

Bibliographic information The Conflict Between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray » Writing Program » Boston University The Conflict Between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Download this article Oscar Wilde prefaces his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a reflection on art, the artist, and the utility of both. After careful scrutiny, he concludes: “All art is quite useless” (Wilde 4). In this one sentence, Wilde encapsulates the complete principles of the Aesthetic Movement popular in Victorian England. That is to say, real art takes no part in molding the social or moral identities of society, nor should it. Art should be beautiful and pleasure its observer, but to imply further-reaching influence would be a mistake. The explosion of aesthetic philosophy in fin-de-siècle English society, as exemplified by Oscar Wilde, was not confined to merely art, however. Rather, the proponents of this philosophy extended it to life itself. Here, aestheticism advocated whatever behavior was likely to maximize the beauty and happiness in one’s life, in the tradition of hedonism.

To the aesthete, the ideal life mimics art; it is beautiful, but quite useless beyond its beauty, concerned only with the individual living it. Influences on others, if existent, are trivial at best. Many have read The Picture of Dorian Gray as a novelized sponsor for just this sort of aesthetic lifestyle. However, this story of the rise and fall of Dorian Gray might instead represent an allegory about morality meant to critique, rather than endorse, the obeying of one’s impulses as thoughtlessly and dutifully as aestheticism dictates. In the novel, Lord Henry Wotton trumpets the aesthetic philosophy with an elegance and bravado that persuade Dorian to trust in the principles he espouses; the reader is often similarly captivated. It would be a mistake, however, to interpret the novel as a patent recommendation of aestheticism. To the aesthete, there is no distinction between moral and immoral acts, only between those that increase or decrease one’s happiness; yet, Dorian Gray refutes this idea, presenting a strong case for the inherent immorality of purely aesthetic lives. Dorian Gray personifies the aesthetic lifestyle in action, pursuing personal gratification with abandon.

Yet, while he enjoys these indulgences, his behavior ultimately kills him and others, and he dies unhappier than ever. Rather than an advocate for pure aestheticism, then, Dorian Gray is a cautionary tale in which Wilde illustrates the dangers of the aesthetic philosophy when not practiced with prudence. Aestheticism, argues Wilde, too often aligns itself with immorality, resulting in a precarious philosophy that must be practiced deliberately. Dorian Gray is often read as an explicit proclamation of the worthiness of living life in accordance with aesthetic values. This is due in part to the flourishing Aesthetic Movement of Victorian England at the time of the novel’s publication, as well as Oscar Wilde’s association with the movement itself (Becker 660). The Aesthetic Movement, which coincided with the Industrial Revolution at the end of the nineteenth century, emphasized the artistic aspect of a man’s work in producing a variety of goods, from furniture to machines to literature (Becker 660). Oscar Wilde, however, proposed that the principles of the Aesthetic Movement extend beyond the production of mere commodities. In Joseph Pearce’s biography, The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, Pearce recalls Wilde’s own perspective on the popular movement.

Speaking of aestheticism, Wilde is quoted: It is indeed to become a part of the people’s life . . . I mean a man who works with his hands; and not with his hands merely, but with his head and his heart. The evil that machinery is doing is not merely in the consequence of its work but in the fact that it makes men themselves machines also. Whereas, we wish them to be artists, that is to say men. (qtd. in Pearce 144) In his exposition of aestheticism, Wilde applies the philosophy in a more universal sense, stressing the positive influences of aestheticism in one’s life beyond mere craftsmanship. Just as the machines that mass-produce materials with the intervention of human thought are labeled “evil,” Wilde similarly condemns men who act as metaphorical machines, programmed to behave in accordance with society’s ideas of propriety rather than allowing themselves to act freely and achieve the greatest amount of happiness. Wilde’s eloquent advocacy of an aesthetic lifestyle is paralleled in his depiction of Lord Henry in Dorian Gray. Lord Henry lectured to the impressionable Dorian, “We are punished for our refusals.

Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. . . . Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden itself” (Wilde 9). Wilde, through Lord Henry, laments the stifling nature of his contemporary Victorian society and how the supposed morality it boasts necessitates self-denial and rejection of life’s most beautiful aspects. Lord Henry warns that without an enthusiastic embrace of aestheticism, one will perpetually anguish with the desire of precisely what he must deny himself, all for the sake of propriety. This philosophy espoused by Wilde and Lord Henry often leads, not surprisingly, to the conclusion that Dorian Gray is a declaration of Wilde’s, promoting the adoption of purely aesthetic lives without qualification. This, however, is too shallow of an interpretation. Opponents of a purely aesthetic lifestyle will certainly cite what they consider an inevitability: one’s desires and impulses, though when acted upon result in a more pleasurable life, will at times be undeniably immoral. It is at these times that the virtues of the wholly aesthetic life become questionable.

The ruination of Dorian Gray, the embodiment of unbridled aestheticism, illustrates the immorality of such a lifestyle and gravely demonstrates its consequences. Wilde uses Dorian Gray not as an advertisement for aestheticism, but rather, he uses Dorian’s life to warn against aestheticism’s hostility toward morality when uncontrolled. Wilde himself admits, in a letter to the St. James’s Gazette, that Dorian Gray “is a story with a moral. And the moral is this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment” (Wilde 248). Aestheticism does well to condemn the renunciation of desires, but it is an excessive obedience to these desires that is subversively dangerous. Therefore, in the practice of Wilde’s aestheticism, forethought and constraint are necessities, yet too often lacking, and without them, one is doomed to suffer the same fate as Dorian Gray. The character of Dorian Gray and the story of his profound degeneration provide a case study examining the viability of purely aesthetic lives.

Dorian lives according to what Lord Henry professes without hesitation, and what Lord Henry inspires Dorian, through persuasive rhetoric, is an attitude indifferent to consequence and altogether amoral. As Wilde writes, Dorian’s newfound position is “never to accept any theory or system that would involve the sacrifice of any mode of passionate experience. Its aim, indeed was to be experience itself, and not the fruits of experience, sweet or bitter as they may be” (Wilde 125). Under Lord Henry’s mentorship, Dorian, once the epitome of wide-eyed youth, behaves with no regard for the ramifications of his actions, diligently pursuing instant gratification without thought of its implications, whether they be “sweet or bitter.” Dorian’s relationship with the actress Sibyl Vane plainly illustrates this marked change in personality. Dorian pursues Sibyl from first sights, intent on acquiring her before he ever attempts to truly know her.

Indeed, Dorian’s love for Sibyl is overtly superficial, as evidenced by Dorian’s own description of his infatuation with Sibyl: “I loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art” (Wilde 101). Dorian is not attracted to Sibyl’s character of personality, but rather her acting talent and enthralling performances; this is what enchants the aesthetically inclined Dorian. When Sibyl leaves the stage, then, she no longer serves a purpose in Dorian’s aesthetic life, and thus, Dorian abandons her unceremoniously. Dorian does not regret informing Sybil that, “Without your art, you are nothing” (Wilde 101). The tragedy of Sybil’s later suicide, brought about by utter despair at her desertion, is lost on Dorian, who instead enjoys the dramatic intrigue of the occasion. For Dorian, whose uncontrolled aestheticism rejects the concept of morality, the immorality of his actions goes unrecognized.

In fact, Dorian declares excitedly, “It seems to me to be simply like a wonderful ending to a wonderful play. It has all the terrible beauty of a Greek tragedy, a tragedy in which I took a great part, but by which I have not been wounded” (Wilde 114). Here, the adverse consequences of aestheticism surface in Dorian’s life. In his pursuit of his own pleasures, a distinctly narcissistic attitude emerges, and the incompatibility of morality and unconditional aestheticism becomes all the more apparent. The emergence of narcissism in Dorian and its correlation with his newly adopted aesthetic philosophy is integral to Wilde’s novel as it emphasizes the frequent hostility between aestheticism and morality that Wilde cautions against. Dorian Gray exposes the immorality of self-absorption, as Dorian’s portrait becomes more disfigured with each one of Dorian’s selfish acts. This self-absorption, then, appears to be an inevitable consequence of aestheticism. Only a more deliberate practice of aestheticism may harness this egotism and avoid the immorality Dorian embodies.

Interestingly, in his essay “Come See About Me: Enchantment of the Double in The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Christopher Craft recognizes a mirroring of the Greek myth of Narcissus in the life of Dorian Gray. According to mythology, Narcissus, upon catching a glimpse of his reflection in a pool, becomes so enraptured by it that he stood and admired it endlessly, unmoving for the rest of his life. As Craft notes, this self-absorption “is a commitment that, like Dorian’s, graduates fully until death” (Craft 113). Narcissus becomes so infatuated with himself that the rest of world effectively ceases to exist or affect him and, as Craft argues, “it is into precisely this silent delirium that Dorian unwittingly steps” when he allows Lord Henry’s aesthetic philosophy to so dominate him (Craft 113). Dorian enjoys a life of eternal youth, with only his portrait aging in parallel with Dorian’s immorality; so, as Dorian sinks into the depths of narcissism, he maintains his external beauty, and his portrait degenerates instead. Eventually, as in the myth of Narcissus, such egotism has its consequences.

When Dorian, disgusted with the decrepit picture of the supposedly “real” him, destroys it in a fit of anger, Dorian too is destroyed. Wilde writes that after Dorian’s death, “it was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was” (Wilde 220). In the end, as a testament to the purely aesthetic life, the only legacy Dorian leaves behind—everything that identifies him as who he was—is his superficial jewelry. There is an argument, then, made by Wilde for a new aestheticism, approached with more constraint than Dorian employs. This argument is based not only in the moral obligation of the individual, but with the betterment of all of society in mind. Matthew Arnold, in his essay “Culture and Anarchy,” provides reasoning against the ethos of Lord Henry’s aestheticism and an unconditional application of it. Arnold focuses on its detrimental effects on society and the possibility for societal improvement when aesthetic tendencies are properly controlled. There appears to be agreement, then, between Wilde and Arnold; Wilde’ novel provides a failed example of the purely aesthetic life, and when scaled to a larger society, a similar result is understandably expected.

As Arnold views his contemporary society, it is arranged hierarchically, dividing the aristocrats, the middle-class, and the working-class, all of which, Arnold laments, are inclined to live hedonistically, pursuing pleasure and only what is comfortable and easy. Dorian Gray embodies just his defect in Arnold’s society. Arnold argues, however, that “there are born a certain number of natures with a curiosity about their best self with a bend for seeing things as they are . . . for simply concerning themselves with reason and the will of God, and doing their best to make these prevail;—for the pursuit, in a word, of perfection” (Arnold 277). Arnold is optimistic that some may pursue beyond the immediately pleasurable and act to perfect themselves both morally and intellectually. This pursuit of perfection, however, is likely an arduous and uncomfortable task, and is therefore incompatible with pure aestheticism. Some concessions must be made for the absolute aesthete, then, for such transcendence occur.

Dorian Gray, for much of Wilde’s novel, fails to embody Arnold’s ideal, as in his hedonistic life he is seen “creeping at dawn out of dreadful houses and slinking in disguise in the foulest dens in London,” despite being once too honorable for such debauchery (Wilde 118). Dorian exemplifies a regression in social intellect from his beginnings rather than the kind of transcendence hoped for by Arnold. Dorian displays no such pursuit of intellectual perfection as he is slowly corrupted and in turn corrupts others, luring them with him into the slums and opium dens of London. Arnold refers to those able to transcend social classes in society as “aliens,” hinting at their rarity to the point of foreignness and to their almost mythical quality (277). The mere existence of these aliens, however, provides hope that the utter hedonists of society may learn to harness their damaging tendencies, and in doing so, better the intellectual and moral state of humankind. Wilde, too, recognizes this ability to control the hedonistic temptations associated with aestheticism, as demonstrated by the last stages of Dorian’s life.

Mitsuharu Matsuoka, in his essay “Aestheticism and Social Anxiety in The Picture of Dorian Gray,” notes that, as Dorian’s death approaches, “Dorian ultimately reacts against his lifestyle, choking on his New Hedonism,” at which point “a great sense of doom hangs over Dorian” (Matsuoka 78). Indeed, Dorian appears to realize the consequences of his unbridled aestheticism; however, he is much too far gone to salvage. Dorian reveals his epiphany to Lord Henry: “The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned or made perfect. There is a soul in each one of us. I know it” (Wilde 211). Unfortunately for Dorian, this realization comes too late to save his soul from its degradation, long-nurtured by a purely aesthetic life, and he is destroyed. The realization itself, however, is indicative of Wilde’s argument woven throughout Dorian Gray. Despite Wilde’s publicly advocating the principles of aestheticism, Dorian’s demise illustrates Wilde’s recognition that aestheticism needs to be properly controlled.

While the pursuit of beauty and happiness in life is always Wilde’s ideal, he also implies that the consequences of one’s actions must be thought out and the impact of one’s decisions, beyond oneself, must also be carefully considered before acting on any impulse. The Aesthetic Movement in fin-de-siècle England, as interpreted by Oscar Wilde, revolved around the ideal that the utility of one’s actions should be to create the maximal amount of beauty and pleasure in one’s life, and nothing more. Wilde’s Dorian Gray appears, at first glance, to promote this philosophy unequivocally. Indeed, a lifestyle based on this aestheticism is espoused in Wilde’s opening preface as well as throughout Lord Henry’s professorial lectures. Upon closer inspection, however, Wilde’s novel is not as wholly embracing of aestheticism as this implies. Wilde realized and depicted in the life of Dorian Gray, a need for a more controlled and deliberate approach to aestheticism, without which morality will inevitably be elusive. The adoption of unrestrained aestheticism, as exhibited by Dorian, results in a lack of remorse, self-absorption, and intellectual regression.

For the sake of preserving morality, a concept proven incompatible with pure aestheticism, more deliberation is necessary from the aesthete in deciding upon action. If, in the pursuit of one’s desires and of the beautiful aspects of life, the condition of others’ or of one’s own intellect is jeopardized, the enjoyment garnered must sometimes be sacrificed for the greater good. As Wilde makes clear, it is only through a more restrained philosophy that aestheticism and morality may eventually align. Works Cited Arnold, Matthew. “Culture and Anarchy.” The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Andrew Elfenbein. NY: Pearson Longman, 2007. 276–279. Becker-Leckrone, Megan. “Oscar Wilde (1854–1900): Aesthetic and Criticism.” The Continuum Encyclopedia of Modern Criticism and Theory 20 (2002): 658–665. Craft, Christopher. “Come See About Me: Enchantment of the Double in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Representations 91 (2005): 109–136. Matsuoka, Mitsuharu.

“Aestheticism and Social Anxiety in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 29 (2003): 77–100. Pearce, Joseph. The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. NY: Ignatius Press, 2004. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Andrew Elfenbein. NY: Pearson Longman, 2007. Book a Writing Consultation The Picture of Dorian Gray: art, ethics and the artist - The British Library The Picture of Dorian Gray: art, ethics and the artist Themes: London , The Gothic , Fin de siècle Dark desires and forbidden pleasure are at the centre of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Greg Buzwell examines the interplay between art and morality in Oscar Wilde’s novel, and considers its use of traditional Gothic motifs as well as the theories of the new aesthetic movement. Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), is a superb example of late-Victorian Gothic fiction.

It ranks alongside Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) as a representation of how fin-de-siècle literature explored the darkest recesses of Victorian society and the often disturbing private desires that lurked behind acceptable public faces. The novel also examined the relationship between art and reality, highlighting the uneasy interplay between ethics and aesthetics as well as the links between the artist, his or her subject and the resulting image on canvas. The Picture of Dorian Gray as first published in Lippincott's Magazine Front cover to the Lippincott’s Magazine publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde’s only novel, July 1890. Free from known copyright restrictions ‘The terrible pleasure of a double life’ The idea of a double life – of outwardly playing a respectable role while inwardly pursuing an existence that crossed the boundaries of acceptable behaviour – is central to the plot of the novel. Dorian Gray, once he becomes aware his portrait will bear the scars of his corruption – thus leaving his actual appearance unstained – feels free to ignore the pious morality that pervaded the Victorian era.

Rather like Dr Jekyll in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dorian is able to pursue his debauched activities knowing his respectable appearance and unblemished looks will shield him from accusations of depravity. His ability to have the best of both worlds – the continued acceptance of his peers and the ability to fulfil his basest desires – becomes in itself an important part of his fascination with events. When attending a society gathering only hours after having committed a murder we are told Dorian ‘felt keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life’ (ch. 15). Dorian’s friend Lord Henry makes this link between the criminal and the respectable citizen clear when he observes: ‘Crime belongs exclusively to the lower orders. I don’t blame them in the smallest degree. I should fancy that crime is to them what art is to us, simply a method of procuring extraordinary sensations’ (ch. 19). Dorian, with his visits to opium dens and his delight in high culture combines the criminal and the aesthete – the very definition of ‘decadence’ distilled into a single person and a disturbing example of the split between the wholesome public persona and the furtive private life.

Henry Keen's illustrations to The Picture of Dorian Gray This illustration by Henry Keen draws out Dorian Gray’s double nature, 1925. Free from known copyright restrictions Ethics and aesthetics While much of The Picture of Dorian Gray delights in the beautiful and the intoxicating indulgence of the senses – the novel’s opening paragraph for example describes the heady pleasures to be derived from the scents of roses and lilacs – it can be argued that Wilde intended his book neither as a celebration of decadence nor as a fable about the perils of its excesses. As Wilde states in the preface to the novel ‘There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all’. In other words, any moral disgust or vicarious pleasure derived from the book reflects more upon us as readers than it does on the novel itself. The book is a tale, pure and simple. It is we, the readers, who force it to bear the weight of a moral dimension.

'Dogmas for the Use of the Ages' by Oscar Wilde 'There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book’: Oscar Wilde’s manuscript drafts of epigrams, here titled 'Dogmas for the Use of the Ages', later used for the Preface to Dorian Gray. Some rights reserved Copyright: © Estate of Oscar Wilde The idea lying behind Aestheticism, the controversial theory of art that was newly fashionable at this time, was that art should be judged purely by its beauty and form rather than by any underlying moral message (‘art for art’s sake’). This is exemplified in the novel by the dandyish Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry advocates the hedonistic pursuit of new experiences as the prime objective in life. In his view, ‘one could never pay too high a price for any sensation’ (ch. 4). Dorian, although seduced by Wotton’s poisonous whisperings, is increasingly interested in the moral consequences of his behaviour. He stands before his decaying portrait, comparing the moral degradation as depicted in oil with his unblemished innocence as reflected by the mirror.

The contrast gives him a thrill of pleasure: ‘He grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul’ (ch. 11). Dorian – via his wish to remain handsome, while the painting bears the weight of his corruption – muddies the boundary between art and life, aesthetics and ethics. The painting is made to serve a moral purpose, being transformed from an object of beauty into a vile record of guilt, something ‘bestial, sodden and unclean’ (chapter 10). This tainting of the picture perhaps constitutes, for the aesthete, Dorian’s greatest crime – namely the destruction of a beautiful artwork. Images Usage terms: Free from known copyright restrictions Paintings and ancestry Paintings often play a sinister role in Gothic fiction. The first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) includes a figure stepping from a painting and into reality while Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), written by Oscar Wilde’s great-uncle Charles Maturin, describes the haunting gaze of a portrait as it follows the viewer around a room.

The picture hidden in Dorian’s attic may be the most disturbing portrait in Wilde’s book, but it is not the only canvas in the novel which provides a pointer to Dorian’s behaviour. At one point Dorian walks through the picture-gallery of his country home, looking at the portraits of his ancestors: ‘those whose blood flowed in his veins’. The saturnine and sensuous faces stare back at him, causing Dorian to reflect whether ‘some strange poisonous germ crept from body to body till it had reached his own?’ (ch. 11). This poses the question as to whether Dorian is free to determine his own actions, and is thus entirely responsible for his behaviour, or whether his actions are dictated by his genetic inheritance – an inheritance, as the faces of his ancestors indicate, ‘of sin and shame’. The eminent mental pathologist Henry Maudsley wrote in his book Pathology of Mind (1895): ‘Beneath every face are the latent faces of ancestors, beneath every character their characters’. This idea already seems present in much Gothic fiction, including Wilde’s novel.

Melmoth the Wanderer Free from known copyright restrictions The Picture of Dorian Gray provides both a standard ‘Gothic’ account of Dorian’s actions – the supernatural picture and the lascivious ancestors gazing from their portraits – but also a forward-looking scientific rational for his depraved desires, namely the importance of inheritance in determining behaviour. Dorian resembles his mother physically, inheriting from her ‘his beauty, and his passion for the beauty of others’ (ch. 11), while, as his corruption accelerates, the twisted portrait in Dorian’s attic increasingly resembles his wicked grandfather. This latter idea suggests Dorian is a scientific case study, as well as a moral one. Throughout the book Lord Henry treats Dorian as a beautiful subject upon which to experiment – partly via his encouragement of Dorian to pursue a philosophy of pleasure, and partly through a call to social evolution – a wish to abandon the restraints of Victorian morality on the grounds that sin and conscience are outmoded primitive concepts to be swept aside in the pursuit of new sensations.

Lord Henry locates progress in the overcoming of hereditary fears: ‘Courage has gone out of our race … The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion – these are the two things that govern us’ (ch. 2). His call to youth is a call to courage. Dorian’s ultimate failure to live up to Lord Henry’s ideals is due to his inability to escape his conscience as depicted in the portrait. By attempting to destroy the painting, and thus free himself from the constant reminder of his own guilt he, ultimately, manages only to destroy himself. The Picture of Dorian Gray illustrated by Majeska Taken from the 1930 American edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray, these colour illustrations depict the physical transformation of Dorian Gray's portrait. Copyright: © The British Library Board Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray first appeared in the July 1890 number of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine and immediately caused an outcry due to its perceived references of homosexual desire.

The review in the Scot’s Observer memorably described the book as having been written for ‘outlawed noblemen and perverted telegraph-boys’ – a reference to a recent scandal involving a homosexual brothel in London’s Cleveland Street. In response to such hostile criticism Wilde considerably amended the text and a longer, noticeably ‘toned-down’ version of the book was published by Ward Lock and Co in April 1891. It is this later version that forms the standard text of the novel. Even so the Lippincott’s version was used by opposing counsel in evidence against Wilde in two of his trials in an attempt to show him guilty of ‘a certain tendency’. For many people Oscar Wilde the artist – with his flamboyant public persona and his secretive private life – and his novel with its two distinctly different versions and its duplicitous central character mirrored each other from the start. Images SparkNotes: The Picture of Dorian Gray: Context The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde Table of Contents Plot Overview 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. More Help Introduction to Oscar Wilde: Plays, Novels, and Sexuality - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com Introduction to Oscar Wilde: Plays, Novels, and Sexuality Watch short & fun videos Start Your Free Trial Today An error occurred trying to load this video. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. You must create an account to continue watching Register for a free trial Are you a student or a teacher? I am a student Start Your Free Trial To Continue Watching As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you succeed. Coming up next: The Picture of Dorian Gray: Plot, Characters & Vanity You're on a roll. Keep up the good work!

Your next lesson will play in 10 seconds 0:05 Early Life Add to Add to Add to Want to watch this again later? Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course. Custom Courses are courses that you create from Study.com lessons. Use them just like other courses to track progress, access quizzes and exams, and share content. Teachers Organize and share selected lessons with your class. Make planning easier by creating your own custom course. Students Create a new course from any lesson page or your dashboard. From any lesson page: Click "Add to" located below the video player and follow the prompts to name your course and save your lesson. From your dashboard: Click on the "Custom Courses" tab, then click "Create course". Next, go to any lesson page and begin adding lessons. Edit your Custom Course directly from your dashboard. Personalize: Name your Custom Course and add an optional description or learning objective. Organize: Create chapters to group lesson within your course. Remove and reorder chapters and lessons at any time. Share your Custom Course or assign lessons and chapters. Teacher Edition: Share or assign lessons and chapters by clicking the "Teacher" tab on the lesson or chapter page you want to assign.

Students' quiz scores and video views will be trackable in your "Teacher" tab. Premium Edition: You can share your Custom Course by copying and pasting the course URL. Only Study.com members will be able to access the entire course. Create an account to start this course today Try it free for 5 days! Lesson Transcript Instructor: Ellie Green Ellie holds a B.A. with Honors in English from Stanford University. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in English Literature at Princeton University. From ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' to the ''Importance of Being Earnest'', Oscar Wilde left an indelible mark on literature and theater. In this lesson, you'll learn all about the Victorian author. Early Life Oscar Wilde is a unique figure in Victorian literature or any literature. He's kind of crazy any way you want to slice it. He was born in 1854 in Dublin. Portrait of Oscar Wilde His father was a really successful doctor who actually got knighted in 1864. He's kind of the ancient-day, Irish McDreamy or something like that. His mother was a poet and intellectual. He's really got a great gene pool; it's kind of destined for greatness.

He was an awesome student, and his big contribution to literature in general was that he helped popularize aestheticism while he was still in school. A general definition of aestheticism (which is hard to say, try it yourself) is basically art for art's sake; it doesn't have a greater purpose. It's not trying to do anything socially, politically. It's just there. It's beautiful, and it's art. That's the idea behind aestheticism. He had a childhood sweetheart named Florence Balcombe, who ended up marrying Bram Stoker , who's the author of Dracula. Not many people can say that. Actually, only Oscar Wilde can say that - that he had a childhood sweetheart who later married the author of Dracula. That's an early female interest that you'll see is in contrast to what happens later. He primarily wrote poetry at first; that was what he started out with; although, he also lectured. He also tried journalism. He would later publish a bunch of short stories. He was still searching around for the right outlet for his artistic impulses and whatnot. He'd already found a place for his voice in society, though. He was big on the social scene.

It helped that he dressed really colorfully - some might say flamboyantly - more so than other Victorians. A 'dandy' might be the word you would use to describe him. He was known for his terrifically witty conversation skills. That was a big thing with Oscar Wilde. He had his critics, though. Some people thought he was more famous for being famous than for really producing anything worth reading, especially early in his career. He's kind of like Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian or anyone from Jersey Shore. I feel blasphemous comparing him to those! At least early on, he hadn't really done anything to justify his fame. He definitely had an outsized ego; outsized at least compared to what he had produced at that point. Between acts at one of his plays, he said to the actors, 'I congratulate you on the great success of your performance, which persuades me that you think almost as highly of the play as I do myself.' Modesty wasn't really his thing. So, you can see why that might generate a little bit of criticism from people, especially those who thought he didn't deserve it.

But just like The Situation eventually proved that he was more than just his abs on Dancing with the Stars (maybe not really), Wilde would prove that he was more than just a fun guy to talk to at a party. He's definitely more than that. Wilde's One Novel He had a few unsuccessful plays (which we'll get to in a moment), then he published his really famous novel. It's actually the only novel he ever published - The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1891. This story begins with Dorian Gray having his picture painted, as you might guess from the title. He's upset that he's going to grow old and lose his good looks because that's kind of his claim to fame. He's worried that he's going to get old, while the painting remains beautiful. But what actually happens is that the portrait begins to grow older, get ugly and haggard while Gray remains youthful. We're going to go into this more completely in a separate lesson, but that's the general outline of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Plays Wilde turned more fully to drama after Dorian Gray. He's really best known as a playwright, so we're going to quickly go over what he wrote for the stage.

The first play was a tragedy - Vera or The Nihilists; that was in 1880. That sounds promising, right? It's set in Russia. It's full of revolutionaries, assassinations, tsars and other things that are very Russian. Like my Russian dancing, it was not popular, and it's rarely been performed since. Next, we're moving on. The tragedy The Duchess of Padua was his next play. This was written in 1883. No one performed it until 1891. He wrote this play for a woman named Mary Anderson, who was a popular American actress. She wasn't that interested. It's kind of like when actresses decline parts, and then they have to find someone unknown who becomes super famous because of it. I don't think that happened in this case. This play is set in Padua in Italy (which is just like 'The Taming of the Shrew'), and it's about… you know, actually the play is kind of forgotten, so we're just going to move on. Not important. Third time's the charm, right? These first two were not that successful.

In 1892, Wilde completes Lady Windermere's Fan, which is very different from his first two, primarily, because it's not a tragedy. It's a comedy. It's a satire of Victorian society, which sounds more fun than Russian nihilists plotting against tsars (especially because I don't think they danced in theirs). In this play, Lady Windermere thinks her husband is having an affair with Mrs. Erlynne. When she confronts him, he denies it - as men having affairs are wont to do. He invites Mrs. Erlynne to his wife's birthday ball, which really ticks her off. So, she runs away; she decides she's going to have an affair with Lord Darlington. All of this wacky chaos ensues because it's a comedy. In the end, it turns out that no one actually has an affair. In fact, Mrs. Erlynne is actually Lady Windermere's mother, and she only had a child because she was having an affair. So that was the secret that she was trying to conceal. In 1893, Wilde has another hit with the dark comedy A Woman of No Importance.

This is a play about the secrets of the Victorian upper class. It's set at a weekend party, which is an upper class-type thing to do. Lord Illingworth is a handsome and successful bachelor whom the ladies lust after (like a George Clooney figure). He helps out young Gerald Arbuthnot, so he can find his way in society. It turns out that Gerald's mother is Illingworth's former lover, and Gerald is Illingworth's son, which sounds a little bit familiar from Windermere: people finding out that their parents are people they didn't expect! After really big openings in London and New York, the play was set to go on tour, basically. Everything was great. Then Wilde was arrested for sodomy and indecency. We're going to get more on that later; we're coming back to that. I'm not just leaving you hanging. We're going to talk about more plays first, though. In 1893, Wilde publishes the tragedy Salome. He actually wrote it in 1891, but it was censored because it was too racy. It's a retelling of the Biblical story of Salome, who's the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas.

Herod offers Salome a reward for her dancing. She requests the head of John the Baptist on a platter. This play really has a lasting influence. It becomes integral to the way we think about that story. In 1905, Richard Strauss based his famous opera, Salome, on Wilde's play. So, it gets into the canon that way. He completed An Ideal Husband in 1895. This is another comedy; this play is basically about blackmail, politics and all sorts of great upper class type things - first world problems. But it's also about relationships and marriage. The plot begins with Mrs. Cheveley blackmailing Sir Robert into supporting a scam about a canal in Argentina based on evidence she has that he illicitly made his fortune on the sale of the Suez Canal. So, very complicated rich people problems. It gets even more complicated in ways that I won't even begin to elucidate, but it manages to have a happy ending in the end. There was a very good movie version of this play in 1999 with Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett. It's Wilde's second most popular play after his most popular play, which is The Importance of Being Earnest.

× The Novel The Picture Of Dorian Gray English Literature Essay The Novel The Picture Of Dorian Gray English Literature Essay Published: Last Edited: 23rd March, 2015 This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. Oscar Wilde wrote about his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray that: "My story is an essay on decorative art. It reacts against the crude brutality of plain realism. It is poisonous is you like, but you cannot deny that it is also perfect, and perfection is what we artists aim at" (Letters 264). Although the author claimed to have written a complete invention, reading his novel, we cannot avoid asking the question: "Was Oscar Wilde writing indeed a simple invention, as he calls it, or was he in fact recording his own life, thoughts, and emotions? The novel reflects occurrences and attitudes that used to characterise the period to which Oscar Wilde belonged.

The author famously wrote about the three main characters from The Picture of Dorian Gray in the following way: "Basil Hallward is what I think I am; Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me; Dorian what I would like to be - in other ages perhaps" (Letters 352). Comment upon this quotation with references from the book. Indeed, reading about Wilde's life, we discover that the connections between himself and his characters are accurate. Lord Henry resembles Walter Pater in many respects through his influence on Wilde that has been, according to the author, poisonous. However, Oscar Wilde also identifies with Lord Henry in that Wilde like his character plays an important role in the corruption of young impressionable disciples such as John Gray. Thus, the novel is self-referential on two levels: Wilde both identifies with Dorian Gray corrupted by the poisonous influence of Walter Pater and Lord Henry Wotton, the mentor who corrupts his disciples. Dorian confuses art with life on purpose, hoping at the beginning that art will bear the punishment for his lifestyle and eventually becoming aware of the price he has to pay for such confusion.

Oscar Wilde writes about Dorian Gray that: "Each man sees his own thoughts and his own sin in Dorian Gray. What Dorian Gray's sins are no one knows. He who finds them has bought them" (Letters 267). "Bad people are, from the point of view of art, fascinating studies. They represent colour, variety and strangeness. Good people exasperate one's reason; bad people stir one's imagination" (Letters 259). "The function of the artist is to invent, not to chronicle. Life by its realism is always spoiling the subject-matter of art. The supreme pleasure in literature is to realize the non-existent" (Letters 259). At the beginning, Oscar Wilde belonged to the generation of Oxford Aesthetes who, under the influence of John Ruskin, had first embraced his Christian and Pre-Raphaelite enthusiasms and his desire for "Truth to Nature" in art, only to be later seduced by the more indulgently Renaissance-inspired, decadent and rather dangerously glamorous teachings of Walter Pater. Walter Pater's "Conclusion" to his Studies in the History of the Renaissance deeply influenced Oscar Wilde.

Walter Pater considered life as a drift of momentary acts and, therefore, each event should be lived to the full and each moment dignified. In his viewpoint, life should be lived for the instant and each individual should seek not the fruit of the experience, but the experience itself. Oscar Wilde absorbed Walter Pater's words and let himself be influenced by their charm and power. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, at the outset of the novel, Dorian Gray is corrupted by the Pateresque sermons of Lord Henry. Like Oscar Wilde cannot avoid being influenced by Pater's philosophy of life, Dorian Gray cannot resist being attracted by Henry Wotton's words: "'Stop!' faltered Dorian Gray, 'stop! You bewilder me. I don't know what to say. There is some answer to you, but I cannot find it. Don't speak. Let me think. Or, rather, let me try not to think'" (Wilde, 26). Dorian accepts Lord Henry's position declaring in a direct quotation from Pater's "Conclusion" that he was seeking "not the fruit of experience, but experience itself" (Wilde 151).

Practising what Lord Henry, or Walter Pater advocated leads Dorian to disastrous and murderous consequences. Oscar Wilde told a "Morning News" reporter that he was extremely moved by a book A Rebours, a novel written by J. K. Huysmans. Its enormous influence can be revealed in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde admitted that the "yellow book" which had such a strong effect on Dorian Gray in his novel is in fact Huysmans' A Rebours. The impact of the yellow book on Dorian Gray was similar to Oscar Wilde's own reaction when he first read Huysmans' novel: After a few minutes he [Dorian] became absorbed. It was the strangest book that he has ever read. It seemed to him that the exquisite raiment, and to the delicate sound of flutes, the sins of the world were passing in dumb show before him. Things that he had dimly dreamed of were suddenly made real to him. Things of which he had never dreamed were gradually revealed.

(Wilde 145) The hero of the novel, "a certain young Parisian" impresses Dorian through his courage "to realise all the passions and modes of thought that belonged to every century except his own [. . .] loving for their mere artificiality those renunciations that men unwisely have called virtue as much as those natural rebellions that wise men still call sin" (Wilde 145). Thus, the protagonist of the yellow book becomes more than the archetype for Wilde's Dorian Gray: "The hero, the wonderful young Parisian became to him a kind of prefiguring type of himself. And, indeed, the whole book seemed to him to contain the story of his own life, written before he had lived it" (Wilde 147). For the following years, the strange yellow book would hang over Dorian Gray like an ominously dark cloud and lurk inside him like a mirror of his darker self showing Dorian his true character: For years, Dorian Gray could not free himself from the influence of this book. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he never sought to free himself from it.

He procured from Paris no less than nine large-paper copies of the first edition, and had them bound in different colours, so that they might suit his various moods and the changing fancies of a nature over which he seemed, at times, to have almost entirely lost control. (Wilde 147) To a degree, he becomes the archetype of Oscar Wilde himself as he regularly remarks in the company of his friends that "I am mad just like des Esseintes [the young Parisian]" (Mikhail 195). Another crucial aspect that links Oscar Wilde's life to his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is his attraction to dandyism. The dandy-aesthetes above all honed their senses and cultivated the rarest of sensibilities. Their first concern was the exquisiteness and the cultivation of extraordinary notions of taste that lie beyond mere considerations of fashion, and that operates outside all the conventional canons of morality.

Peter Raby in The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde indentifies Wilde's approach to dandyism with the transitional period between about 1883 and 1889, during which his earlier, simpler aestheticism underwent a change into something darker and more decadent as a consequence of his increasing exposure to the richer veins of European, and in particular French, literary and artistic theory and activity. The strong influence that Dandyism had on Oscar Wilde's life is revealed in cultivating the theme of the primacy of beauty and of senses in his writings, which represents the basic principle of the Dandyism of Aesthetic Response. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian laments the period in which individuals did not acknowledge their senses and tried to suppress them: "As he looked back upon man moving through History, he was haunted by a feeling of loss. So much had been surrendered! And to such little purpose!" (Wilde 150).

As a matter of fact, Dorian Gray celebrates the primary importance of the cultivation of senses and their positive effects for artistic purposes: "He sought to elaborate some new scheme of life that would have its reasoned philosophy and its ordered principles, and find in the spiritualising of the senses its highest realisation" (Wilde 150). And because Dorian "knew that the senses, no less than the soul, have their spiritual mysteries to reveal" (Wilde 154), he begins to study perfumes "seeking to elaborate a real psychology of perfumes" (Wilde 154), to devote himself completely to music and instruments: "the fantastic character of these instruments fascinated him, and he felt a curious delight in the thought that Art, like Nature, has her monsters, thing of bestial shape and with hideous voices" (Wilde 156), and to develop a special interest in the study of jewels, embroideries and tapestries: "he was almost saddened by the reflection of the ruin that Time brought on beautiful and wonderful things" (Wilde 158).

Thus, Dorian's concern with the exquisiteness and with the cultivation of sophisticated notions of taste coincides with Oscar Wilde's interest in Dandyism. Autobiography is also evident in a description of Dorian Gray's earlier attraction to the Catholic liturgy: It was rumored of him once that he was about to join the Roman Catholic communion; and certainly the Roman ritual had always a great attraction for him. The daily sacrifice, more awfully really than all the sacrifices of the antique world, stirred him as much by its superb rejection of the evidence of the senses as by the primitive simplicity of the elements and the eternal pathos of the human tragedy that it sought to symbolise. (Wilde 153) However, later on, Dorian renounces his attraction to Christian faith believing that any formal acceptance of creed or system would arrest his intellectual development: "But he never fell into the error of arresting his intellectual development by any formal acceptance of creed or system, or of mistaking, for a house in which to live, an inn that is but suitable for the sojourn of a night" (Wilde 153).

Subsequently, he passed through mysticism to the materialism of the Darwinists where he "found a curious pleasure in tracing the thoughts and passions of men to some pearly cell in the brain, or some white nerve in the body, delighting in the conception of the absolute dependence of the spirit on certain physical conditions, normal or healthy, normal or diseased" (Wilde 154). In the end, Dorian also rejects philosophical Darwinism convinced that all intellectual speculation is barren. As a result, he focused only on action and experiment, aware of the fact that "the senses, no less than the soul, have their spiritual mysteries to reveal" (Wilde 154). Dorian's intellectual research coincides with Oscar Wilde's own position at the period in which he was writing The Picture of Dorian Gray. Like Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde has long been attracted by Catholicism and by its creed. Furthermore, Joseph Pearce in his critical work The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, points out that Oscar Wilde too was fascinated by the philosophical content of Darwin's theory, although the author never left any evidence of the fact that he ever accepted and practised any of its philosophies.

Pearce also argues that Dorian's idolatry of the senses was Wilde's own fetish at the time he was working on his novel. The name and the position in the novel of the protagonist Dorian Gray is very much bound to Oscar Wilde's life. Oscar Wilde's biography mentions the existence of a certain young man of whom the author was very fond. This figure who fascinated Oscar Wilde was John Gray and it is said that he was the model for the physical beauty of Dorian Gray in Wilde's novel. And maybe there is a strong connection between Basil Hallward's first impressions of Dorian Gray and Oscar Wilde's own impressions of John Gray: Well, after I had been in the room about ten minutes, I turned halfway round and saw Dorian Gray for the first time. When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself. (Wilde 13) In the novel, Basil Hallward first sees Dorian at a party.

The writer Frank Liebich points out that Oscar Wilde and John Gray first met at a dinner party in 1889 and that John Gray became Wilde's disciple. There is a reflection of the relationship between Oscar Wilde and John Gray in the description of Basil and Dorian's friendship: I know he [Dorian] likes me. Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said. As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of thousand things. Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then, I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to someone who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer's day. (Wilde 19) Oscar Wilde (Author of The Picture of Dorian Gray) Theatre , Poetry , Fiction Influences edit data Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author of numerous short stories and one novel.

Known for his biting wit, and a plentitude of aphorisms, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest. As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years hard labour after being convicted of "gross indecency" with other men. After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry. He never returned to Ireland or Britain, and died in poverty. SparkNotes: The Picture of Dorian Gray: Chapters Five–Six The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde Chapters Five–Six, page 2 page 1 of 2 Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality. (See Important Quotations Explained ) Summary: Chapter Five At the Vane household, Sibyl Vane is deliriously happy over her romance with Dorian Gray. Mrs.

Vane, her mother, is less enthusiastic, and she alternately worries over Dorian’s intentions and hopes that her daughter will benefit from his obvious wealth. Sibyl’s brother, James, is also rather cautious regarding the match. As a sailor preparing to depart for Australia, James arrives to say his good-byes and warns his mother that she must watch over Sibyl. Mrs. Vane assures him that admirers such as Dorian Gray are not uncommon to actresses, and that there is no reason not to “contract an alliance” with one so wealthy. Impatient with his mother’s “affectations,” James takes Sibyl on a walk. Rather than discuss her Prince Charming, Sibyl chatters on about the adventures James is certain to find in Australia. She imagines him discovering gold but then, thinking this life too dangerous, states that he will be better off as a quiet sheep farmer. James cannot shake the feeling that he is leaving his sister at an inopportune time. He doubts both Dorian’s intentions and his mother’s ability to protect Sibyl from them. Finally, James asks Sibyl about her suitor.

He warns her against Dorian, and Sibyl carries on about the ecstasy of her new love. As the two sit and watch “the smart people go by,” Sibyl sees Dorian pass in an open carriage. She points him out, but he is gone before James sees him. James swears fiercely that if Dorian ever wrongs her, he will track down her “Prince Charming” and kill him. Sibyl pledges undying devotion to Dorian. Later that night, James confronts his mother, asking her whether she was ever married to his father. Mrs. Vane answers no, and James begs her not to let Sibyl meet the same fate. Before departing, James again pledges to kill Dorian should Sibyl ever come to harm by him. Summary: Chapter Six That evening over dinner, Lord Henry announces to Basil Dorian’s plan to marry Sibyl. Basil expresses concern that Dorian has decided to marry so far beneath his social position. Lord Henry claims that he himself cannot pass such judgment and that he is simply interested in observing the boy and his experiences, regardless of the outcome.

Basil doubts that Lord Henry would be so cavalier if Dorian’s life was, in fact, “spoiled,” but Lord Henry insists that “no life is spoiled but one whose growth is arrested.” Dorian enters, and he relates the story of his engagement, which was precipitated by his seeing Sibyl play the Shakespearean heroine Rosalind (in As You Like It). Dorian, in a state of tremendous excitement, remarks that his love for Sibyl and his desire to live only for her have shown him the falsehood of all of Lord Henry’s seductive theories about the virtues of selfishness. Lord Henry, by no means discouraged by Dorian’s speech, defends his point of view by claiming that it is nature, not he, who dictates the pursuit of pleasure. The three men make their way to a theater in the slums where Sibyl Vane is to perform that night. Analysis: Chapters Five–Six Critical reception of The Picture of Dorian Gray was mixed, with many readers condemning the novel as decadent or unmanly. The relationship between Lord Henry and Dorian, as well the one of Basil and Dorian, is clearly homoerotic, and must have shocked readers who valued Victorian respectability.

Although Wilde stops short of stating that Basil and Lord Henry have sexual feelings for Dorian, the language he uses to describe their devotion to Dorian is unmistakably the language of deep, romantic intimacy. Wilde’s language of irony facilitates dodging direct statements; in one scene, for example, although the ostensible topic of conversation is Dorian as a subject for portraits, the exchange between Basil and Lord Henry betrays the romantic nature of Basil’s feelings: [Lord Henry:] “Tell me more about Mr Dorian Gray. How often do you see him?” [Basil Hallward:] “Every day. I couldn’t be happy if I didn’t see him everyday. He is absolutely necessary to me.” Men do have relationships with women in the novel—Dorian falls in love with Sibyl and Lord Henry himself is married—but the novel’s heterosexual relationships prove to be rather superficial and short-lived. If the novel is homoerotic, it is also misogynistic. Victoria Wotton, like most of the women in the novel, is depicted with no real depth: she is briefly (and not kindly) introduced, never to be heard from again.

The most significant female character in the novel is Sibyl, who seems to fulfill Lord Henry’s observation that “[w]omen are a decorative sex.” There is precious little substance to Sibyl’s character, as becomes clear in following chapters when she so easily gives up her greatest talent in order to pursue a relationship with Dorian. In this section, as she strolls through the park with James, she emerges as a rather foolishly romantic young woman. She is perfectly content to fall in love with a stranger whom she knows only by the fairy-tale name with which she has christened him. Indeed, Sibyl is little more than a placeholder in a prefabricated romance. Dorian says nearly as much when he describes the thrill of seeing her placed “on a pedestal of gold . . . to see the world worship the woman who is mine.” This sentiment confirms Lord Henry’s ego-driven philosophy of women as ornaments as well as the male-centered focus of Wilde’s narrative gaze: men—particularly their relationships and the influence they bring to bear upon one another—matter most in The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1

Question: What famous author wrote many plays but just one novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"?
Answer: Oscar Wilde