Oscar Wilde: the Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde was one of the poets who‘s lyrics refused the problems of morality and philosophy which troubled the population during the Victorian era in the nineteenth century, and he found images for his own moods, loves and experience. His work as a dramatist and his legendary name, have given his verses a significant reputation. (Evans, I., 1976, p.114)

Wilde’s pleasure in provocation and his examination of different moral perspectives are presented in his most important work of fiction, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). It is a tragedy of sorts with the subtext of a morality play. The central character is at once a desperate suicide and a martyr. (Sanders, A., 1996, p.476)

The title of this book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, suggests that the novel is about the image of the man, rather than about the man himself. Dorian exists as a beautiful but basically insignificant image first, before he exists as a human being.

As he ages he keeps his good looks and indulges himself in all kinds of sensual pleasure without regard to moral consequences. But his portrait changes reflecting the corruption of his soul. (Carter, R., McRae, J., 1997, 309)

In the first chapter, we meet the two major characters of the novel as Basil Hallward the painter, who seems to be more attracted by Dorian as a model than as a person and Lord Henry Wotton, the cynic who corrupts Dorian and values beauty above all else. Very important aspect of the Basil character is that he is attracted by Dorian on more than a professional level. He finds Dorian very beautiful and pure which causes a later rejection by the boy and the Basil’s inability to create any more great art.

In the second chapter the protagonist first appears and meets Lord Henry who describes Dorian as a very handsome young man, "Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. . ." (Wilde 35). Lord Henry invites Dorian into Basil's garden as he delivers his lecture on youth, beauty, and the value of immorality. Lord Henry begins to manipulate Dorian who realizes how wonderful the pleasures of youth really are and desires to remain forever young.

"How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that - for that - I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!" (Wilde 46)

According to this passage, Dorian begins to lose his moral values.

In the chapter four, Dorian discloses to Henry he fell in love with a talented actress named Sibyl Vane. But it seems that instead of being in love with Sibyl for being herself he has fallen in love only with her talent, beauty and characters she plays: „When is she Sibyl Vane?“ „Never.“ (Wilde 77) As Sibyl shows her true self to him, Dorian realizes he fell in love with the art of acting rather than a person and he ends their relationship. Sibyl loves Dorian very much and because of loss of his love for her, she commits a suicide. According to this, we can see how Dorian’s moral values have greatly diminished.

The portrait of Dorian Gray symbolizes his diminishing morals. Every time Dorian commits a sin, the portrait changes, "For every sin that he committed, a stain would fleck and wreck its fairness." (Wilde 118) Wilde also uses personification with the picture. The picture turns old instead of Dorian who stays young. As shown, Dorian Gray deals with the problem of narcissism. His desire to stay young corrupted his soul and stole away many opportunities he had to live a better live in the future.

In chapter eight, Dorian writes a passionate letter to Sybil, taking all of the blame for his actions and imploring her forgiveness. But the narrator states that: "There is a luxury in self-reproach." (Wilde 123) He takes pleasure in his confession and feels that he had been forgiven everything. After Lord Henry tells Dorian about the death of Sybil, it has given him ability to view Sybil as a character in a play once again. As he says : "It seems to me to be simply like a wonderful ending to a wonderful play. It has all the terrible beauty of a great tragedy, a tragedy in which I took part, but by which I have not been wounded.“ (Wilde 128) Lord Henry continues to remind Dorian of all the sins he has committed and that even though his body is not aging, his moral values are decreasing rapidly. One day Basil Hallward visits Dorian to confirm the rumors and stories he heard about Dorian being corrupted and evil. He is inquisitive to know how Dorian stayed young and beautiful but he also yearns to know why Dorian has changed so much emotionally. Dorian keeps the picture Basil painted hidden in his attic. As they are having a conversation Basil asks: "I wonder do I know you? Before I could answer that, I should have to see your soul." (Wilde 185) Dorian takes Basil to his attic to reveal him his soul which is concealed in the painting. As Basil looks at the picture he is not convinced that he painted it. In that brushwork is all of Dorian's loathe, dread, and sorrow reduced into a canvas. Dorian feels uncontrollable hatred for Basil and stabs him with a knife. Dorian becomes a pure evil by commiting this crime. He doesn’t feel any guilt for Basil’s murder and his moral sense decreases when he extorts another friend, Alan Campbell, into covering for his crime. In the final chapter of the novel there is a turning point in Dorian‘s character as he considers to begin a new life. He desires to be good but he loves being evil, and realizes that even the thought of becoming good makes him a hypocrite which is a new sin. „Vanity? Curiosity? Hypocrisy? Had there been nothing more in his renunciation than that? There had been something more. At least he thought so. But who could tell?...No. There had been nothing more. Through vanity he had spared her. In hypocrisy he had worn the mask of goodness.“(Wilde 260,261) Dorian decides to destroy the evidence of his crimes and in order to do this he must eliminate his loathe and dread he has been feeling - he must destroy the portrait which is a reflection of his soul. He destroys the picture with the same weapon he killed Basil. By killing the portrait he would kill the past and he would be free. But Wilde aimed to show that when Dorian stabbed the painting, he was actually stabbing himself. „Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart.“ (Wilde 262) When Dorian murders himself the man in the portrait becomes young and beautiful, while the real Dorian becomes old and loathsome of visage. Before he killed himself he looked at the knife that had stabbed Basil thinking: "As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter's work..." (Wilde 261) but the work and the painter are instead awarded the immortality of artistic greatness, while Dorian himself is destroyed. Dorian remains young and he has a lack of conscience, it is his portrait that ages instead of him. In my opinion, in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde shows the consequences of stubborn hedonism. Although outwardly, the human being would appear to enjoy the indulgence in all pleasures, inside, there would be marks of sin present in the ugliness that is well hidden.