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The Picture of Dorian Gray Summary
Oscar Wilde

Everything you need to understand or teach The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Summary & Study Guide
2 eBook
26 Student Essay
1 Literature Criticism
1 Book Note
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The Picture of Dorian Gray Summary

Chapters 1—5

The Picture of Dorian Gray begins on an afternoon in London, in the studio of the artist Basil Hallward. Basil discusses his latest portrait, of an extremely handsome young man named Dorian Gray, with Lord Henry Wotton. Basil says he will not exhibit the painting because he has put too much of himself in it. After they go into the garden, Basil explains how captivated he has been by Dorian since he first met him a couple of months earlier. Lord Henry makes some witty, cynical remarks about life, and Basil chides him that he does not really believe what he is saying. Then Basil expands on how Dorian's personality has suggested to him an entirely new manner in art; he sees and thinks differently now and envisions a new school of art, in which soul and body are in perfect harmony.

They return to the house, where Dorian... View more of the The Picture of Dorian Gray Summary

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The The Picture of Dorian Gray Study Pack contains about 816 pages of study material in 41 products, including:

The Picture of Dorian Gray Study Guide

Introduction

Author Biography

Summary and Analysis

Characters

Themes

Style

Criticism

Topics for Further Study

Project Gutenberg eBooks (2)

The Picture of Dorian Gray

70,738 words, approx. 236 pages

THE PREFACE The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new materi... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray

48,970 words, approx. 164 pages

CHAPTER I [3] The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or... Read more

Oscar Wilde Biography (10)

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde

9,914 words, approx. 34 pages

Biography Essay] Together with George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde transformed British drama in the late nineteenth century by expressing a new, "modern" sensibility. By the mid nineteenth century, the B... Read more

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde

795 words, approx. 3 pages

The British author Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854-1900) was part of the "art for art's sake" movement in English literature at the end of the 19th century. He is best known for his brilli... Read more

Oscar Wilde

6,209 words, approx. 21 pages

"Famous for his public speaking and wit, [Oscar] Wilde has often been accused of merely reproducing witty repartee in his plays, and the temptation to treat his work lightly is in large part due to hi... Read more

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Willis) Wilde

8,879 words, approx. 30 pages

Together with George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde transformed British drama in the late nineteenth century by expressing a new, "modern" sensibility. By the mid-nineteenth century, the British theater... Read more

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Willis) Wilde

5,329 words, approx. 18 pages

Few writers have managed to remain world famous without the support of the schools. Oscar Wilde is one of them. Not generally regarded by academics as major or important, Wilde's work has figured ve... Read more

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Willis) Wilde

8,730 words, approx. 30 pages

Oscar Wilde brightened up, for the English-speaking world at least, the stiff and somber final years of the nineteenth century. Like the other magnificent Irishmen, Joyce and Beckett, who would cast ... Read more

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Willis) Wilde

11,412 words, approx. 39 pages

Oscar Wilde as man and artist is a study of extremes and contradictions. He approached life empirically, as Walter Pater had taught him at Oxford, but the pupil determined to pursue sensation beyond ... Read more

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Willis) Wilde

5,514 words, approx. 19 pages

Although Oscar Wilde is best remembered as a dramatist, novelist, essayist, poet, brilliant conversationalist, and flamboyant personality, he was also a writer of fairy tales. Wilde's notoriety--inclu... Read more

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Willis) Wilde

6,075 words, approx. 21 pages

Oscar Wilde 's literary reputation rests primarily on his later plays and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). Although he published only fourteen short stories and six prose poems, a me... Read more

Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Willis) Wilde

5,841 words, approx. 20 pages

Oscar Wilde was a reform writer through the trenchant moral and social criticism in his works. Famous for his public speaking and wit, Wilde has often been accused of merely reproducing witty repartee... Read more

Essays & Analysis (27)

Critical Essay by Christopher S. Nassaar

1,762 words, approx. 6 pages

In the following essay, Nassaar views the four male characters in Lady Windermere's Fan as versions of the protagonist of The Picture of Dorian Gray. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian devel... Read more

Beauty in The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

2,405 words, approx. 9 pages

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines beauty as "the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit." Beauty is a p... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray - An Impractical Experience

293 words, approx. 1 pages

I would venture to say that the majority of older people would absolutely love to be young again. The good looks, the adolescent personality, the charismatic manner; who would not want to stay young?... Read more

The Portrait of Dorian Gray

505 words, approx. 2 pages

While reading the novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray I was introduced to the perspective of an artist in the 19th century and his views on the Renaissance. I get the faint idea that the author, Oscar W... Read more

The Confusion of Oscar Wilde

2,179 words, approx. 8 pages

For over a century, the legitimacy of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray has been widely debated. During the Victorian era, Critics regarded Wilde's works as "deeply flawed" and "badly wri... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray

716 words, approx. 3 pages

In Oscar Wilde's Novel, The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Victorian Society plays a large purpose in the story. In Victorian times woman were treated like low-life's, they were looked down upon, in which th... Read more

Dorian Gray: Art and the Artist

1,006 words, approx. 4 pages

A piece of art is many things at once: it is what it looks or sounds like, and it is what it represents. The former is of the senses: it is the painter's paint or the musician's notes. The latter i... Read more

James Vane as Dorian's Conscience

263 words, approx. 1 pages

At the end of chapter sixteen in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian stumbles upon James Vane. James symbolically functions as Dorian's conscience, which is marred with the guilt of all his crimes.... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray

729 words, approx. 3 pages

Everyone has someone who influences what they will do; in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, Dorian is influenced by Lord Henry. From whom to marry to how Dorian should feel about ... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray

428 words, approx. 2 pages

When Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, first came to the public, it was banned for its "immortal and vulgar" ideas. Ironically, these same ideas are what give the story its beauty. Not ... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray

532 words, approx. 2 pages

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, has many incidents in which Dorian Gray has awakenings, discoveries and changes in attitude. For instance, when Dorian spends time with Lord Henry, he is in... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Symbols and Themes

2,445 words, approx. 9 pages

Since values and literature first went hand in hand, texts have examined many values and ideas that have changed over time in accordance to society. We are able to see how literature has changed, sta... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Lord Henry Vs. Dorian Gray

600 words, approx. 3 pages

Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray presents many themes, including conflict and influence. In this novel, Lord Henry Wotton creates a conflict with the naïve and innocent Dorian Gray by influ... Read more

An Analysis of Marius the Epicurian and the Picture of Dorian Gray

3,243 words, approx. 11 pages

Some people think with a pen, some with a clay and many think using nothing. Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater are in the first classification. As it is obvious, nobody can control what they think and simi... Read more

The Relationship between Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton

1,956 words, approx. 7 pages

Set in the late 19th Century, Oscar Wilde wrote his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is a story about debauchery and corruption of innocence and well known as a "Gothic melodrama." Violent... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Impact of Vanity

1,304 words, approx. 5 pages

Vanity and excessive pride eventually lead to self-destruction. In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde examines these essential flaws of mankind. The main character, Dorian Gray, renounc... Read more

Dorian Gray's Regrets

1,044 words, approx. 4 pages

"Not `Forgive us our sins,' but `Smite us for our iniquities' should be the prayer of a man to a most just God." (Wilde, 250) The message of The Picture of Dorian Gray is found in this statement. The ... Read more

Critical Analysis-the Picture of Dorian Gray

844 words, approx. 3 pages

In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray is a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Dorian is a dynamic character who changes greatly throughout the novel. ... Read more

Critical Essay on "the Picture of Dorian Gray"

1,956 words, approx. 7 pages

The Picture of Dorian Gray presents three intriguing characters, all of whom represent in different ways the relationship between art and life, contemplation and action, beauty and ethics. But neither... Read more

Lord Henry Wotton's Role in The Picture of Dorian Gray

1,530 words, approx. 6 pages

Whether we realize it or not, many people influence our lives, shaping the way we act, talk, and even think. People can affect others in many positive ways; however, they can also corrupt the people a... Read more

Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray

1,625 words, approx. 6 pages

Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray The sixteenth of October 1854, a child was born into a garden for his intellect to grow. The name on the birth certificate was Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde. He ... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray

1,595 words, approx. 6 pages

Can evil really take over your body? Indeed it can, by making a selfish wish of being young forever. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a perfect example of this. In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Os... Read more

Character Relationships in "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

448 words, approx. 2 pages

Dorian Gray was a son of Margaret Devereux and a young man. Margaret was extraordinary beautiful girl, she ran away with a poor young fellow. But he was killed in a duel at Spa a few months after the ... Read more

The Pessimistic View of Victorian Life in "Dorian Gray"

1,278 words, approx. 5 pages

The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde, describes the lives of numerous upper class citizens of Victorian England through incorporating highly detailed accounts of their beliefs and action... Read more

The Picture of Dorian Gray

902 words, approx. 4 pages

Summary Dorian Gray is an impressionable young man, with extraordinarily good looks. He meets two new friends, Basil and Lord Henry. Basil is an artist who finds himself captivated by this young m... Read more

Guilt from Hedonism in "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

450 words, approx. 2 pages

The lures of beauty and pleasure are hard for any man to resist, but for Dorian Gray, it was what he lived for. When Dorian realized that his portrait would acquire his ugliness instead of him, he de... Read more

Deconstruction of Ideals in "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

633 words, approx. 3 pages

Throughout Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray the novel is slowly deconstructing all of the alleged values in which it is originally supposed to support. Although the novel begins with id... Read more

Free Book Notes (1)

The Picture of Dorian Gray

15,286 words, approx. 51 pages

The Picture of Dorian Gray Book Notes is a free study guide on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Browse the summary below: Author Biography / Context of the Work One-Page Pl... Read more

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