Summary:
The novel ends with Dorian making a last, sad attempt to convince Lord Henry to stop influencing him. When Dorian tries to destroy the portrait, he is in effect killing himself. The portrait held his soul and without soul one can surely no longer live. It was only a matter of time until his career of hedonism at the expense of others was over. Ironically, at the height of his success as an author Oscar, brought an unsuccessful libel suit against his lover's father. His actions backfired and he ended up getting two years in jail for gross indecency. He was in a sad state. Oscar Wilde died in a rundown part of Paris in 1900 in total ignominy
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 was to be one of the most thought-provoking characters of the 18th and 19th centuries, and also one of the most provocative. He was a very interesting man.
His parents were William Wilde and Lady Jane Francesca Wilde. Oscar's father was a prominent eye and ear surgeon. His mother, Jane, was a big supporter of Irish independence and a poetess, critic, and supporter of women's rights. She was a very good picture of what Oscar would turn out to be. He had one brother, Willie, who had two years on Oscar. He was also no doubt a very large influence on Oscar.
Oscar lived in a very rich aristocratic society. At the age of twelve he shipped off to Portora Royal School. He didn't want to go, but eventually he got used to it. He learned the classics at this school and in college. This also helped him with his writing in the future. When he left the school in 1871, his name had been engraved on the honors plaque because he had done so well. He won a spot at Trinity College in Dublin. He did very well there. He got the coveted Berkely gold medal for his efforts. He was also a star boxer at the college. After Trinity he went to Magdalen College, Oxford. After completing school there, he tried to gain a fellowship (a membership in the university faculty) at the school. He failed and was forced to lecture and write for periodicals to earn a living.
The start of writing periodicals were his beginnings as an author. He married Constance Lloyd in 1884 and tried to establish himself as a writer. He wrote several books and short stories from 1888 to 1891 and gained a reputation. People complimented him for his modern writing style and original talent. The book that really got him in the big time was The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1891. This book showed off all of Wilde's talent and wealth of ideas.
"There was something in his face that made you trust him at once. The entire candor of youth was there, as well as youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world."(Chp. 2) Those are some of the books first descriptions of the man that is Dorian Gray. He was a blank canvas and a stunning Adonis. This untouched beauty and his changes is the main focus of Wilde's novel.
In the novel, Dorian Gray is a sitter for a well-known artist named Basil Hallward. Mr. Gray brought out the best in Basil. Lord Henry is Basil's good friend, "He has a very bad influence over all his friends, with the single exception of myself."(Chp. 2) One time Basil paints his best picture ever, his masterpiece. It is indeed very good and he gives it to Dorian. Upon seeing the picture Dorian exclaims, "If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! 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"(Chp. 2) He ends up getting more than he bargains for in that statement. This is the inciting moment for this book. Lord Henry Wotton is a very interesting character. He is a very influential person, especially to Dorian. Wotton is an artist who uses words instead of a canvas or marble. "There is no good, no evil, no morality and immorality; there are modes of being. To live is to experiment aesthetically in living to experiment all sensations, to know all emotions, and to think all thoughts, in order that the self's every capacity may be imaginatively realized." He is a man that does nothing but try to please himself. He is also very rich, as is Dorian.
Henry asks Basil why he won't display the picture, Basil answers, "I have put too much of myself into it"(chp 1). Henry philosophy is, "An artist should create beautiful things but should put nothing of his own life into them."(Chp. 1) Although Lord Henry states that "all influence is immoral"(chp. 2), he drastically changes Dorian Gray. He contradicts himself on more than one occasion in the book.
If Basil is what Wilde says he is, then his fear of showing his portrait in public is connected to Oscar's own life. "The reason I will not exhibit the picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul."(chp. 1) A chunk of Wilde's works deal with a handsome young man. These include "The Happy Prince" and "The Young King." These ideas of a young man probably manifested themselves in Lord Alfred Douglas, for he was all of the things Oscar Described. It seems as if he wanted to make fiction real life.
Because of Lord Henry's influence Dorian starts to go out and do more things like Henry. On one of his adventures he goes to a play where he meets a beautiful young actress. He falls in love with her. Her name is Sibyl Vane. They love each other very much and one night Dorian takes Henry and Basil to her performance of Romeo and Juliet. She acts horribly and Dorian is no longer interested in her. He tells her so, and later that night she kills herself. Her grief was so much because she loved Dorian very much, her "Prince Charming."
The relationships in Dorian's interest with Sibyl, and Basil's interest in Dorian are very similar. They both come together by chance. Dorian meets Sibyl in a theater and Basil meets Dorian at a party. They also have very much the same reason for liking what they do. Dorian said, "She has not merely art, consummate art-instinct, in her, but she has personality also; and you have often told me that it is personalities, not principles, that move the age."(chp. 4) Basil says Dorian is "a new personality for art."(chp 1)
Then something horrid and greatly changing to the story-line occurs. Dorian observes the portrait to have changed so it showed all his age and sins. His original wish had come true to not age while the portrait did. Because he has lost his soul he does not dwell on the death of Ms. Vane. He lives the next couple of years of his life going after anything that he found pleasing. "There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of beautiful"(chp 11) He goes to several schools to learn. He goes to clubs and enjoys the company of all sorts of shady characters including opium smokers and hookers.
Lord Henry's actions and thoughts prove ruinous. His wife leaves him and the remaining focus of his life is the youthful Dorian Gray. This directly ties in with Oscar's life because his wife left him too. He then had to do something so he wrote more novels and took up the homosexual lifestyle. He fell in love with Lord Alfred Douglas in 1895.
One night Basil sees Dorian and comes over to his house. Dorian goes into a rage and has the desire to show him the portrait and how it has changed, so he does. Basil is scared and confused and sits down. Then, in perhaps the most shocking and disgusting scene in the book, Dorian proceeds to stab Henry to death. Later Dorian has an old friend get rid of the remains. Dorian Gray was an evil person now. "It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for."(chp 20)
The novel ends with Dorian making a last, sad attempt to convince Lord Henry to stop influencing him. When Dorian tries to destroy the portrait, he is in effect killing himself. The portrait held his soul and without soul one can surely no longer live. It was only a matter of time until his career of hedonism at the expense of others was over.
At the height of his success as an author Oscar, brought an unsuccessful libel suit against his lover's father. His actions backfired and he ended up getting two years in jail for gross indecency. He was in a sad state. Oscar Wilde died in a rundown part of Paris in 1900 in total ignominy (I looked that up!)
In his story Wilde says one should not put too much of one's self in into art. He then puts many subtle and overt references to his own life and his experiences in his novel. This was another situation where he has contradicted himself. Another interesting point in the story is the controversy over homosexual undertones used in the novel. One of the dates in the story is the same year Oscar became a homosexual himself.
Oscar Wilde was a very interesting man and a great author. I enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Gray tremendously. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to think and enjoys being presented with many new ideas. In the end of the book it seems as if Mr. Wilde is a moral writer after all. There is after all a vital link between beauty and goodness. "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian Gray what I would like to be - in other ages, perhaps" said Wilde.
Sources
- Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin Books, 1891. New York
- Unknown. "The Picture of Dorian Gray: Corruption Through Aestheticism"
- Unknown. "Pinkmonkey.com booknotes for Picture of Dorian Gray"
www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmpictureDorian02.asp. Pinkmonkey.com
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