The World of the Novel
Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Year of first publication: 1890 (in Lippincott’s monthly magazine)
Genre: novel
Number of pages: 251
Summary
As Dorian Gray, an extraordinary handsome young man, is visiting is friend and painter Basil Hallward, he meets Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Hendry is an aesthetic, interested in and mostly hedonistic; always looking for new experiences and pleasure. A short conversation is long enough to make Dorian conscious of his own good looks, and as Basil show Dorian the finished painting of him, Dorian cries out: “If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old… I would give my soul for that!” Which is exactly what happens. Without knowing it, Dorian now has sold his soul for his good looks, and the painting now is to show what all the sins, pleasures and experiences of the next for years to do him.
Dorian grows conscious of this when his first love, Sybil Vane, commits suicide. Dorian saw her once at the theatre, while she played one of Shakespeare’s heroines. Every night she played another one, and every night Dorian would come and look. He asked her to marry him, and the next evening took Basil and Henry with him to the show. But as Sybil acts horribly because she’s so much in love, Dorian falls out of love with her, and tells her so clearly after the shows. He leaves Sybil behind, broken.
The next day, when he realizes what he has done, he wants to make it up to her, but it’s too late. She committed suicide, and Dorian discovers the first decaying of the first beautiful painting.
He hides away the painting in a room where only he has got the key of, and tells no one about it. Years pass by, and the many experiences, sins and pleasures help the painting to further decay, while Dorian remains as youthful as he was the day the painting was finished.
One night Basil visits Dorian, asking him about all the rumours that go around London about him. Dorian shows Basil the painting, and in a fit of anger stabs him with a knife. Basil is dead, and the painting now has blood on its hands. Dorian asks an old friend (whom because of reasons not told never wants to have anything to do with Dorian again) Alan Campbell to get rid of the body, as he is a chemist. Alan does so because Dorian apparently knows something about him that no one else should ever know, but commits suicide no long after the crime. The picture now has a blood dripping from the hands on the floor.
Though the murder is well hidden, Dorian still isn’t safe. When he is looking for some freedom in opium, he has an encounter with Sybll’s brother, James Vane, who recognizes Dorian when somebody calls him Prince Charming, as Sybll used to call him. James had sworn to kill Dorian if he did his sister wrong, and was about to do so when Dorian said to him that he could not possibly be Dorian Gray, as Dorian Gray must now be older, and he was a young lad. He fools James Vane and gets away. Later, when James is still after him, James dies in a hunting accident.
Now Dorian is all safe, but something is hunting him. He is bored and eventually decides to destroy the picture, hoping that it will help him. But as he does so, a “cry horrible in his agony” is heard through the streets of London. The picture is normal again, but Dorian lies on the ground, a knife in his heart, and ugly like he was in the picture. His servants only recognize him by his rings.
Time, place, written way
The story takes place in ‘upper-class’ London, in big houses, and country houses also. The book was written and plays in the end of the 19th centaury (Victorian Age).
It is written from the p.o.v. of the all knowing author so you know what different people are thinking and feeling, though Dorian is in the spotlight most of the time. For an example, when Alan Campell kills himself, you have to learn that a few chapters later in a thought of Dorian, where he doesn’t blame himself for it.
Characters
Dorian Gray: An extraordinary beautiful and attractive young man, whose picture painted by friend Basil Hallward changed into his soul while his body stays forever young.
Dorian is an ideal at first; the picture of boyhood and youth, beauty and innocence, and that is exactly what draws Basil towards him so much. But it is only after a short conversation with Henry Wotton that Dorian finds his own desires to be more important than anything. Henry’s Hedonism is almost forgotten though, when Dorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, a pretty actress. But after a brief time he falls out of love with her, and she commits suicide. He notices the changes in the painting, but after a brief moment of panic he and Henry decide the suicide was Art, and not a useless tragedy. Henry even says he finds it sad that no woman ever killed herself for him.
Dorian grows more and more vain, he is influenced for a few years by a book that Henry gave him, and every day his picture becomes more hideous, but his body remains beautiful. He seems to lack a conscience, but we can find humanity in him, as all the beautiful things he surrounds himself with cannot take his mind off the growing ugliness of his portrait. In a fit of anger he kills his friend Basil. It’s the beginning of his end; he can forget it at times, but grows restless and unhappy with his youth. He eventually wants to get rid of the portrait, which is the ending of himself.
Dorian is forever influence by everything, at first by Basil, then by Henry, Henry’s book, his picture, and fails to achieve the individualism that Lord Henry celebrates.
Lord Henry Wotton: Lord Henry is filled with ‘immoral’ ideas and ‘wrong’ philosophies. He likes to engage in challenging conversations and shock his conversers. In the end of the books he tells Dorian: “I always contradict the aged. I do it on principle.” Lord Henry is very fond of youth and beauty, and finds in Dorian an excellent disciple. He is witty and radical, and it is fun to read the parts where one has a conversation with him. After a while he proves to be shallow though, as his philosophy never changes while Dorian and Basil obviously grow a lot. He tells everybody how they should live, but he fails to achieve all he says himself. In the end of the book he proves that his insight in human nature is not as well as he claims it to be, as he says that Dorian would never be capable of a murder.
To me he seems like a man who likes to shock people, but is not that shocking besides what he says. It is said that he has a bad influence on people, and he surely has so on Dorian, but Dorian is the one whom people don’t dare to talk to, want to get away from and gossip about, not Lord Henry.
Bassil Hallward: A talented painter, who adores Dorian and is almost in love with him (which might have something to do with the homosexuality of Wilde). When he paints Dorian as he really is, he created a masterpiece and discovers a whole new way of painting. He is afraid though, that he has put to much of himself into the painting, and does not want to exhibit it. He worries about the influence of Lord Henry over Dorian and defends Dorian after years when people gossip about them, even though they barely see each other any more. His loyalty to Dorian eventually is fatal, and Dorian feels like Basil is guilty for his damned painting.
Lord Henry describes him boring, and Dorian eventually chooses for vanity and Hedonism and not for the ‘moralistic’ painter. I feel like Basil is the only sincere character in the whole story, but indeed is a tad boring, not too humoristic and rather worried. He showed Dorian his beauty, and that eventually killed not only himself but other people also (like Dorian himself, Sibyl and James Vane and Alan Campbell)
Sybil Vane: A poor but beautiful and talented actress who is the first love of Dorian. Her love for Dorian makes her realize that the emotions on stage, which first where her escape from ordinary and plain life, were fake. That realisation weakened her skills on stage, which killed Dorian’s love. She committed suicide when he left her.
Theme
The theme, I think, is Art, and Art’s purpose.
It is important to go back to the age in which this book was written: the Victorian Age. In this age Art cared the responsibility of being helpful for social education and moral enlightment. Wilde was part of the aestheticism movement that wanted to free Art from this responsibility, as you can see in Lord Henry who states that all Art should do is be beautiful.
There are two important pieces of art that influence the book, or lets say Dorian: the picture and the book that Lord Henry gives to Dorian. The picture is the most magnificent mirror one could possibly imagine, as it shows the soul of Dorian Gray and functions as his conscience. He puts it aside for a while, but eventually returns to it. This piece of art dominates Dorian’s life, maybe because you can say it is Dorian. The book guides him. This however contradicts what the aestheticism movement believe, as these two pieces of art have meaning.
But that does not mean that this book has not a great deal of very interesting ideas about art, which I was unable to understand fully.
World of the author
Short biography
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854, the son of an eye-surgeon and a nationalist poetess. He went to Trinity College, Dublin and then to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became involved in the aesthetic movement (‘Art for Art’s sake). Because he didn’t earn a fellowship he was forced to earn money by lecturing. He published unsuccessful poems in 1881. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, but failed to establish himself as a writer. He wrote three short fictions though (The happy prince, 1888, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, 1891, A House of Pomegranates 1891) and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. These books eventually gave him the reputation of a modern writer with talent. This reputation is confirmed with his Society Comedies – Lady Windemere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of being Earnest, which were on stage between 1882 and 1895.
His success however was doomed to end soon. He fell in love with Lord Alfred Douglas in 1891, and in 1895 he brought an unsuccessful libel action against Douglas’ father. Wilde lost the case and was sentenced to two years imprisonment for acts of ‘gross indecency’. This experience made him write The Ballad of Reading Gaol. When he was released from prison in 1897 he lived in exile by his own choice. He died in Paris in 1900.
Sexuality
Said is that Oscar was very much aware of his homo or bisexuality, and that he had different affaires with men. He called himself Socratic, as he had some sexual contact with his students also, and defended himself by saying that Socrates, Plato and Michelangelo had had those same relationships.
His sexuality is very much present in this novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as the affection of Basil for Dorian is, as he self calls is ‘idolization’ more than a normal kindness for a friend. When Dorian enters a room there are many man who dare not to talk to him, which suggest some sinful encounters.
Themes and motives
Wilde’s witty and charming way of writing is of great importance for his works. His one-liners are used even today (There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about") and his plays are also still performed. He dealt with aesthetic philosophy and The Picture of Dorian Gray is entirely about that, in a way. In The Importance of being Earnest he shows the shallow and superficiality of the high society, a thing he does in more of his works. Some say you can see Wilde in his work, as an example the homoerotic aspects in Dorian Gray would suggest Wilde’s own sexuality.
The world of the reader
My brother studies literature in Leiden, and when we received the list with all the ‘classics’ we were aloud to read, I asked him what he could recommend me. Of course, Joyce was one of the names, but he enthusiastically suggested The Picture of Dorian Gray. I got curious and rented the book at the library, having absolutely no idea what the book was about. I had read the back, but had forgotten in. It took me some weeks before I got started, and it took me some days before I could read more of the book than several pages.
I was immediately drawn to Lord Henry, with his witty and charming manner of speaking, and at first thought the story would be about him. I found it interesting that one is drawn into the story so completely, without a full explanation of the events and characters. Yes, there were short anecdotes here and there, but you are a spectator, who sees what the characters see, know what they know (and don’t know) and need to put the book away sometimes, because of the ideas about art it deals with.
I did not understand these completely, felt it had something to do with the pre-face, but found them amusing and intriguing. I could laugh about what Lord Henry said about woman, and roll my eyes at Dorian’s vanity. At times I even thought of Basil as dull and boring, just as Lord Henry said, but realized in the end he was the sincere one, the honest one, while Lord Henry is shallow, vain and naïve, and Dorian rather troubled and losing himself. Funny, how he has seemed to lose himself when he first saw himself, in his picture. Just like Narcissus
Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Year of first publication: 1890 (in Lippincott’s monthly magazine)
Genre: novel
Number of pages: 251
Summary
As Dorian Gray, an extraordinary handsome young man, is visiting is friend and painter Basil Hallward, he meets Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Hendry is an aesthetic, interested in and mostly hedonistic; always looking for new experiences and pleasure. A short conversation is long enough to make Dorian conscious of his own good looks, and as Basil show Dorian the finished painting of him, Dorian cries out: “If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old… I would give my soul for that!” Which is exactly what happens. Without knowing it, Dorian now has sold his soul for his good looks, and the painting now is to show what all the sins, pleasures and experiences of the next for years to do him.
Dorian grows conscious of this when his first love, Sybil Vane, commits suicide. Dorian saw her once at the theatre, while she played one of Shakespeare’s heroines. Every night she played another one, and every night Dorian would come and look. He asked her to marry him, and the next evening took Basil and Henry with him to the show. But as Sybil acts horribly because she’s so much in love, Dorian falls out of love with her, and tells her so clearly after the shows. He leaves Sybil behind, broken.
He hides away the painting in a room where only he has got the key of, and tells no one about it. Years pass by, and the many experiences, sins and pleasures help the painting to further decay, while Dorian remains as youthful as he was the day the painting was finished.
One night Basil visits Dorian, asking him about all the rumours that go around London about him. Dorian shows Basil the painting, and in a fit of anger stabs him with a knife. Basil is dead, and the painting now has blood on its hands. Dorian asks an old friend (whom because of reasons not told never wants to have anything to do with Dorian again) Alan Campbell to get rid of the body, as he is a chemist. Alan does so because Dorian apparently knows something about him that no one else should ever know, but commits suicide no long after the crime. The picture now has a blood dripping from the hands on the floor.
Though the murder is well hidden, Dorian still isn’t safe. When he is looking for some freedom in opium, he has an encounter with Sybll’s brother, James Vane, who recognizes Dorian when somebody calls him Prince Charming, as Sybll used to call him. James had sworn to kill Dorian if he did his sister wrong, and was about to do so when Dorian said to him that he could not possibly be Dorian Gray, as Dorian Gray must now be older, and he was a young lad. He fools James Vane and gets away. Later, when James is still after him, James dies in a hunting accident.
Now Dorian is all safe, but something is hunting him. He is bored and eventually decides to destroy the picture, hoping that it will help him. But as he does so, a “cry horrible in his agony” is heard through the streets of London. The picture is normal again, but Dorian lies on the ground, a knife in his heart, and ugly like he was in the picture. His servants only recognize him by his rings.
Time, place, written way
The story takes place in ‘upper-class’ London, in big houses, and country houses also. The book was written and plays in the end of the 19th centaury (Victorian Age).
It is written from the p.o.v. of the all knowing author so you know what different people are thinking and feeling, though Dorian is in the spotlight most of the time. For an example, when Alan Campell kills himself, you have to learn that a few chapters later in a thought of Dorian, where he doesn’t blame himself for it.
Characters
Dorian Gray: An extraordinary beautiful and attractive young man, whose picture painted by friend Basil Hallward changed into his soul while his body stays forever young.
Dorian is an ideal at first; the picture of boyhood and youth, beauty and innocence, and that is exactly what draws Basil towards him so much. But it is only after a short conversation with Henry Wotton that Dorian finds his own desires to be more important than anything. Henry’s Hedonism is almost forgotten though, when Dorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, a pretty actress. But after a brief time he falls out of love with her, and she commits suicide. He notices the changes in the painting, but after a brief moment of panic he and Henry decide the suicide was Art, and not a useless tragedy. Henry even says he finds it sad that no woman ever killed herself for him.
Dorian is forever influence by everything, at first by Basil, then by Henry, Henry’s book, his picture, and fails to achieve the individualism that Lord Henry celebrates.
Lord Henry Wotton: Lord Henry is filled with ‘immoral’ ideas and ‘wrong’ philosophies. He likes to engage in challenging conversations and shock his conversers. In the end of the books he tells Dorian: “I always contradict the aged. I do it on principle.” Lord Henry is very fond of youth and beauty, and finds in Dorian an excellent disciple. He is witty and radical, and it is fun to read the parts where one has a conversation with him. After a while he proves to be shallow though, as his philosophy never changes while Dorian and Basil obviously grow a lot. He tells everybody how they should live, but he fails to achieve all he says himself. In the end of the book he proves that his insight in human nature is not as well as he claims it to be, as he says that Dorian would never be capable of a murder.
To me he seems like a man who likes to shock people, but is not that shocking besides what he says. It is said that he has a bad influence on people, and he surely has so on Dorian, but Dorian is the one whom people don’t dare to talk to, want to get away from and gossip about, not Lord Henry.
Bassil Hallward: A talented painter, who adores Dorian and is almost in love with him (which might have something to do with the homosexuality of Wilde). When he paints Dorian as he really is, he created a masterpiece and discovers a whole new way of painting. He is afraid though, that he has put to much of himself into the painting, and does not want to exhibit it. He worries about the influence of Lord Henry over Dorian and defends Dorian after years when people gossip about them, even though they barely see each other any more. His loyalty to Dorian eventually is fatal, and Dorian feels like Basil is guilty for his damned painting.
Lord Henry describes him boring, and Dorian eventually chooses for vanity and Hedonism and not for the ‘moralistic’ painter. I feel like Basil is the only sincere character in the whole story, but indeed is a tad boring, not too humoristic and rather worried. He showed Dorian his beauty, and that eventually killed not only himself but other people also (like Dorian himself, Sibyl and James Vane and Alan Campbell)
Sybil Vane: A poor but beautiful and talented actress who is the first love of Dorian. Her love for Dorian makes her realize that the emotions on stage, which first where her escape from ordinary and plain life, were fake. That realisation weakened her skills on stage, which killed Dorian’s love. She committed suicide when he left her.
Theme
The theme, I think, is Art, and Art’s purpose.
It is important to go back to the age in which this book was written: the Victorian Age. In this age Art cared the responsibility of being helpful for social education and moral enlightment. Wilde was part of the aestheticism movement that wanted to free Art from this responsibility, as you can see in Lord Henry who states that all Art should do is be beautiful.
There are two important pieces of art that influence the book, or lets say Dorian: the picture and the book that Lord Henry gives to Dorian. The picture is the most magnificent mirror one could possibly imagine, as it shows the soul of Dorian Gray and functions as his conscience. He puts it aside for a while, but eventually returns to it. This piece of art dominates Dorian’s life, maybe because you can say it is Dorian. The book guides him. This however contradicts what the aestheticism movement believe, as these two pieces of art have meaning.
World of the author
Short biography
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854, the son of an eye-surgeon and a nationalist poetess. He went to Trinity College, Dublin and then to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became involved in the aesthetic movement (‘Art for Art’s sake). Because he didn’t earn a fellowship he was forced to earn money by lecturing. He published unsuccessful poems in 1881. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, but failed to establish himself as a writer. He wrote three short fictions though (The happy prince, 1888, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, 1891, A House of Pomegranates 1891) and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. These books eventually gave him the reputation of a modern writer with talent. This reputation is confirmed with his Society Comedies – Lady Windemere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of being Earnest, which were on stage between 1882 and 1895.
His success however was doomed to end soon. He fell in love with Lord Alfred Douglas in 1891, and in 1895 he brought an unsuccessful libel action against Douglas’ father. Wilde lost the case and was sentenced to two years imprisonment for acts of ‘gross indecency’. This experience made him write The Ballad of Reading Gaol. When he was released from prison in 1897 he lived in exile by his own choice. He died in Paris in 1900.
Sexuality
Said is that Oscar was very much aware of his homo or bisexuality, and that he had different affaires with men. He called himself Socratic, as he had some sexual contact with his students also, and defended himself by saying that Socrates, Plato and Michelangelo had had those same relationships.
His sexuality is very much present in this novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as the affection of Basil for Dorian is, as he self calls is ‘idolization’ more than a normal kindness for a friend. When Dorian enters a room there are many man who dare not to talk to him, which suggest some sinful encounters.
Themes and motives
Wilde’s witty and charming way of writing is of great importance for his works. His one-liners are used even today (There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about") and his plays are also still performed. He dealt with aesthetic philosophy and The Picture of Dorian Gray is entirely about that, in a way. In The Importance of being Earnest he shows the shallow and superficiality of the high society, a thing he does in more of his works. Some say you can see Wilde in his work, as an example the homoerotic aspects in Dorian Gray would suggest Wilde’s own sexuality.
The world of the reader
My brother studies literature in Leiden, and when we received the list with all the ‘classics’ we were aloud to read, I asked him what he could recommend me. Of course, Joyce was one of the names, but he enthusiastically suggested The Picture of Dorian Gray. I got curious and rented the book at the library, having absolutely no idea what the book was about. I had read the back, but had forgotten in. It took me some weeks before I got started, and it took me some days before I could read more of the book than several pages.
I did not understand these completely, felt it had something to do with the pre-face, but found them amusing and intriguing. I could laugh about what Lord Henry said about woman, and roll my eyes at Dorian’s vanity. At times I even thought of Basil as dull and boring, just as Lord Henry said, but realized in the end he was the sincere one, the honest one, while Lord Henry is shallow, vain and naïve, and Dorian rather troubled and losing himself. Funny, how he has seemed to lose himself when he first saw himself, in his picture. Just like Narcissus
REACTIES
:name
:name
:comment
1 seconde geleden