Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The picture of Dorian Grey - Coggle Diagram
The picture of Dorian Grey
About the book
The picture of Dorian Grey is a moral fantasy novel written by Irish novelist Oscar Wilde. First Published in 1890 on Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine .
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel written by Wilde. There are several versions of the novel : the original one( 1890 magazine edition) had important material deleted by the magazines editor before publication .The "uncensored" version of the story was first published in 2011 by Harvard University Press.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a story about a man whose beauty is unaffected by age or corruption, this is because he has exchanged his soul ( which is now placed on a portrait )at the expense of eternal youth .
Main Themes
-The Supremacy of Youth and Beauty
The Superficial Nature of Society
The Negative Consequences of Influence
About the author
Oscar Wilde. An irish poet and dramatist who was born in in dumblin ireland october 16 ,1856
Early days
Wilde was raised by his parents, his dad was a surgeon who had published a book on arecheology and his mom was a revolutionary poet that focused on myth and folklore.
Education
He attended various schools and universities such as Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Trinity College, Dublin, Magdalen College and ,Oxford
Carrer
He published a lot of very recgonize plays such as The Importance of Being Ernest (1895) and published his own own book of poems in 1881
Personal Life
He returned to Britain after staying in Ireland for some years and got married and had two kids
Controversies
Even though he was greatly respected he became a laughing stock because he was consider feminine ,and his poems were not appropriate for what society of that time consider masculine
His Arrest
In 1895 Oscar Wilde was arrested and imprisoned because he was a homosexual . It was discovered that he had sleept and had an affair with the Marques son.
For this he served two years in prison
After his arrest
he was released in 1897 and fled to paris, he lived the rest of his life in France and wrote a couple of plays before passing away in 1900
Public Response to the book
The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities and values of British audiences, as a consequence they belived that Oscar Wilde deserved prosecution for violating the laws regarding public morality.
Because of this Wilde began to aggressively defend his novel and art in correspondence with the British press
Inside the book
The Preface answers some of the criticism that might the novel had faced previously and justifies why The Picture of Dorian Gray is not an immoral tale.
In the preface Wilde states 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 point of view was considered revolutionary in Victorian England, where it was strictly believed that art was not only a function of morality but also a means of enforcing it.