The Picture of Dorian Gray
PLOT
Set in London at the end of the nineteenth century. The mai character is the young Dorian Gray
CHARACTERS
Dorian Gray: the ideal of youth, beauty and innocence (Gray suggests he is morally neither black nor white); he leads a life of pleasure but his vanity and selfishness ruin him
THEMES
Aestheticism values: importance of beauty and appearance in life.
STYLE
Unobtrusive third person narrator
Basil Hallward, a painter, decides to paint Dorian' portrait because his beauty fascinates him
Influenced by the brilliant but corrupted Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian throws himself into a life of pleasure
Dorian's desire for eternal youth is satisfied when he maintains his youth while the picture shows the signs of age and vice. When Basil sees the corrupted image of his portrait, Dorian kills him.
Wanting to free himself of the portrait, Dorian stabs it. In doing so he kills himself, the picture returns to its purity, while Dorian’s face becomes wrinkled and loathsome.
Faustian pact: the portrait keeps Dorian's youth and beauty
the corrupted picture represents Dorian's double and the immorality of society
Dorian’s pure appearance stands for bourgeois hypocrisy
Contrast between reality and appearance: the moral is that every excess brings its punishment
Language: brilliant paradoxes and witty dialogue
The characters reveal themselves trough what they say and what people say about them, like in drama
Lord Henry Wotton is an amoral aesthete. He believes youth is the most important value
Basil Hallward is an artist fascinated by Dorian's beauty and youth. He tries to guide Dorian towards good moral conduct