The Picture of Dorian Gray
The book titled The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) is the only novel published by author Oscar Wilde. The first edition published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine had negative reception because it was criticized as scandalous and immoral. This forced Wilde to revise the novel in 1981, where he added a preface and additional six new chapters. In this revised edition, Wilde makes clear his philosophy of art called aestheticism. According to aestheticism, art is believed to have a natural value that makes it beautiful and to have worth. Going by this belief, therefore, art does not have to serve any other purpose, whether moral or political (Wilde 15).
At the time of his writing of the book, Victorian saw art as a tool to be used for moral enlightenment and social education. This was popularly known as bourgeois morality. The popular belief in Victorian England was therefore that art was a function of morality as well as a means of enforcing morality upon society. As a major supporter of the idea of aestheticism, the author through this controversial book aimed to free art from such responsibility.
The good character in the story called Dorian Gray – who is a young man blessed with great looks, is the subject in a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Dorian becomes a symbol with different meaning to different people. For the painter, Dorian’s beauty represents a new form of his art (Wilde 31). He considers Dorian an object representing ‘a dream of form in days of thought.’ Dorian’s great looks are so powerful that they become the example of enlightenment as it relates to art.
For Lord Henry Wotton, a friend to Basil the painter, Dorian becomes the representation of ‘New Hedonism.’ This is a school of thought that believes pleasure to be the only natural good in life. This is evident from Lord Henry’s suggestion that the only things in life worth pursuing are beauty together with fulfillment of the senses (Wilde 42). In their discussion, Basil and Lord Henry discuss the perfection of Dorian – they see him as completely good and totally innocent, in addition to being the most beautiful man to ever walk the face of earth. However, Dorian’s previous innocent view of the world changes greatly after meeting Lord Henry. Dorian the handsome and innocent now begins to view the world from the point of view of Lord Henry – as a journey of pleasures in which concerns over good and evil have no place. This makes Dorian to grow more and more distant from his former best friend Basil by developing his own interests, including starting to lead a wicked life same as that of his mentor Lord Henry (Wilde 94).
Dorian is aware that his beauty would fade with time as he grows old, and makes a wish to the gods. He asks that he be spared from getting old and instead that should happen to his painting by Basil. Dorian is granted his wish by the gods where his picture turns into a responsive being that shows the inward decay of Dorian’s soul (Wilde 105). Surprisingly, the beautiful image slowly changes to reveal new scars as well as physical flaws in response to every evil action by Dorian. As the years go by, the subject of the painting becomes more and uglier while Dorian himself remains unnaturally young and beautiful.
The spreading rumuors about the many lives that Dorian has ruined greatly destroys his reputation with time. He selfishly tries to do good so that the painting would become as beautiful as before. To his disappointment, the portrait only grows uglier and this makes him to decide to destroy it by slicing it with a knife that he had earlier used to kill Basil. Servants in the house hear a very loud crash accompanied with a terrible cry from their master’s room upstairs. When they rush to go check out they are horrified to find the portrait hanging on the wall as beautiful as ever while a mysterious, very ugly dead man lying on the floor with a knife stubbed in his chest (Wilde 234). Their close examination of the rings on the hand of the dead man reveals to them that it is their master Dorian Gray.
In the course of the story in the book, Dorian acts in wicked ways that makes the reader to badly desire for justice and redemption. In fact at the end of the story, the author strongly suggests the need for both punishment and justice by showing death as the appropriate wages of sin. In general, therefore, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an interesting novel written beautifully following a simple plot. It is indeed a very thoughtful and enjoyable cautionary story that encourages us not to attach so much purpose to art besides warning us about the aesthetic harms that our society can possess.
The book brings out a bitter truth about society – great regard for the beauty on the outside as opposed to the goodness of a person on the inside. Being handsome is therefore considered more important than having a good heart. As Dorian drops his morals to adopt a wicked character, society does not take action against him because of the “innocence” and “purity of his face.” This proves that there is indeed little distinction between appearance and ethics, as suggested by Domian’s notes from Lady Narborough: “you are mad to be good- you look so good.” The tolerance of Damian’s immorality and wickedness over a period of two decades due to his beauty makes him to continue enjoying the pleasures of the London social scene.
The author creativity expresses the negative side of sacrificing one’s self to another thing or person. Wilde shows how Basil’s infatuation with the beauty of Dorian finally ends up in his death when Dorian stubs him. Also, Darian’s loyalty to hedonism introduced to him by Lord Henry and the yellow book contributes his own downfall in the end. The takeaway lesson of all these is that the sacrifice of one’s self, be it to a work of art or another person, often leads to one’s own destruction.
Oscar Wilde does a great job in making the reader appreciate beauty and art. Throughout the novel, beauty is the main theme. It is presented as a most effective way to refresh the exhausted senses, as is the case of Lord Henry when he first places eyes on the painting by Basil. In addition, art and beauty serve as a way of break away from the evils of the world. This is well demonstrated by Dorian who manages to distance himself from the awfulness of his evil actions by devoting himself to studying beautiful things such as music, rare tapestries, and jewels. This is a society that highly regards youthfulness and beauty. The author achieve to produce a wonderful narration using a deliberate slow pace, great knowledge of such art elements as textures, hues, tastes, and hues that open up beautifully before the eyes of the reader. The author has a unique style that manages to humanize even the very stationary beauty. As the end of the novel tends to suggest, the returning of the portrait to its previous beautiful form means that the price that an individual has to pay for both beauty and youth is very high.
However, the novel somewhat fails worshippers of beauty in the end. This is because for the such a novel focusing on beauty in every sense, there is no justifying of why the wicked Lord Henry is spared considering that he does not respect beauty as much as he recognizes its power and accords it the respect it fits.
Furthermore, it must be admitted that The Picture of Dorian Gray book raises a number of unanswered questions to the reader. For example, how would a life of unrestrained hedonism look like and what would it do the soul? What happens to a person who fights to fulfill his or her every desire or passion? How does sin affect a human physically? Do people age because they sin? Also, does Dorian’s stabbing of his own picture make his soul to become pure once more given that his dead body carries his sins and age, or it about breaking of his curse? Overall, however, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a good read on symbolism art that leaves a reader with much to reflect about life.
Reference:
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. London: Bibliolis Books, 2010. Print.
