The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde
“Let us go and sit in the shade,” said Lord Henry. “Parker has brought out the drinks,
and if you stay any longer in this glare, you will be quite spoiled, and Basil will never paint
you again. You really must not allow yourself to become sunburnt. It would be
unbecoming.”
“What can it matter?” cried Dorian Gray, laughing, as he sat down on the seat at the
end of the garden.
“It should matter everything to you, Mr. Gray.”
“Why?”
“Because you have the most marvellous youth, and youth is the one thing worth
having.”
“I don’t feel that, Lord Henry.”
“No, you don’t feel it now. Some day, when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when
thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with its
hideous fires, you will feel it, you will feel it terribly. Now, wherever you go, you charm the
world. Will it always be so? . . . You have a wonderfully beautiful face, Mr. Gray. Don’t
frown. You have. And beauty is a form of genius— is higher, indeed, than genius, as it
needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or
the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It
has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it. You smile? Ah!
when you have lost it you won’t smile. . . . People say sometimes that beauty is only
superficial. That may be so, but at least it is not so superficial as thought is. To me, beauty
is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The
true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. . . . Yes, Mr. Gray, the gods have
been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few
years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will
go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or
have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make
more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful.
Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses. You will become
sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly.... Ah! realize your
youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious,
trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the
common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live
the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new
sensations. Be afraid of nothing. . . . A new Hedonism— that is what our century wants.
You might be its visible symbol. With your personality there is nothing you could not do.
The world belongs to you for a season. . . . The moment I met you I saw that you were quite
unconscious of what you really are, of what you really might be. There was so much in you
that charmed me that I felt I must tell you something about yourself. I thought how tragic it
would be if you were wasted. For there is such a little time that your youth will last—such a
little time. The common hill-flowers wither, but they blossom again. The laburnum will be
as yellow next June as it is now. In a month there will be purple stars on the clematis, and
year after year the green night of its leaves will hold its purple stars. But we never get back
our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our
senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of
which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage
to yield to. Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!”

Analysis

Dorian Gray is an extraordinarily handsome young man. Encouraged by his friend,

Lord Henry, he has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward . Dorian can se his own soul in
the painting and through it he realizes he can achieve eternal youth; while the painting ages,
he stays the same. Safe in the knowledge that he will always be young and handsome, he
leads a life of debauchery without any moral restraints for mapy years. The painting
continues to age and the represents the degradation of Dorian's soul/Dorian can no longer
stand the strain of his fake existence. He stabs the painting, which returns to its original
state, while he turns into an old man and dies.
Basil Hallward had been painting Dorian in the house while Lord Henry Wooton
looked on. Dorian needed a break so they moved out to the garden, where they are now
talking.
 First of allthe text represent fiction / Belles Lettres Style (emotive prose). Genre is a
novel. This is an excerpt from the novel. This work has the characteristics of psychological,
social, detective, love, fantastic philosophical (intellectual) novels. Literary direction - a
synthesis of romanticism, realism, impressionism, aesthetics
In my opinion, the theme of this novel is the celebration of youth. At least in this
passage, Lord Henry and Dorian Gray discuss the value of youth: «Youth! Youth! There is
absolutely nothing in the world but youth!”» Lord Harry points out that when you are
young, you have many advantages in this life. Youth is a period when you can afford
everything, so you need to appreciate it. The author emphasizes that youth should be rich.
When we are young we can do everything for fun. These words are spoken by Lord Henry.
This is the idea of hedonism.
This passage has the following problems:
 the problem of the relationship between Art and Morality, Pleasures and Morals,
Arts and Realities, the problem of Beauty, the problem of Art;
 the role of Beauty and Art in life;
 the assertion of beauty as the highest value, the meaning of human existence;
 good and evil.
It is worth noting that the text has autobiographical features. Oscar Wilde was a fan of
beauty. As you know, he dressed very stylishly and promoted beauty. In addition, in the era
when the novel was written, appearance was valued the most. A person was respected if he
had a beautiful appearance. In the age of aesthetics, spiritual values were not important.
This is what Lord Henry says.
This passage has a simple composition. There is no development event. The reader
watches the conversation of two characters. It should be noted that the images of Henry and
Dorian have a connotative load. Dorian Gray is a young man endowed with incredible
beauty. Influenced by the ideas of the new hedonism preached by Lord Henry, he devotes
his life to the thirst for pleasure and vice. This is a dual figure. It combines a subtle esthete
and even a romantic and a vicious, ruthless criminal and prostitute. These two opposite
sides of his character are in constant struggle with each other. This duality of the hero is
characteristic of many Gothic novels. Lord Henry is an aristocrat, a preacher of the ideas of
the new hedonism, the "Prince of Paradoxes". His paradoxical, contradictory thinking was
adopted by critics of all Victorian English society. He is a kind of Mephistopheles for
Dorian Gray.
In this passage of the text the present (Live the wonderful life that is in you) and the
future tense prevails (you will become sallow), it is described how youth and beauty will
change and how it is important to live in the moment.

Epithets:
Marvelous youth, wrinkled and ugly, beautiful face, true mystery, hideous fires - these
epithets make the novel more emphatic.
Oscar Wilde also uses connotative word unconscious. This word have some kind of
hypnotic effect on the reader.
Metaphors:
“Our limbs fail, our senses rot”, “passion branded your lips with its hideous fires”,
“The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish” - It is expressed the
emotional state.
“the gold of your days” - It describes the value of time, or rather the youth.
The metaphor of the writer is the core of the aesthetic component of the utterance; this
pictorial medium has a special role in the text, since it, fulfilling the function of decoration,
meets the principles of a whole trend in English literature - aestheticism. On top of the
metaphors and the diction , Wilde also chooses a rhythmic syntax in order to make the
passage more fascinating. O. Wilde’s has great ability of playing with words. It helps him
keep readers’ interest.
Antonyms:
“beautiful - wrinkled and ugly” - describes the opposition between beauty and old age.
“ give - take away” - describes how quickly the beauty and youth can disappear.
In this passage of the text there is a sufficient number of sentences with subjunctive
and conjunctive connection, which give the text emotionality and increased dynamics, serve
for a more detailed description, characteristics of events.