THE
OSCAR WILDE
PICTUR
E OF
DORIAN
GRAY
“When Dorian Gray was first published in
Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine as a short
story, Victorian readers were shocked by the
morals of its title character and the story’s
scandalous homoerotic subtext. When the
story was published as a novel, Wilde added,
along with another six chapters, an equally
shocking preface that announced art had no
moral responsibility. Art, he argued, should
strive only to be a beautiful art object
entirely separate from its creator” (Muldoon
vii)
Is it really an immoral
book?
“it is almost impossible not to see a moral in
Dorian Gray. Dorian, who lived life as though it
were a work of art unconnected to the question of
ethics, dies by his own hand. Basil, who puts too
much of himself into his art, is murdered. People
cannot exist separately from morality, as works of
art can. Wilde himself admitted that his novel
contained a moral, calling it the novel’s ‘only
flaw’” (Muldoon vii-viii).
THE LIFE OF OSCAR WILDE
He was born in Dublin in1854.
His father was an eye and ear doctor, William
Wilde.
His mother was an Irish nationalist and a writer.
He was a very successful student. He earned
scholarships and took high honors at both Trinity
College and Oxford.
In Oxford, “he met his teacher and mentor,
Walter Pater, and became an enthusiastic
follower of the Aesthetic Movement, which Pater
championed” (Muldoon viii)
THE LIFE OF
OSCAR WILDE
“After graduating
from Oxford in 1878,
Wilde moved to
London. He quickly
gained notoriety for
his sharp wit and
flamboyant style of
dress –he was
especially famous for
wearing a dyed-green
carnation in his lapel”
(Muldoon ix)
THE LIFE OF OSCAR WILDE
Wilde married Costance Lloyd in 1884. They
had two sons.
Wilde had been married only two years when he
met Robert Ross, who claimed to have initiated
him into homosexuality.
In 1891, the thirty-seven-year-old Wilde was
captivated by the handsome, spoiled twenty-year-
old playboy Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas and
began the major affair of his life.
Wilde’s relationship with Douglas infuriated
Bosie’s father, the Marquess of Queensberry. He
instituted proceedings against Wilde for
homosexuality. (Muldoon ix)
THE LIFE OF OSCAR WILDE
“Wilde stood two trials. The first ended without a
verdict. At the end of the second trial he was
convicted and sentenced to two yeas in prison.
Because Queensberry forced him into
bankruptcy, all his possessions were auctioned”
“Though he was allowed only one sheet of paper
at a time while in prison, Wilde managed to
compose De Profundis, a chronicle of Wilde’s
spiritual quest.”
“During Wilde’s years in prison, his mother died
and Constance moved abroad and took the name
Holland for herself and their sons. After her
death in 1898, Wilde was denied access to his
sons” (Muldoon x)
THE LIFE OF
OSCAR WILDE
Wilde moved to Paris
and took the name
Sebastian Melmoth.
“He dies in a hotel
room, either of
syphilis or
complications from an
ear surgery, in Paris,
on November 30,1900”
(Muldoon xi)
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
“So much change occurred during the
The Victorian Era tumultuous Victorian era that the
“Victorianism” is early, middle, and late Victorian
periods each has its own particular
synonymous in many characteristics. Wilde’s life and work
people’s minds with belong to the late Victorian era, a
the elaborate, period marked by both genteel country
oppressive moral house parties and growing political
unrest. The complicated tangle of
codes instituted political matters known as the “Irish
under the genteel Question” were particularly urgent”
queen. Piety and “In the face of such complex and
family were exalted. difficult questions, a number of writers,
Sex, and anything including Wilde’s teacher and friend,
Walter Pater, felt little could be
that brought sex to accomplished in the way of resolution.
mind, was strictly Instead, they turned to the idea that
taboo, and gender people should seek out and enjoy each
roles were equally fleeting moment of beauty the world
offered. (Muldoon xi)
strictly enforced”
(Muldoon xi)
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
Aestheticism
“In his Studies in the History of the Renaissance,
Walter Pater called for his readers to fan the “hard,
gem-like flame” of self-fulfillment through a devotion
to their senses. As Dorian Gray’s Lord Henry puts it,
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as
nothing can cure the senses but the soul” This was a
radical idea in a culture devoted to suppressing
sensuality.”
“Aestheticists pushed harder against the Victorian
tide by arguing that art’s role was not to be moral or
useful, or to teach “lessons,” but to make art an object
of beauty that transcend humans and human
questions”
They also believed that life should strive to emulate
art and become as beautiful as possible and that, as
Wilde puts it in Dorian Gray, “the search for beauty is
the real secret of life” (Muldoon xii)
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY
CONTEXT
Decadence
“Aestheticism is sometimes thought of the English
branch of the French decadence movement. One of
the main tenets of French decadence was “art for art’s
sake,” the idea that art did not need to have a purpose
or moral. In fact, the decadents embraced the
gruesome, immoral, and perverse aspects of life and
championed them in art. The father of the decadence
movement was Charles Baudelaire, whose 1857
collection of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of
Evil), was so scandalous that Baudelaire, his
publisher, and even his printer were founded guilty of
blasphemy and obscenity” (Muldoon xii)
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY
CONTEXT
The Yellow Book
Joris Karl Huysmans was another key figure in
the decadence movement.
“His 1884 novel, A Rebours (Against the Grain),
referred to as “the little yellow book,” was treated
almost as a textbook for decadence.
Wilde was profoundly influenced by A Rebours
and refers to the yellow book in Dorian Gray.
Other poets associated with the decadence
movement include Arthur Rimbaud, Paul
Verlaine and Stephane Mallarme.” (Muldoon xii)
THE YELLOW BOOK
The protagonist of the novel A Rebours is the last
member of a noble family. Because of his past
decadent life in Paris, he stays away from human
society and retreats to a house in the countryside.
He decides to spend the rest of his life in
aesthetic contemplation. He fills the house with
art objects. He tries to invent perfumes, etc.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DECADENT
LITERATURE
Narcisstic egotism
Provocative scorn for moral and social conventions
Preference for the artificial as opposed to natural
Pleasure-seeking
Experience for the sake of experience
An atmosphere of decay
The death-wish
A retreat from everyday present into the luxurious
artificial paradise of distant times and exotic places
(from the book Oscar Wilde: The Works of a Conformist
Rebel)
THEMES AND SYMBOLS
THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTY AND BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS
The characters in DG are all driven by their devotion to beauty, a devotion
that often passes into obsession and a disregard for truth and
consequences.
Lord Henry, whose praise first flatters Dorian, later will not believe
anything bad about Dorian because he still keeps his beauty.
Basil’s passionate devotion to Dorian’s beauty produces the supernatural
portrait that later becomes so monstrous.
Dorian’s youthful beauty is sometimes referred to as though it were one
more object to possess, like a beautiful painting, a jewel, or a flower. It is
Dorian’s intense desire to hold on to his prized beauty and prompts his
fateful wish.
THEMES AND SYMBOLS
CLASSICAL BEAUTY AND HOMOSEXUALITY
There are numerous references in Dorian Gray to classical figures known
for their beauty and implicitly or explicitly tied to homosexuality: in
particular, Adonis, Narcissus, and Antinous. All three of these figures
are icons of young male beauty.
The first two are figures from mythology. Adonis was a young man
that the goddess of love herself fell in love with him, but he rejected her
advances and was gored to death a male boar. Narcissus was a
stunningly beautiful young man who cruelly rejected the female nymph
who loved him and fell in love with his own image instead. He sat staring
at his own beautiful reflection in a pool of water until he starved to death.
Antinous was a figure from ancient history. He was a beautiful
young man deeply loved by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. After he
drowned under mysterious circumstances in AD 130, Hadrian raised a
city dedicated to him on the ruins near the river where he drowned and
ordered sculptures of his image to be placed throughout the empire.
THEMES AND SYMBOLS
DOUBLING
Dorian is a man split in two: himself and his
portrait, each a reflection of the other. The
portrait has become his “other self,” so separate
that Dorian comes to hate the portrait.
Basil Hallward experiences a kind of doubling
with the portrait, too. He puts too much of
himself on the portrait.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kohl, Norbert. Oscar Wilde: The Works of a
Conformist Rebel. Cambridge UP. 1989.
Muldoon, Moira. “Introduction.” in The Picture of
Dorian Gray and Other Writings by Oscar
Wilde. Pocket Books: New York, 2005.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray . Oxford
University Press: New York, 2006.
The pictures in the presentation were taken from
the following websites:
https://thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/famou
s-wardrobes-then-and-now/oscar-wilde-of-dress-
shirts-and-dentures-3541
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb_of_Oscar
_Wilde,_P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_cemetery,_Paris,_
France.jpg
