The Picture of Dorian Gray has three characters. In the novel, Wilde presents us with three personalities, all of whom bare some resemblance with him. They are Lord Wotton, Dorian and Basil. The making of Dorian Gray’s character was aimed at examining the interaction of aesthetics and ethics. Dorian, an incredibly handsome young man, is so taken with his looks and youth that he wishes that a portrait of him should age in his stead while he loses no aesthetic value. Dorian eventually becomes a thoroughgoing hedonist whose only goal in life is the achievement of sensual pleasure.
Wilde uses the character of Dorian as a symbol of his ideas regarding the interaction of art and ethics. Gray’s physical aesthetic qualities, while so close to the ideal as to be considered sublime, nonetheless have no relationship at all with the decadent individual underneath. Art, just like Dorian, has the capacity of being appreciated while absolutely no attention is paid to morals.
In its preface, the attitudes inherent in the novel are to be found. In it, assertions are made as to the inability of moral judgments to be made on works of literature. Works of art, of which literature is part, are inherently beautiful. Literary criticism can, therefore, only be made based on the aesthetic value of the work in question. This is because works of literature are mirror images of society. As such, they are vulnerable to the corrupting nature of society. It, therefore, should never be a writer’s task to prove an ethical point; and for a critic to find ugliness in a work of literature would be to miss the point completely.
Oscar Wilde, who was an Irish poet and writer, lived between 1854 and 1900. He was one of the most popular playwrights in London after writing several works. His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is his most famous work of art, which he is remembered for even today, but many critics argue that he wrote the novel from a psychoanalytic point of view (Gomel 75). According to some critics, literature should boost morality within society and not immorality.
This novel, according to them, did not hold on to the values of society (Kennedy and Gioia 98). His intellectualism can be directly associated with his parents who had achieved much of it by the time he was born. Due to the influence he had from his intellectual parents, he was able to follow suit, making him an excellent student, especially during his time in the university, where he used to read widely.
His interests were based on aesthetic theme and, after his university education, he moved to London to further his career on the same subject (Gray 13; Riquelme 87). Due to his love of beauty, he published several poems, dialogues and essays that bring out his interests in beauty. His most famous work, a novel titled The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in 1890, and it expresses his interests more precisely since he is able to combine the beauty he likes with wider social themes.
Apart from this novel, he wrote several others, including Salome and the Importance of being Earnet, which was also a masterpiece, among others. He was imprisoned for two years when he assaulted a man, making him a homosexual. Nevertheless, in prison, he did not stop being a writer. He wrote one book while in jail and when he was out, he left for Paris, where he died at the age of forty-six (McKenna 29; Wilde 14).
Some critics have argued that Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray from a psychoanalytic viewpoint, defining his life, rather than how he would have loved his life to be during his existence on the earth. This paper analyzes this claim and shows whether there was some secret connection between Wilde and his characters.
Biography about Oscar Wilde
As an introduction to a later version of the novel, Wilde wrote a quote that can be translated to mean that he believed that the character, Basil Hallward, is what he thought he was. According to him, the world thinks he is Lord Henry, yet another character in the novel, while Gray is the character that carries the title of the novel, is what Wilde would like to be in other times. From this quote, several critics have argued in and out of favor with Wilde. Some critics have, however, tried to show Wilde’s connection with all these characters.
As the novel begins, we are introduced to Basil, who is an artist, and he is first meeting Gray, a very beautiful young man. The beauty of Dorian Gray triggers Basil’s artistic imagination and he decides to draw him. He completes the portrait of Dorian as he is, and he introduces Gray to Lord Henry, who is a friend of his that he thinks is not morally upright (Riquelme 27). He warns Henry against influencing Gray, but this does not work out as Henry does exactly what he does the contrary.
Lord Henry affirms his desire to have Gray’s portrait, but Basil gives it to Gray, who curses it, believing that over time, it was going to remind him of his lost beauty. He was, however, granted his wish that the portrait will age, instead of him and when he does anything wrong, it would affect the portrait and not him. Gray becomes a follower of Henry, who is clearly misleading him and the morally upright Gray changes to an immoral person, who is no longer feeling guilty about the situation.
During this time, he falls in love with a beautiful actress that has never fallen in love with anybody else, but her acting. The actress feels so good to have fallen in love with the charming man and she decides to quit acting to concentrate more on the new relationship. Gray breaks her heart by saying that her only attraction was in the theater, but out of it, he cannot look at her twice. As a result of this, the actress commits suicide and her brother swears to revenge (Joseph 8).
Gray goes home after the heartbreak and discovers that the portrait had changed, and it was no longer beautiful. He decides to go back and apologize, but it is too late. He hides the portrait in a place that nobody else will see it, and notice the changes and continue with his immoral life. Later, he kills several people.
When he cannot hold onto this life anymore, he kills Basil and stabs the portrait. He dies on behalf of the portrait. The portrait becomes young and beautiful again, and when people come into the room, they found Dorian Gray’s body hoary and stabbed.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The question that most critics would ask when analyzing the characters of this novel would be to determine whether they are used symbolically to represent Wilde and his life or to represent some other aspects in the real world. When critically analyzing Gray, the central character of the novel that is charming and morally upright, one cannot stop admiring him. However, this changes as the plot progresses, making the young man ugly from inside due to the influence by Henry and, to some extent, by Basil.
As the novel progresses, he does not change physically, but also in his worldview, whereby he no longer believes that sin can be seen on one’s face. After his wish is granted, he is able to do what he has always wished. Nonetheless, the feeling does not persist for long. Readers can see him trying to change his life after he discovers that this life cannot go on like this in the long-term. He resolves that the only way to cleanse himself is by destroying the portrait, and this marks the end of his life.
Some critics argue that all these have a direct connection with Wilde in one way or another. From the quote discussed above, Wilde says that Gray is the person that he would wish to be in another life. In real life, Wilde is a homosexual. He is even convicted of the act. He lives a life in which he cannot not reveal his true feelings to society because cultural values do not allow among people.
Just like Gray, he hides his actions in the portrait. Wilde has to hide his real feelings to escape criticism from other members of society. Wilde marries at an advanced age, showing that he cannot hide his true self. He wishes he could engage in homosexual acts without hiding from people (Gray76).
Connection between Oscar Wilde and Gray
From the novel, Gray gets the portrait that would suffer on his behalf. He goes full blast to what he had wished, which are Wilde’s wishes to be like Gray in another life. This means that he would like to live without people seeing the differences in his life, just like how Gray lives in the novel.
From the story, Gray has some given some hints regarding homosexuality, which are illustrated due to the fact that he could get any woman he wanted to make him look for more immoral, but attain pleasure, which might have been homosexuality (Joseph12). His homosexuality is not directly portrayed in the book, but Wilde hints at it severally, such as when Basil comes to ask Gray about the rumors he is hearing about Gray and Gray’s fatal relationship with young men.
From this discussion, it is clear that Wilde’s declaration of wanting to be Gray in the next life was in line with his homosexuality behavior, which he could not openly practice. Apart from Gray, the other principal characters in the novel have a connection with Wilde, though not a direct one. Wilde declares that Basil is him in a real life as an artist. This might be true as we see Basil obsessed with beauty, just like Wilde. Homosexuality is also debatable in the connection between the two persons.
Basil admires Gray so much that he cannot believe anything negative about him. The admiration, to some extent, shows some signs of homosexuality, associating the piece of information with the author. Wilde is Lord Henry in real life, which is according to his quote. Henry seduces a young man, Gray, and this is what Wilde is convicted of in court.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Wilde uses literature the way it should be used, i.e., to reflect happenings society and most importantly to express his feelings. His creation of Gray as a character in his book can be seen as his fantasy since he declares this in his quote of his wish.
Works Cited
Gomel, Elana. “Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the (Un) Death of the Author.” Narrative 12.1 (2003): 74-92. Print.
Joseph, Paul. Oscar Wilde and his characters (The Picture of Dorain Gray). 2013. Web.
Kennedy, Joseph., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Sage, Hoboken, NJ: (2007). Print.
McKenna, Neil. The secret life of Oscar Wilde. London, United Kingdom: Basic Books, 2006. Print.
Riquelme, Paul. “Oscar Wilde’s Aesthetic Gothic: Walter Pater, Dark Enlightenment, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies 46.3 (2000): 609-631. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. Three Tials: Oscar Wilde Goes to Court 1985. 2013. Web.
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray shows the ruinous journey of a young man, who, grappling with the ideals of aestheticism, takes on a fatal role. The main hero is described as handsome and naïve, at least until he falls under a malign sphere of influence, which absolves him of his wrongdoings. The author makes the “confrontations between art and artist; reality and art; and spectator and art” most important throughout the novel (Scheible 132). A notable cornerstone is individuality (mostly offered through art), which, when sacrificed brings about the ruin of those, unable to protect their integrity.
Wilde’s work made such themes of aestheticism most important, shifting away from the Victorian ideal of art as a medium for morality. His novel, still, while pursuing this ideal, portrays an almost Victorian cautionary tale that punishes those that do evil, in the end. One cannot remove the ideals of aestheticism from the subject they occupy, just as the link between portrait and main character shows when the destruction of one leads to the death of the other (Eastham 32). However, according to Wilde’s epigrams to the novel, defending it from claims that painted it as immoral, state that it is art, and hence has no purpose but to be art.
The development of the story throughout the novel shows the seeming impossibility of this project, which tries to free itself from Victorian constraints, but entangles itself in the author’s philosophy. The story, as a monument to aestheticism, however, is supportive of the idea of individuality and shows not the Victorian disciplining of evil, but the aesthetic punishment of likelihood (Livesey 267). Society does not punish Dorian Gray for his evildoing, but his lack of restraint punishes him for blindly following the ideas of Lord Henry.
Lord Henry: Friend or Foe?
The character of Lord Henry Wotton raises many questions about his motives in the story, as while he is an advocate for hedonism, he is comparatively more of a theorist than a practitioner. Nonetheless, he acts as a catalyst for the plot, as he is the person who first talks to Gray about the nature of man, starting the thought process of questioning the essence of humanity (Wilde ch. 2). Preying on the protagonist’s vanity, he instills in him the idea of youthfulness at the very beginning of the book. Likewise, towards the middle of the storyline, he is the one to bestow a book upon Gray that solidifies his downfall, fully introducing him to a new, hedonistic world (Wilde ch. 10). Even stating in chapter 19 that murder is to the lower classes, as art is to the higher, he supports Gray through each moral blunder, steering him towards feeling forgiven each time.
The ideas of hedonism corrupt Gray, who, unwilling to resist this influence, even sees in the death of his fiancée no tragedy but an artistically worthwhile turn of events (Wilde ch. 8). Lord Henry himself, at their very first introduction in chapter 2, articulates the idea that “all influence is immoral,” effectively condemning himself (Wilde ch. 2). It is because of him, writes Harrison, “Gray no longer interprets acts as good or evil, but as pleasurable or boring” (11). The influence of Lord Henry is what leads Dorian Gray to his downfall, so Lord Henry, as the catalyst for this must be an enemy to Gray. It is crucial, to discern the role of Lord Henry, to keep in mind the ideals supported by the author, not by Lord Henry himself. Hence, it is feasible that Gray is his own foe, as he cannot resist the power that leads him to his death, and Lord Henry is merely an amused bystander.
Works Cited
Eastham, Andrew. “Characterless Aesthetics: Pater, Wilde, and the End of Hegelian Hellenism.” Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, vol. 23, 2014, pp. 19-36, Web.
Harrison, Colleen Cooper. “Aestheticism in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The Victorian, vol. 4, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-13, Web.
Livesey, Ruth. “Aestheticism.” Oscar Wilde in Context, edited by Kerry Powell and Peter Raby, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp.261-269.