May 2020 Classic of the Month: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'
- Caroline Selby
- May 13, 2020
- 3 min read
How Oscar Wilde's tale of moral corruption will change your outlook on life.
The classic of the month for May 2020 is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. This is the only book I’ve read by Wilde so far, but I fell in love with this classic when I read it about a year and a half ago.
Meeting the impossibly handsome, wealthy, and cultured Dorian Gray for the first time, the artist Basil Hallward is struck with immediate inspiration. After painting Dorian as various heroes and figures from Greek mythology, Basil decides to paint Dorian in his true form.
Basil’s friend Lord Henry visits the painter in his studio to observe his painting. There, Lord Henry meets Dorian, who he proceeds to give a speech to about the transience of youth and beauty. Lord Henry’s comments disturb Dorian, making him worry that his beauty is fading day by day, and causing him to curse his portrait. Dorian wishes that he could remain youthful, while his painting ages instead.
Dorian, now obsessed with enjoying his youth and beauty for as long as it lasts, falls in love with the actress Sibyl Vane. Sibyl, completely in love with Dorian, quits acting, causing Dorian to end his engagement with her. After breaking Sibyl’s heart, Dorian notices a change in his portrait. His face now sneers in Basil’s work, frightening Dorian that his wish has come true.
Dorian makes plans to amend Sibyl’s broken heart, yet hears from Lord Henry the next day that she has killed herself. Lord Henry encourages Dorian to forget about the matter and move on with his life. Storing the changing portrait in the attic of his house so that no one but him can see the truth, Dorian begins to fall deeper and deeper into his new life rich with sin and corruption.
With his portrait experiencing all of the true consequences of his actions, Dorian does one sinful act after another and feels no remorse. Years and years pass with Dorian’s reputation slowly dismantling, yet no one truly questions Dorian because he remains beautiful and youthful on the exterior. Meanwhile, Basil’s painting becomes more and more hideous with each passing day.
Basil Hallward, paying Dorian a visit to confront him about the scandalous rumors he has heard, is shown his painting in its current form, decrepit and decaying. Appalled, Basil urges Dorian to ask for forgiveness for the multitude of his sins, and Dorian, believing it is too late, kills Basil.
Later, after seeing Sibyl’s brother James, Dorian finally feels guilt and fear. Dorian ultimately decides to confess to his crimes, yet looking at his portrait, he sees the hypocrisy in his supposed desire. Furious, Dorian grabs the knife he killed Basil with, attempting to destroy the painting.
In the most chilling ending scene imaginable, Dorian’s servants, after hearing a crash, enter the room to find the portrait as it originally was, picturing Dorian in all of his youthful beauty and glory. Looking to the floor, the servants see the face of a man they do not recognize, it is Dorian, hideously disfigured and old, with a knife in his heart.
Exploring themes of superficiality and moral corruption, Wilde tells a truly haunting tale. The Picture of Dorian Gray, however, is much more than a story of moral corruption. Wilde’s famous, and only, novel secured him a prominent place in the Aesthetic movement, arguing in favor of the motto “art for art’s sake.”
The Picture of Dorian Gray takes readers on a chilling journey, making them wonder, if they could see their souls in a painting, what would they see? In the words of Oscar Wilde, “Experience is merely the name men give to their mistakes.”
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