The Picture of Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray

LORD HENRY WOTTON

BASIL HALLWARD

SYBIL VANE

The sublime

“Pleasure is the only thing worth having a theory about,” he

answered in his slow melodious voice. “But I am afraid I cannot

claim my theory as my own. It belongs to Nature, not to me.

Pleasure is Nature’s test, her sign of approval. When we are

happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not

always happy." (Chapter 6, 92)

Emotional Intensity

"I loved you because you were marvellous, because you had genius and

intellect, because you realised the dreams of great poets and gave

shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all you! What a fool I have been! You are nothing to me now. I will

never see you again. I will never think of you. I will never mention

your name. " (Chapter 7, 102)

Confinement and Past

"He had not entered the place for more than four years—not, indeed, since he had used it first as a play-room when he was a child, and then as a study when he grew somewhat older. It was a large, well-proportioned room, which had been specially built by the last Lord Kelso for the use of the little grandson whom, for his strange likeness to his mother, and also for other reasons, he had always hated and desired to keep at a distance. It appeared to Dorian to have but little changed. There was the huge Italian cassone, with its fantastically painted panels and its tarnished gilt mouldings, in which he had so often hidden himself as a boy... How well he remembered it all! Every moment of his lonely childhood came back to him as he looked round. He recalled the stainless purity of his boyish life, and it seemed horrible to him that it was here the fatal portrait was to be hidden away. How little he had thought, in those dead days, of all that was in store for him!"( Chapter 10 , 141)

Women in Distress

"She rose from her knees and, with a piteous expression of pain in her face, came across the room to him. She put her hand upon his arm and looked into his eyes. He thrust her back. “Don’t touch me!” he cried" (chapter 7, 102)

The Hero and the Villain

"Lord Henry looked at him. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully

handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes,

his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one

trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all

youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself

unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped

him." (chapter 2, 23)

Opium dens

Degradation of his soul

“To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.” Yes, that was the secret. He had often tried it, and would try it again now. There were opium dens where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new. (p.212,chapter 16)

James & Sybil Vane

Totally motivated by love, jealousy, and revenge. He adores his sister, Sibyl, and swears to kill anyone that hurts her.

Her suicide is the great tragedy of the novel.

She's everything he sees in himself, only better, since her purity is totally unspoiled.

"I love Sibyl Vane. I want to place her on a pedestal of gold and to see the world worship the woman who is mine...Her trust makes me faithful, her belief makes me good. When I am with her, I regret all that you have taught me. I become different from what you have known me to be. I am changed, and the mere touch of Sibyl Vane's hand makes me forget you and all your wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories." (p.91, chapter 6)

The Yellow Book

Represents the "poisonous" influence Lord Henry has on Dorian; Henry gives the book to Dorian as a kind of experiment, and it works horrifyingly well.

"...And taking up the volume, flung himself into an arm-chair and began to turn over the leaves. After a few minutes he became absorbed. It was the strangest book that he had ever read. It seemed to him that in exquisite raiment, and to the delicate sound of flutes, the sins of the world were passing in dumb show before him. Things that he had dimly dreamed of were suddenly made real to him. Things of which he had never dreamed were gradually revealed" (p.145,chapter 10)

Themes

• Art as a Mirror
• The Art of Living (or Living through Art)
• Homosexuality
• The Duplicity of One's Public and Private Selves
• The Value of Beauty and Youth
• Influence and Corruption

"All art is at once surface and symbol.

Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors." (p.6, chapter 1)

Art as a Mirror

The Art of Living (or Living through Art)

"No artist has ethical sympathies." (p. 5,Preface)

"The artist is the creator of beautiful things.

To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim."(p.5, Preface)

"There is nothing that art cannot express..."(p.17,chapter 1)

Homosexuality

" Tell me more about Mr. Dorian Gray.

How often do you see him?”

“Every day. I couldn’t be happy if I didn’t see him every day. He is absolutely necessary to me.” (chapter1, page 16)

"...You know we poor artists have to show ourselves in society from time to time, just to remind the public that we are not savages.With an evening coat and a white tie, as you told me once, anybody, even a stock-broker, can gain a reputation for being civilised..."(p.12, chapter 1)

The Duplicity of One's Public and Private Selves

..."It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef. And, after all, it is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine, is irreproachable in his private life..."(p.163,chapter 11)

The Value of Beauty and Youth

"...His beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth but a

mockery. What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time

of shallow moods, and sickly thoughts. Why had he worn its

livery? Youth had spoiled him." (p.252,chapter 20)

"When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a

splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all

the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor

was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was

withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they

had examined the rings that they recognised who it was.(p.256,chapter 20)

Influence and Corruption

"Beneath its purple pall, the face painted on the canvas could grow

bestial, sodden, and unclean. What did it matter? No one could see it. He himself would not see it. Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul? He kept his youth—that was enough."(p.142,chapter 10)

"I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world." (p.16,chapter 1)

“There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All

influence is immoral—immoral from the scientific point of view.”

“Why?” “Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. (p.24, chapter 2)

Homoerotic Male Relationships

Color white

Queen Victoria (1837-1901)

• An age of transition
• Thanks to industry and trade England became the wealthiest nation
• "The Grand-mother of Europe"
• "The sun never sets on England"

The Industrial Revolution

Factories were founded and mass production became important and profitable

"In about seven or eight minutes he reached a small shabby house that was wedged in between two gaunt factories."(p.214,chapter 16)

Railways, canals and steamships provided Britain with the transportation between Britain and its colonies

“You pain me, my son. I trust you will return from Australia in a position of affluence. I believe there is no society of any kind in the Colonies—nothing that I would call society—so when you have made your fortune, you must come back and assert yourself in London.”(p.81, chapter 5)

Child Labour in the Industrial Revolution

• Most of poor children worked in factories
• They were dirty
• Many children started work before the age of 7

Role of Women

The Victorian era identified four classes as a part and parcel of their social structure; the Nobility and Gentry, Middle Class, Upper Working Class and Lower Working Class. People in the respective categories were expected to remain within their class and any slight change from one class to another was considered to be a serious offense.

“Not at all,” answered Lord Henry, “not at all, my dear Basil.

You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of

marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary

for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never

knows what I am doing. When we meet—we do meet occasionally,

when we dine out together, or go down to the Duke’s—we tell each

other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces. My wife

is very good at it—much better, in fact, than I am. She never gets

confused over her dates, and I always do. But when she does find

me out, she makes no row at all. I sometimes wish she would; but

she merely laughs at me.”(p.10/11, chapter 1)

Role of Victorian women of the higher class

Women who belonged to the nobility class lived and enjoyed a life of luxuries. These women spent most of their time attending tea parties and balls and the remaining time they would spend in knitting and horseback riding. Women had several attendants to look after them.

They were expected to be highly educated. Their main job was to effectively instruct the servants on what is to be done and to groom younger girls of the same class (nobility) to become women.

"A week later Dorian Gray was sitting in the conservatory at Selby Royal, talking to the pretty Duchess of Monmouth, who with her husband, a jaded-looking man of sixty, was amongst his guests. It was tea-time, and the mellow light of the huge, lace-covered lamp that stood on the table lit up the delicate china and hammered silver of the service at which the duchess was presiding...Three young men in elaborate smoking-suits were handing tea-cakes to some of the women. The house-party consisted of twelve people, and there were more expected to arrive on the next day."(p.222,chapter 17)

Middle-class Victorian women’s role

These people were not as rich as the nobles though many of the people of this class tried mingling with the noble class people. The women belonging to this class were expected to take education, help in the family business and try to get married into the nobility. At the close of the Victorian era, few women of this class were self-employed by being a nurse, writer etc.

Lower class woman’s role in Victorian times

Ultimately, came the lower class women who came from extreme poverty and took up menial jobs like that of prostitution, laborers, or any activity which involves physical exertion. These women mostly remained single all their lives as they were more in number as compared to their male counterparts.

Religion

• Victorian England was a deeply religious country
• A great number of people were habitual church-goers, at least once, every Sunday .
• The Bible and religious stories were frequently and widely read by people of every class
• Towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign, the faith of the English people began to slacken

"She was a curious woman, whose dresses always looked as if they had been designed in a rage and put on in a tempest. She was usually in love with somebody, and, as her passion was never returned, she had kept all her illusions. She tried to look picturesque, but only succeeded in being untidy. Her name was Victoria, and she had a perfect

mania for going to church" (p.56, chapter 4)