The Picture of Dorian Gray

As much as I venerate Oscar Wilde, I hadn't read his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which, even if people haven't read it, know the plot--a man doesn't age, while his portrait does. Wilde had perhaps written the first episode of the Twilight Zone.

First written for an American magazine in 1890, it was not well-received in Britain. One critic noted that was fit only for "outlawed noblemen and perverted telegraph boys." Another asked, "Why go grubbing in muck-heaps?" In his civil suit against the Marquess of Queensbury, who had accused him of being a sodomite, the book was used against him. He lost the case, ended up going to jail, and died at 46.

Aside from its ironic horror plot, The Picture of Dorian Gray is noted for its tie-in with Wilde's belief in aestheticism. Basil Hallward, a painter, worships the beauty of another young man, Dorian Gray. That this may be thinly veiled homoerotic love is not a big leap to make (Wilde edited out much of the homosexual content). Hallward paints his portrait, his finest yet, and Gray takes it home with him. He muses that it would be nice if the painting would age instead of him: "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June...If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

A third character, Sir Henry Wotton, is Wilde's stand-in (Wilde said that all three main characters were based on himself, but Wotton was as others see him). Wotton advocates a hedonistic lifestyle, and his full of epigrams. Here are but just a few:

"Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing."

"Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious; both are disappointed."

"No woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals."

"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating--people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."

"When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs."

And, perhaps most importantly, Wotton says, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it," for Wotton believes in the worship of youth and beauty. "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...A new Hedonism--that is what our century wants. You [Gray] might be its visible symbol."

Gray falls in love with an actress, Sybil Vane, in a second-rate Shakespearean theater. He loves her because of her beauty and because of her acting ability.Without even knowing his name she accepts his proposal of marriage. But when Wotton and Hallward come to see her perform she is wooden. She tells Gray that because she is in love with him she has no need to have talent. He is enraged, and breaks off the engagement. A day later he regrets this and will take her back, but it is loo late, she has killed herself. The next time he looks at the portrait there is a bit of cruelty in the mouth and the hands have blood on them.

Time goes by and Gray lives a life of debauchery. He is inspired by a French book that Wotton gives him. An entire chapter, with allusions to Romans like Tiberius and Caligula, give us an inkling that Gray is living a life of complete decadence. His portrait becomes more and more ugly and twisted. Hallward wants to see it, and Gray finally lets him, telling the painter that he is looking at his soul.

From there Gray commits murder, and must dodge the efforts of Sybil's brother in exacting revenge. (He first meets him in an opium den that is a masterly wrought depiction of desperation). He finally endeavors to destroy the painting, thinking that will end his troubles, but of course, it does not.

Wilde added a preface a few years after publication in an attempt to defend himself. It has his philosophy of art: "The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim." He also says, quite rightly, "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written, that is all." The preface ends, as if with a shrug, "All art is quite useless."