NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY ODISHA, CUTTACK

A PROJECT WORK ON LAW AND LANGUAGE

TOPIC: BOOK REVIEW ON ‘THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY’

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

SUBMITTED BY:
Barsha (2021/BALLB/026)
B.A. L.L.B | Semester I
Batch 2021 – 2026
TITLE: The Picture of Dorian Gray

AUTHOR: Oscar Wilde

PUBLISHER: Fingerprint

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1890

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854 with an Anglo-Irish origin. He is infamous for his

biting wit, literary works and conviction for sodomy. He debuted writing after graduating

from Oxford and moving to London. He was successful in all forms of literary writings-

poems, plays, journals, essays and novels with theatre as main interest. “The Picture of

Dorian Gray” was his first and only novel which is a literary hit and Victorian society’s

scandal which was used against him in his trial. While roaming in Europe, he died of cerebral

meningitis in 1900 at an early age of 46.

The novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ revolves around Dorian Gray and his portrait. The

novel shows the transition of Dorian Gray from a simple and beautiful natured person to a

vile and monstrous being. Dorian, at the beginning of the story, was awakened to fleeting

nature of his beauty and youth exchanged his soul with the portrait to retain the same. Later,

the portrait, instead of Dorian, aged and carried embodiment of his sinful and amoral acts.

The 1890 publication, a shorter novella version, had approximately 500 words deleted

without Wilde’s knowledge. Wilde expanded the text in 1891 increasing the thirteen chapters

to twenty and tried to obscure the homoerotic theme and highlight the moral message. The

original script including the deleted words was published in 2011.

Wilde’s aesthetic views about art are incorporated in the novel. The novel is classic work of

Philosophical and Gothic fiction. The setting of the novel is London, England in 1890s. The

tones are Gothic, sardonic and comedic with use of past tense.
THEMES

Immense Effect of Beauty and Youth: Throughout the novel, beauty and youth reigns. It is

portrayed by Dorian trading his soul with his portrait to escape the ravages of time. “How sad

it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain young forever.

It will never be old than this particular day of June…. If it were only the other way! If it, were

I who was always young, and the picture that was to grow old!” (34, Wilde).

Dorian withdraws himself from the horrors of his actions and devotes to the study of various

things- jewels, rare tapestry. However, the portrait's return to its original form alludes to the

high cost of beauty and youth.

Superficiality: A society that values beauty above all is superficial. To Dorian, Henry, and

their noble company external beauty is more important. “Indeed, there are many, especially

among young men, who saw, or fancied that they saw, in Dorian the true realization of a type

they had dreamed in Eton and Oxford days…” (149, Wilde) Lady Narborough pointed out

"you were made to be good, you are beautiful".(206, Wilde)

Appearance vs Reality: At the beginning, appearance and reality of Dorian are in sync.

Dorian’s unchanging beauty reigns throughout but in reality, his portrait carrying his soul

deformed to be a monstrous unrecognizable creature. This can be seen in “His beauty had

been to him but a mask, his youth but a mockery”. (252, Wilde) Sybil staged to be characters

of plays which she was not in reality. Before meeting Dorian, she lived the lives great

heroines.

The Purpose of Art: When the novel was determined as immoral, Oscar Wilde included a

preface in the revised text the following year; which provided a useful explanation of his

philosophy of art. The Victorians saw art as a tool for social education and moral

enlightenment. The aestheticism movement, of which Wilde was a part, sought to liberate art
from this obligation. Art had no purpose other than being beautiful. “All art is quite useless”.

(6, Wilde)

Negative Impact of Influence: The painting and yellow book have a profound impact on

Dorian. His behaviour becomes immoral. Lord Henry mentions “something terribly

enthralling in the exercise of influence”. (45, Wilde) It is difficult not to be swayed by such

influence. We see that sacrificing one’s self to another person or art leads to one’s

destruction.

CHARACTERS

Dorian Gray: To his Basil, Henry and new friends, Dorian Gray represents the ideal of

youth, beauty, and innocence. He is a subject of awe to Basil & thus becomes immortalized

in Basil’s painting. Basil mentions, “He is all my art to me now”. (16, Wilde) His wish to stay

young forever and the portrait to age for him comes true and a horrible chain of events

commences. Influenced by lord Henry’s hedonism, he stakes his reputation for a life of

pleasure. Dorian tells Duchess, “I have searched for pleasure”. (226, Wilde). Ultimately, his

life is ruined and the portrait visually represented his soul’s degradation.

Lord Henry Wotton- Inhabitating the most fashionable circle, Lord Henry is cultured and an

intellect with paradoxical philosophies about art and life. He has a largely constant character

who does not change significantly throughout the narration. He has an immense influence on

young Dorian, to the extent that he starts mimicking Lord Henry. Dorian said “I always agree

with Harry, Duchess…. Harry is never wrong, Duchess”. (226, Wilde). Lord Henry’s

philosophy of living an extravagant artful life has a deep effect on Dorian.

Basil Hallward- The painter awed Dorian Gray’s beauty and innocence, perceives him as an

ideal which he aspires to achieve on canvas. “I determined to paint a wonderful portrait of

own time.” (133, Wilde) After a number of trial portrait of Dorian; one day he succeeds in

painting the likeness to Dorian. He is overwhelmed by his best work, yet afraid as he has

poured too much of himself into it. Afterwards, his artistry becomes average. He tries to

guide to decency and ultimately his commitment to Dorian proves to be fatal for him.

Sibyl Vane- A young actress from a low-income family who plays Shakespeare's heroine in a

low-brow theatre. Dorian loves her for her performances. She decides to marry him leaving

her acting career despite opposition. When Dorian is no longer interested in her, she commits

suicide symbolizing pure love. Lord Henry described her, “The girl never really lived, and so

she has never really died. To you at least she was always a dream, a phantom that flitted

through Shakespeare’s play and left them lovelier for its presence, a reed through which

Shakespeare’s music sounded richer and more full of joy”. (120, Wilde)

NARRATIVE

It is written in third person where the narrator is anonymous. The point of view allows the

reader to enter the minds of the characters and get a full picture of the story. The objective

world along with subjective thoughts and feeling of the characters are depicted.

Lord Henry's early influence on Dorian is balanced in the first ten chapters with Dorian's

adult life in the last ten chapters. Every section starts with an introductory chapter. Dinner

parties, for example, are used by Wilde to provide temporary respite from the vicious

activity. Wilde frequently makes use of his talents as a dramatist.

The novel is furnished with epigrams even in preface mostly used by Lord Henry which gives

a humorous effect by creating comic surprises. For example- “A man cannot be too careful in

the choice of his enemies," (15, Wilde). Wilde describes different characters, places, and
settings with skillful demonstrating the use figures of speech poignantly. He also has a

remarkable command of the English language and vocabulary.

TITLE

The story revolves around an appealing Englishman whose image is immortalized in an

enchanting painting that prevents him from ageing. His portrait is tainted by every sin he

commits, while he remains young and attractive. As his soul is placed in his portrait, his

beauty is unaffected by age or corruption. The portrait represents Dorian's changing state of

soul, while the real world cannot see the truth of his soul. While Dorian's external beauty

remains untouched, the captured Dorian in the painting changes horribly reflecting the

corruption of his soul. So, the portrait itself is the center of the whole novel.

READER’S RESPONSE

The novel beings with Dorian’s beauty, Basil’s admiration and Lord Henry’s seductive

compliment brought together and in the development the bargaining of soul is confirmed.

Dorian noticing the changes in his portrait after rejecting Sibyl Vane and committing himself

to the “yellow book” is the rising action of the novel. He indulges in seeking pleasure

disregarding his reputation and the discrepancy between his external pureness and his internal

vileness broadens. Dorian murdering Basil transforms the novel to a realm of detective story

and from dining in noble company to smoking opium den are the subsequent actions. James’

revenge provides modern Gothic haunting version. It’s surprising that Dorian escape being

killed by James which obviously is a form of justice. Dorian denounces himself as the devil

in any other legend by stabbing his portrait with a knife.

Even though the novel is considered as a masterpiece now, in its original days, it faced a lot

of criticism and censorship due to its hedonistic and especially homoerotic theme.