Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1891, was a response to aestheticism. This movement supported the ‘art for art’s sake’ doctrine – that art needs to serve no moral, religious or political purpose and it aimed to free art from responsibility. This book is by far one of my favourites.

 Firstly, the preface. It is a list of aphorisms dealing with art; Wilde states the ‘all art is quite useless’ and warns against reading too much into art (as we all know some of us quite often do) that ‘those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril’.

 This is exactly what Dorian Gray does; he treats life as if it were a work of art and places too much importance on maintaining this belief. For example, when Sibyl Vane ceases to be interested in art (when she acts badly), Dorian ceases to be interested in her.

 There are two important works of art in the novel, Basil’s painting and the Yellow Book. Despite the belief that art should not serve a purpose – Dorian finds a purpose in both. The painting acts as a mirror to his conscience, Dorian constantly finds himself compelled to keep looking at it. This echoes Wilde’s statement in the preface in that ‘it is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors’. Dorian sees himself in this art he finds so beautiful and it is his vanity that one could argue to be the cause of his downfall.

  The role of influence plays a huge part in this book. Both Basil and Lord Henry have a large influence over Dorian, and both contribute to his ruin. Dorian is first introduced to us as child-like; the narrator describes him as a lad ‘swinging round on the music-stool in a wilful, petulant manner’ – presenting as a child like this suggests that Dorian is more susceptible to manipulation than others may be. Basil completely idolises Dorian Gray, he puts him on a pedestal and in his eyes Dorian can do no wrong. By admiring his youth and beauty, Basil teaches Dorian that this is all that will be important throughout his life.

Lord Henry has the most influence over Dorian; he damns conventional morality and is constantly bombarding him with all his theories, not to mention it is he who introduces Dorian to the yellow book. Lord Henry is a really strong, influential character but is ultimately quite static and boring, he doesn't actually do anything. Throughout the novel Lord Henry is always lounging about, relaxing and playing with inanimate objects whilst he is talking. Talking is all the Lord Henry does, and by the end of the novel he becomes quite shallow; both Basil and Dorian undergo changes but Lord Henry is just the same at the beginning of the book as he is at the end. Because of this one can probably blame Dorian for allowing himself to be influenced so much by this personality.

 People’s reactions to Dorian in the novel constantly highlight the superficiality of Victorian society. Because Dorian always looks innocent, most of the people he is in contact with assume that he is a good, kind man. We know this is simply not true. Dorian literally gets away with murder because people are more willing to believe their eyes than anything else, to look upon Dorian as a piece of art, instead of looking beneath the surface.