Review: The Picture Of Dorian Gray

On the tomb of Oscar Wilde is written:

And alien tears will fill for him

Pity's long-broken urn,

For his mourners will be outcast men,

And outcasts always mourn.

Wilde's Tomb in Paris

The above verse if from Wilde's Poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Brief Background:

Dorian Gray begins with a conversation between Lord Henry Wotton and an artist Basil Hallward, who are discussing pleasure, and Basil Hallward's immense love for Dorian Gray.  I wondered if I should continue to read the book because men obsessing over men, however romantic isn't really my taste in books.

Last year, when I read A Room One's Own by Virginia Woolf, where she recommends several books and poems to read to women, and where she also adds opinions about authors and their work of her time and those who were there before. This had a great influence on me as a reader and an author. It's a lovely piece of education And so I wondered about her opinion of Wilde, and thus I began to search the internet. 

Wilde is either omitted from her commentary or her opinion about Wilde is not on the internet, which is to say is a tad disappointing.

Wilde's work is grand and stylish. He offers many words to authors to use in work. Wilde was a spokesman for aestheticism, and this novel is also about beauty, pleasure and vulgarity. And above all, it is also about homosexuality, and we know even today LGBTQ communities find it hard to make their voices heard.

But there is a problem, as much philosophies of Lord Wotton are fascinating, his opinion of women is least inspiring.  But it would be odd to not accept that there is a truth in it.

Woolf's opinion or critique would have been handy, and if I have understood her well, she would have asserted the importance of reading Dorian Gray, but she hasn't, and so it was for me as a reader to decide which looking glass I should apply to this piece of literature.

                                                            ***

Basil Hallward draws up Portrait of an attractive young man Dorian Gray, which Lord Henry Wotton thinks is no less than a masterpiece. Hallward confesses his love for Dorian to Lord Henry but does not dare to express to Dorian.

Lord Henry Wotton and Basil Hallward looking at picture of Dorian Gray.
 Pic source: Wiki

He also thinks, Wotton shouldn't meet Dorian because he will corrupt the young man's life. And there is no stopping to Wotton, an elite in London's affluent circle, Dorian is smitten by Lord's philosophy of seeking pleasure and new hedonistic lifestyle.

Dorian wishes to stay young and wishes that picture to grow old, without being aware it could come true.

Under the influence of Wotton, Dorian Gray goes around seeking pleasure, and he falls in love with a small-time actress Sibyl Vane. He wants to marry her and proposes to her, but in reality, Dorian loves the heroine she plays in Shakespeare Drama and the day she ceases to be the heroine Dorian falls out of love.

Sibyl Vane kills herself.

Wotton finds it fascinating and he confesses to Dorian that no-one has ever killed themselves, because they loved him. He even glorifies Vane's act. 

It is also the same day when Dorian discovers that his wish has come true. His portrait has changed, and he has been blessed with eternal youth.

For eighteen years, he doesn't age even a single day, while he pursues his passions for the satisfaction of his senses,  reading every literature, acquiring rare musical instruments, researching Gems and most of all associating himself with young men who look up to him as an icon, some are drawn to shame, and some driven to suicide.  He is also associated with some low-class people near docks and to drugs.

 Even then his youth open more doors to Dorian than the people who leave after he enters the room.

For every sin, he commits, a line or smudge appears on the portrait making it ugly, bringing disgust to Dorian, he carefully locks away the portrait, and never shares his secret with anyone, until the day his path crosses with Hallward who wants to display the picture for an upcoming exhibition.

He shows the horror of the painting to Hallward and holds him responsible for the turn of events and kills him in rage. With the help of an estranged friend, he gets rid of Hallward's body.

It is here one realizes the paradox of Dorian' youth, unlike the old and wizened, Dorian’s repentance is short, and often shallow. At one place, he acknowledges Hallward's high morals but also regards it as a barrier to their relationship.  But Hallward comes across as a dull man, and even after he confesses to 

Dorian about his affection, it does not excite our protagonist.

Throughout Wotton is an undeniable influence on Dorian and both share a bond of love with each other.  But one cannot hold Wotton responsible for Dorian's deed, in the end, it was Dorian's choice to pursue desire that satisfies his senses.  He is also confronted by James Vane, Sybil's brother, and thus Dorian also discovers the feeling of fear for a short time.

How Dorian escape's his mis(?) fortunes of youth I want readers to discover, but the end is no less poetic.

Everything in the novel could be treated as a plot device, including our lead Dorian Gray, to put forth a philosophy. Philosophy of pleasures of the flesh and hedonistic lifestyle. Philosophy of morals in which society is bound. It questions moral ideas of society, and society has scarcely changed in a hundred-plus year.

At one point I was jealous of Dorian for innumerable opportunities youth provides, hedonistic or not. As I slip into middle age Dorian's youth becomes enviable. But it does not escape me that people around Dorian Gray pay the price of his youth. 

With a friend, I also reflected upon if there was a Henry Wotton, or many Wotton in our life, or if we have been a Wotton to another person, opening windows to the world view, which otherwise, we might miss. 

As we move towards end, one reflects upon love, and what we know about love? Have we forgotten what it is to be in love? Or we simply never felt the love. Or we were scared to discover the pleasure of life and satisfaction of senses, but how long we can live with such excitement in life, and do we know that if satiating senses is a sin or a good deed.

Dorian Gray is often classified as horror, and it is horrifying at places, but this genre classification is often misleading.

Reading Dorian Gray gave me immense satisfaction. In the end, I found it fascinating and a must-read. Book is available for free on Kindle, but I recommend to buy a paperback.