Transcript The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
 Dublin, Ireland, Oct. 16, 1854
 Christened Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde
 Sent to Portoro Royal School, then Trinity College in Dublin;
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unpopular because he loathed sports
Lazy student; wouldn’t make an effort to learn any subject he wasn’t
interested in, like science and math; loved Greek literature
1876 entered Oxford; went to London in 1880
1884 married Constance Lloyd
1887 to 1889 editor of woman’s magazine
Published essays, short stories, and poems in various magazines
1895-1897 was accused of homosexual behavior and sentenced to two
years in prison
Died of meningitis (rare infection that affects the delicate membranes
that cover the brain and spinal cord) on Nov. 30, 1900
Wrote his masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest
The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Oscar Wilde’s only novel published in 1891
Genre – gothic, philosophical
Tone – sardonic (disdainfully mocking); dark
Setting – 1890s London
Point of View – 3rd person omniscient (one short paragraph that
is 1st person where Wilde becomes the narrator)
Symbols – opium den, James Vane, the yellow book
Themes – purpose of art, supremacy of youth and beauty, surface
nature of society, negative consequences of influence
Motifs – color of white, picture of Dorian Gray, homoerotic male
relationships
Melodrama – everything is larger than life
 More like a myth or morality tale
 Contains so much dialogue that it is almost a written version of a stage
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play
Very similar to Faust – Lord Henry is the “devil” figure, and Dorian
Gray is Faust; the portrait symbolizes Dorian’s soul or personal
morality
Lord Henry tempts Dorian to indulge in an immoral lifestyle, carelessly
disregarding the feelings of the people he seduces and then rejects
Dorian thinks that he can escape from the consequences of his own
immoral life because the portrait will take the blame for him
Contains a moral ending that was expected in 19th century literature
Contains many epigrams (short witty sayings) filled with Wilde’s
humour and wit – example: Lord Henry says, “I choose my friends for
their beauty and my enemies for their intelligence. A man cannot be
too careful in choosing his enemies.”