The Victorian Gothic with Oscar Wilde: Summary & Discussion

Alright, as promised, here is Part 2 of this two parter week. On Monday we took a look at the short story The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and today we’ll dive into one of my personal favourites, The Picture of Dorian Gray by the one and only Oscar Wilde.

It’s hard to know where to begin with this one, since Wilde packs so many themes and ideas into a such a small book. In this faustian story, we meet Lord Henry (or Harry, depending on… Dorian’s mood?) in conversation with the artist Basil Hallward, who cannot stop talking about his latest muse, Dorian Gray. Henry says oh you must absolutely introduce me and Basil says absolutely not and then the butler says LOL he’s here. (I’m not going to compete with Wilde’s writing prowess…) Of course Dorian and Henry are destined to meet and have a love/hate relationship (I use that term and not friendship for very obvious reasons…) Lord Henry has to be one of the most diabolical characters in Victorian literature and I love him so much. I found myself underlining all of his life musings and philosophies, more than anybody else’s. Everyone is so drab and dreary compared to him. He seems to say all of the wonderfully inappropriate things that Victorian society could not allow. Sometimes I wonder if he was not Wilde’s favourite character as well. Or at least the most fun to write.

Anyways, Dorian Gray gets his portrait done by Basil, and wishes in a moment of passion (he does a lot of things out of “passion”) that the portrait could carry all of his uglier aspects (such as getting older… God forbid…) and lo and behold, it does. Otherwise it would be a really boring book about a vain man who doesn’t want to get older and screws over a perfectly nice young woman. The portrait gets uglier and more monstrous as Dorian stays youthful and free from the burdens of his sins….

Or so he thinks. I really like how the theme of guilt is dealt with in this novella. As he leads his selfish, decadent, bachelor life, Dorian becomes responsible for the deaths of multiple people: Sybil, Basil, Alan, and a string of young men who constantly come into contact with him…. mysteriously… As the story progresses, it’s clear that Dorian cannot outrun his guilt and he eventually destroys the painting, killing himself and restoring the portrait back to what it was 20 years before. It’s an interesting notion on beauty being only skin deep. Sure he looked great, but his insides were decaying, matching the portrait he has hidden away in the attic. This is also a bit of a gender reversal of the mad woman in the attic…

Dorian Gray forces the reader to contemplate themes such as vanity, pride, the concept of beauty vs. art, and beauty vs. morals or inherent goodness. What does it mean to beautiful, and what does it mean to be good? Henry says multiple times throughout that it is better to be beautiful than good… but is it? There is also the criticism of upper class excess and whether indulging in something can make you happy, or if it simply leads to a life of needing.

It is also a comment on sensationalism (not unlike The Turn of the Screw). Sybil is made a martyr, as if her death merely belongs to the stage (as does everything about her, according to Dorian and Henry). The death of Basil has a sense of romance and theatre about it. Reactions are blown out of proportion, dialogue is over the top… It is a melodrama of the gothic: senses are heightened to a manic point. Dorian lives in constant fear and paranoia, obsessed with keeping up his image and not letting anyone see his darkest secret. Of course the ramping up of these aspects serves Wilde’s critique of Victorian uptight-ness, “morals” (or lack thereof), treatment of the lower class, excess, pleasure for pleasure’s sake, and what it means to hide a secret.

While I love the story and the concept, it does come second as to why I love this book. Re-reading it, I am reminded of Wilde’s wit and his insane ability writing dialogue. Sometimes the prose became too over the top for me (and in my opinion this is done on purpose… excess and contrived elegance in Victorian upper middle class being reflected in his prose….) but his dialogue is unbeatable. I laughed out loud so many times, nodded in agreement or gasped out loud. He is a playwright at heart, and it shows here. The dinner party scenes were the best, and I would have dinner with Lord Henry, even though he is a repulsive and manipulative man.

But of course, I would much rather eat with Oscar.

So, that being said, I look forward to reading your thoughts on the novel. Who was your favourite character? Was it Lord Henry? What did you think of the treatment of women in this book, and was it done intentionally? What does it say about art and our obsession with beauty? And isn’t goodness in a sense beauty itself? Or is that too woowoo…

Happy Reading and stay tuned for next week!