Introduction:
All throughout the countries there are individuals who have the fear of aging and becoming old. In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Dorian was terrified that his self-portrait would stay his young and beautiful self, while he himself became aged and wrinkled. With this fear, he wished that the painting would age while he stayed young. Consequently, his wish had came true but it turned out for the worst. Similar to Dorian, the individuals who do not want to face the lessening of beauty as he or she age, have the opportunity to undergo surgery. If he or she did undergo surgery there are multiple side effects that make it not worth doing. Evermore, one needs to overcome the fear of getting older because it is inevitable.
Background
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While still attending Oxford, Wilde won the Newdigate prize for “Ravenna” and when Wilde graduated Oxford he moved to London, England with his friend Frank (Oscar Wilde biography 2).
During his stay in London he continued writing poetry and had even been able to publish “Poems” in 1881 (Oscar Wilde biography 2).
From the years 1888-1895 Wilde successfully published multiple books including “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (Rosson 2).
Personal life
In the year 1891, Wilde had became acquainted with Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas (Rosson 3).
Him and Douglas later became very close and became lovers (Rosson 3).
The father of Douglas left a calling card for Wilde (Oscar Wilde biography 3).
The letter contained a misspelling of sodomite (Oscar Wilde biography 3).
Wilde became infuriated by it, even though his sexuality wasn’t a secret (Oscar Wilde biography 3).
Wilde ended up suing him for libel, which was a huge mistake on his end (Oscar Wilde biography 3).
WIlde received charges of “gross indecency” over having homoerotic passages in his literary works, and his love letters to Douglas (Oscar Wilde biography 3).
He ended up spending two years in prison (Oscar Wilde biography
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She becomes torn apart when she found out that Dorian didn’t want anything to do with her if she couldn’t act.
She ended up killing herself.
Published and set time period
This version of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was published in 1993 around the same time as the period the book was set.
The first version was published in the 1880’s.
During this time, the Victorian Age was happening.
In the Victorian Age many of the elderly people were not able to support themselves (Boyer 1)
With this in mind, this could be another reason as to why Dorian did not want to age.
During the nineteenth century Ireland was a place where the British was forced to betray their own principals (Haslam 40).
Similarly, Dorian betrayed his own well mannered morals.
In the nineteenth century the Big Wind hit Ireland (Ireland’s Big Wind 1).
New Criticism
Symbolism (Book, Annotations)
The yellow book
Symbolizes the downfall of Dorian
When Dorian starts reading the book he cannot put it down.
The book and Dorian had similarities that terrified Dorian.
After reading the book, Dorian changes.
Self-portrait
Doppleganger of Dorian
Represented the bad side of him
Literary
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, Editor. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.
He was imprisoned due to indecent acts of homosexuality with his partner at the time. On 20 May 1895, Oscar Wilde was convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to two years of hard labor at Reading Gaol (Varty 31).
Once denounced, he then turned around and sued for libel. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of libel is “the act of publishing a false statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone.” While up on the stands, Wilde was asked to explain one of his most well-known quotes “The Love that dare not speak its name.” Wilde’s response explained that “’The Love that dare not speak its name’ in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan. . . .
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray; For Love of the King. London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1993.
Wright, Thomas. "Wilde, Oscar (1854-1900)." British Writers: Retrospective Supplement 2. Ed. Jay Parini. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 359-374. Scribner Writers on GVRL. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Oscar Wilde's novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", presented many themes. One such theme is the idea of doubleness. Oscar Wilde used this as a technique to link his characters and ideas. While doubleness is shown in many aspects of the novel, the most obvious and most important presence of it is the parallel between the main character, Dorian, and his self-portrait. This bond between Dorian and his picture is crucial to the understanding of the novel. Dorian and the picture are in a sense one character acting as two.
Nassar, Christopher. Into the Demon Universe: A Literary Exploration of Oscar Wilde. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.
Oscar Wilde is perhaps one of the most pretentious people to which I have ever been exposed. Like a lot of pretentious authors, he even uses a fake pen name. His book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, does not only contain homosexual undertones, but it also provides some pretty ostentatious quotes. My favorite in the novel so far is “all art is quite useless” (Wilde, 1890). This, coming from an artist, is an embodiment of pretension. Not only does this criticize his craft, but also anyone who has ever created
From the moment that Dorian makes his desperate plea in Basil Hallward’s studio – “If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! …I would give my soul for that!” – he is a grand Gothic experiment (Wilde 28). Even prior to this, Dorian was a test subject of Lord Henry’s, who wanted to see how many of his own ideas he could inject into the boy. This influence rapidly planted in Dorian the ideas of eternal youth and beauty, and led to the encasement of his soul in Basil’s portrait of him. After the switch, Dorian is still under Lord Henry’s influence, but he is also Oscar Wilde’s subject. In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde manipulates Dorian, his surroundings, and his circumstances to capture a realistic portrayal of the character’s downfall by depicting the nature of the body, mind, and soul, and the relationship between them.
The painting changes Dorian's life in ways unimaginable. After the portrait is created, Dorian stops aging over time. The painting on the other hand, ages with the years and grows older like a real human being would. This picture is a driving force in Dorian's life, and while he was once a very good person, his conscience was in the painting that led him to lead a corrupt life causing tragedy to others.
Classic literature is defined as a literary piece that obtains enduring qualities, the morals or meanings of the stories can still be relevant to society years after their initial exposure. “The picture of Dorian Gray”- Written by Oscar Wilde- is a classic example of this. The novel caused controversy around the time of its publishment in July 1890 as it “offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers” of the era, even despite the novel being censored in its original publication for “Lippincott’s monthly magazine”.
In Dublin, Ireland in 1854 a future figure to in aesthetic writing was born to a famous surgeon Sir Robert Wills Wilde who earned his nonheritable title through his medical service. His mother, Jane Francesca Wilde supported Irish Nationalism. From a very young age, he excelled in his education, and was gifted in many languages. His early schooling took place in Enniskillen Portora Royal School, he attended Trinity College in 1873 as well as Magdalen College in Oxford, from 1874-1879. While he was in College he began his reputation as a poet, his early work did get him some success, he won the Newdigate prize for his poetry. From this point on he started making himself stand out from the society’s expectations by wearing his hair long and dressing flamboyantly.
Prior to 1890, Wilde had difficulties in getting his work published because of its portrayal of homosexuality. Eventually the book was published, but not without several modifications in its content. Although the novel had been censored to prevent scandal, the edits did not prevent the British’s outrage. The reaction to The Picture of Dorian Gray proves the novel’s stance on the superficiality of society. Rather than condemning Dorian’s debauchery and violence, the British chose to scrutinize one of the more arbitrary elements of the story. Rabbit, Run was also denounced for its sexually explicit content rather than the issues of identity and
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...
In conclusion, it has been reiterated that Lord Henry's influence, the changes in Dorian, and the immorality of the yellow book further enforced The Picture of Dorian Gray as a moral book. Oscar Wilde allows for those who could understand the real meaning of the novel by comprehending the importance of these three things to discern that he fully intended on writing this novel as a moral book.