The Picture Of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Originally Published: 1890
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, explores themes of corruption, manipulation, and the dangers of hedonism. With the 3 main characters – Basil Hallward (the artist of Dorian’s picture), Henry Wotton (Basil’s friend), and Dorian Gray, who, respectively, were said that they represented how Wilde saw himself, how the world and society viewed him, and the artistic and ideal self that Wilde aspired to be.
written by: Tina Nguyen | date: 22nd July, 2025
Dorian was a boy who just started his 20s, he got all the time, the youth and especially an angelic beauty that easily charmed people to fall for him. Henry – a middle-aged man who had all the “wisdoms” from the experiences that he collected in life. However, along with his knowledge and perception on how he viewed the world and especially women, this character also represented sins and hedonistic pleasures which later on influenced heavily on Dorian Gray and started the era of his corruption.
Wilde expressed his crave and obsession with everything that carried beauty in his life throughout the book. As shown in the “Preface” section, Wilde illustrated his love for artistic and beautiful things, which one of his characters – Basil, was also in love with art and romanticized his surroundings.
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.”
“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.”
Dorian’s downfall started when he visited Basil’s studio, where he also met Lord Henry Wotton for the first time. Henry’s confidence and charisma as an experienced man drew Dorian’s attention and he started to expose Dorian to the world’s sins and pleasures. He stated that Dorian could use his youth and beauty to lure people in and make things go his way, this was when Dorian first learned about himself that he had the “pretty privilege” that anyone barely had. Dorian was intrigued by how well-spoken Henry was, as Henry indirectly “helped” Dorian to explore the darkest corners of life and how to leverage them.
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.”
“Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”
Dorian started to obsessed with himself after listening to Henry’s words – he wasn’t in love, he was envied with the picture that Basil drew of him on an unhealthy level, because he knew it would always hold his youth and beauty, and he was the one to bear all the aging, and worse – the consequences of the sins he chose to make in his life. As Henry and Dorian became “close friends”, Henry successfully reframed Dorian’s perception about Basil – he was plain, simple and appeared “too boring” for both of them just because he resisted from sins and warned Dorian about how Henry’s influence had completely changed him. Basil’s warnings came too late, Dorian’s mind was tainted from the moment he decided to “swapped” his soul with the painting. He chose to be numb, emotionless, soulless, he refused to feel anything except pleasure. The drawing bore all his sins and wrongdoings, while he got to keep its unchanged appearance and its purity.
“It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
Henry Wotton’s philosophy kept ruining Dorian’s life and other people who got involved with him, it reached the point that rumours of how scandalous and immoral Dorian’s activities were started to spark and spread. Meanwhile his youth and beauty were used as his “death-free card” that made him seem untouchable, unstainable, and innocent to most people. Henry successfully convinced Dorian that he shall not feel guilty at all, because things were working in his favour, all for his timeless boyishness and youthfulness.
“As for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that.' Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
Soon, the guilt chased after Dorian, it bickered with him in his life and even when he slept. His peace was ruined and there was not a moment that he felt at ease. Dorian’s delusion started as he always felt like someone was watching and spying on him to get revenge, his life was hanging on a thread as he felt the consequences of his wrongdoings were coming at him. This was where Dorian started to find his way back to his soul to feel the guilt and repent to God.
“Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement. There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins to earth as well as to heaven. Nothing that he could do would cleanse him till he had told his own sin.”
The book demonstrated the corrupting influence of beauty and youth. Wilde successfully proved that not all people can resist sinning and control themselves from hedonistic pleasure. While Basil stood for how Wilde saw himself, Henry Wotton played a crucial role in showing readers how the “charming” people in a complex and unpredictable society can twist one’s perception about the world and themselves, how powerful the words can dictate a person’s morality.