Background and themes
The Picture of Dorian Gray is often described as a
melodrama – a work in which everything is larger than
life. It is more like a myth or a morality tale than the
realistic novels which readers are accustomed to nowadays.
It contains so much dialogue that it is almost as if it is a
written version of a stage play. This is not surprising as
Wilde went on to write a series of very successful plays
in the three years following its publication, including his
masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest.
Faust: The theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray is
a recurring one in European culture, most famously
expounded in Faust. In the story of Faust, the devil tempts
a man to sell his soul in exchange for all the things he
desires. The result is disaster and the lesson is that a man’s
soul is more valuable than anything he could possibly
gain in the material world. In Oscar Wilde’s version,
Lord Henry represents the devil figure and Dorian Gray
is Faust.
Morality: The portrait symbolises Dorian’s soul or
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 immoral life
because the portrait takes the blame for him. But he goes
too far by killing his old friend Basil Hallward and then
suffers from guilt. Wilde is showing us that nobody can
escape the moral consequences of their actions.
Undercurrent of sexuality: To this familiar moral
fable, Wilde adds the extra ingredient of sexual scandal.
Although the novel never actually describes it, the reader
is aware that there is an undercurrent of sexuality in
many of the relationships. Apart from the story of Sibyl
Vane, we do not know exactly what Dorian does that is so
‘immoral’, as in Victorian England it was impossible for a
writer to be honest about sexual matters. In the end, good
triumphs over evil when Dorian kills himself. This is the
type of moral ending that was expected in 19th century
literature.
Wit and humour: The Picture of Dorian Gray is not
simply a moral fable. It is full of Oscar Wilde’s unique
wit and humour. The dialogue sparkles with numerous
examples of Wilde’s epigrams, those short witty sayings
which have now become part of the English language.
These epigrams are often based on irony or a reversal of
logic, a typical example of which is when 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.’ Wilde’s own conversation was full of this
wit, and it gives the novel an extra dimension which most
Victorian stories lack.