Dear Thrillwriter,
Oscar Wilde was homosexual. The picture of Dorian Grey (in my belief), is the example of a person who has to live with a human condition that is an anathema to the society in which he/she lives. His (pervasion), is hidden from public view but the pain of his incompatibility with his society eats his soul. As I say in my essay, to restrict the complex nature of the human being to either male or female based on genitalia is to forfeit the contribution those souls can make to society and condemn them to total and permanent rejection as having any value. Love (chapter 4 ACFTH) Lawrence

Lawrence,

I don't see what one's sexual preference has to do with the story itself. Although, I do get that connotation in reading the story. I felt it was more of an underlying detail. The Picture of Dorian Gray is yet another novel portraying evil. The theme is very much reflected by the book's setting, plot structure and characterization. It shows how individuals can slowly deteriorate because of the evil lying within themselves. The evil of this book is the evil created by one's self and thrusted upon one's self. The power of greed and selfishness take over Dorian Gray and create an ugly evil side to him. The mid eighteenth century was a very influential era, especially in England. This period judged much upon appearance and status. Dorian was a very wealthy, intelligent man with a very high status. He knew the very influential and rich people in his town as well. His beauty charmed the world. Basil was inspired to draw his portrait in order to preserve his beauty and youth. Dorian recognized that as long as he remained young he would be handsome. He dreaded the day that he would age slightly and starts to form wrinkles and such ugly (in Dorian's opinion) ugly things. He believed that that day would deprive him of triumphs that would result in him being miserable. The degree of evil within Dorian increases as the plot develops. By trading his soul for his youth, Dorian rids of the good inside of himself. The plot proves to us that evil does actually lie within an individual. From the moment that he becomes forever young he begins to deteriorate. Even once he reached his epiphany and saw his evil through the portrait he simply denied seeing it and continued his malicious deeds. The characterization of the book is one of the most important elements of this book. Dorian begins by being a very naïve lad. He is very easily influenced by others especially his two new good friends; Basil and Lord Henry. Basil, the painter of the portrait, influenced Dorian in more of a good, honest way. While Lord Henry, although not being evil himself, gave him a more evil insight on life. Both of them changed his life forever. How little they both knew what went on inside that man. Basil does not have any real direct influence on the youngster; without him the lad would have never been caught in his evil destiny. Basil was an inspired artist when he first met Dorian. He admitted that his picture of Dorian was the best picture he ever painted. To him it was more than a painting; it was as if he created another life. He put himself into it. He did not know that he was creating his own murder when he made the painting. He was always a good friend to Dorian. When Dorian talked about ageing being such a dreadful thing, something worth killing yourself for, Basil tried to calm him down. At the same time, Lord Henry was more of a directly harmful influence on Dorian. Within the couple of minutes in which he lectured Dorian about youth and living, he developed a whole other side to him. He had such a big cynical impact on Dorian and yet he did not realize it. It was because of him that Mr. Dorian Gray decided that he would like to remain young and exquisite. He is also the one who brings out Dorian's first bad deed with Sibyl Vane. With a multitude of different influences around Dorian Gray, he is still the one to blame for all his wrong doings. His character is a tragic one, much like Macbeth's. His flaw was excessive ambition. Even once he knew he was doing something wrong he could not control himself. He even yearned for self reformation but could not make it possible. He started off as one of the kindest, most modest and innocent men ever. That all changed once he traded his soul for his youth with the painting. He entered a life of gradual dissipation. It became easier and easier for him to sin because he always had a Maginot line; that he does not have a soul. In my opinion that was a poor excuse because his greediness and selfishness began before he abandoned his soul. His first act of covetousness was when he craved to be infinitely young. He wanted to be different, to be superior to others, to have something that the whole world would be envious of. He believed that to live a simple life was merely to live at all. When he first started his life of debauchery his uneasy conscious made him avoid those he knew. Although once he became regulated to a life of degradation he no longer cared what others thought of him. This is one of the biggest ironies of the story; that he no longer cared what people think of him. He originally wanted to stay young and lovely so others would recognize his greatness so he may still be able to do audacious things. His pride of individualism was half of his fascination of evil. The author was very successful in finding the right means to represent the evil in this book. The different aspects of the book made this possible. In Dorian's attempt to redeem himself he must terminate his life. The book ends on more of a good note than a bad; that there is hope in stopping evil, we just have to have a want for it.
sincerely,
Di

I don't see what one's sexual preference has to do with the story itself.

Your wonderful review of the story Wilde wrote reveals to my eyes a subliminal projection of his own pain in living a closeted life in that era onto his characters using conventional "sins" because he couldn't use his secret sin. I'm not saying my conclusion is accurate. It is simply a different interpretation of the novel.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in an American magazine in 1890 to a storm of critical protest. He expanded the story and had it published in book form the following year. Its implied homoerotic theme was considered very immoral by the Victorians and played a considerable part in his later legal trials. In the summer of 1891, Oscar met Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas, the third son of the Marquis of Queensberry. Bosie was well acquainted with Oscar's novel “Dorian Gray” and was an undergraduate at Oxford. They soon became lovers and were inseparable until Wilde's arrest four years later. In April 1895, Oscar sued Bosie's father for libel as the Marquis had accused him of homosexuality. Oscar withdrew his case but was himself arrested and convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labor. Constance took the children to Switzerland and reverted to an old family name, “Holland.”

Upon his release, Oscar wrote “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” a response to the agony he experienced in prison. It was published shortly before Constance's death in 1898. He and Bosie reunited briefly, but Oscar mostly spent the last three years of his life wandering Europe, staying with friends and living in cheap hotels. Sadly, he was unable to rekindle his creative fires. When a recurrent ear infection became serious several years later, meningitis set in, and Oscar Wilde died on November 30, 1900." [/quote]

This quote if from the official Oscar Wilde site.

and I can't wait to read it! Perhaps I shouldn't have read your discussions yet, but couldn't help it

I had assumed that Wilde's homosexuality would be one of the themes he'd deal with in Dorian Gray, albeit in a roundabout way, but I am not sure of that anymore after reading your posts Thrillwriter. Guess I shouldn't be assuming things before reading the book! I hope to start it this week on my way to New York, and hopefully when I'm at the Morgan Museum there will be some of Wilde's notes jotted in the margins of the Dorian Gray manuscript. That would be simply fascinating. I'll be sure to keep you posted, plus make my own small contribution to the discussion.

I would like to apologize as well. I voted for this title and have not had a chance to read it. I am in the process of moving houses and time is not a luxury I have. I have managed to read a bit of the first chapter. Basil and Lord Henry seem like they are very different ends of the spectrum when it comes to character. Basil, so far from what I have read, seems to be a caring and a person who sees the good in all. However, Lord Henry seems to be self-serving and callous. The conversation that they have about Lord Henry's life is just one example of how opposite they truly are.

As soon as things settle, I will be back to further discuss this. Happy Reading!

Lawrence,

Your last post has piqued my interest a great deal about the author himself. I had no prior knowledge about Mr. Wilde other than his writings. This is quite interesting and I intend to do some research on him.
In reading TPODG one picks up the inferences and innuendos along the way but I didn't really see it in the prespective you have just given to me.
Interesting ... very interesting.

Boheme,

I am so excited for you to be going to New York and visiting the Morgan Museum. I can not wait to hear all about it. Safe travels.


Raving Lunatic,

This is how I see it as well. Good vs. evil. I may be way off base and am not reading as much into it as one should. But there again ... I read for the pure pleasure of reading and not much more than that.
T

I felt that Basil and Lord Henry represented good and evil in a general way, as well as more specifically as the conflicting desire for good and temptation for evil within everyone. Sort of like the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other.

This relationship is shown at the end of Chapter 2, where Dorian is asked to choose between going to the theatre with Lord Henry and staying to eat dinner with Basil.

gracefullgirll,

The fear of a bad—or good—influence is, in fact, one of the novel's primary concerns. As a work that sets forth a philosophy of aestheticism, the novel questions the degree and kind of influence a work of art can have over an individual. Furthermore, since the novel conceives of art as including a well-lived life, it is also interested in the kind of influence one person can have over another. After all, the artful Lord Henry himself has as profound an effect upon Dorian's life as Basil's painting does.
Di

I think this is a story that can be read in a variey of ways.

Firstly I think it can, but doesn't have to be read from a religious perspective - with Dorian Gray representing the common man, Basil representing God; someone that believes innocence is at the base of everything and wishes to keep Dorian in this state - to capture his innocent beauty, and Sir Henry representing the Devil; someone that wishes to corrupt Dorian and then watch him.
Both Basil and Sir Henry view Dorian as something to be viewed and manipulated - as God created and viewed us, and the devil corrupts us. It is as if Dorian is in a test tube as part of a scientific experiment. It is ironic that Basil wishes to manipulate Dorian into staying innocent. He does, however, allow him to make his own mistakes - never actually deliberately stopping him seeing Sir Henry. Again this reflects how he could be seen as a God like figure - allowing man to make his own mistakes, and feeling sorry when he does. Sir Henry on the other hand deliberately manipulates him, as the devil deliberately tempts man to evil and then denies that it is his fault, believing it is just down to his nature.

I think the story is partly a debate on the place of art in the world. It could be seen as a modernist piece - concerned with meaning in the World, and how art relates to exposing that meaning. Whether it is possible to truly capture something in art without corrupting it (the story would suggest not). Also at this time there was a move away from a more natural form of art as used in romantic art and literature to the art of the decadents. So the story could be exploring the question of quite how far from nature art should be removed - if removing too far is dangerous, in the same way that living life in a way that you remove yourself too far from human emotion is dangerous.

It is of course also just a very good story - full of suspense, lush description and, love them or hate them, excellent characters. (I love the imagery of hands throughout the book). It does of course containt portrayals of homosexual relations. This does not strike me as a massively important part of the book, however I must remember that I am reading this in the twenty first century when we are much freer to express such things.

TPoDG is simultaneously a Gothic horror story, a science-fiction fantasy, a homosexual allegory, a cautionary tale about corruption, and a manifesto for Wilde's beloved Aesthetic movement, a philosophy that gives priority to beauty and its particular demands over any other consideration ... moral, narrative, or otherwise. As the read discovers, Dorian Gray also has a surprising range of effects. The novel may shock, enthrall, or even bore, perhaps all on the same page. When approached, with an open mind, however, the reader will be ready to be impressed with Wilde's verbal gymnastics and witty, famliar aphorisms (even if you don't agree with them). At the same time, don't let Wilde intimidate you (which he does try to do). The end reward is that the book reveals itself as what it always is, regardless of personal definitions: a jewel of a novel that combines beautiful language with ugly circumstances and controversial concepts, delighting in itself all the way.