I am terribly sorry to join the discussion this late, but I wonder what the prologue has to do with the story. Perhaps it has something to do with Hallward (the final two sentences: Hallward admires the useless thing he made intensely) or with Wilde's aesthetism... Can anyone explain it to me?
Also, once I renewed reading the book, I found a little predictive element on page two (it depends on which edition you have), where Hallward says:
"Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are - my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks - we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly."
I do not know in what way Lord Henry suffers in the novel, though.

Hello lottebeertje:

This link may be useful to you.


http://www.enotes.com/dorian-gray

Hello again lottebeertje:

I wonder what the prologue has to do with the story.

The prologue was actually written after the book was published. Wilde went on trial for this book, he was charged with indecentcy. The prologue really has nothing to do with the novel, it is Wilde's feelings about society and how society judges. He wins by the way.


lottebeertje wrote:

"Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are - my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks - we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly."
I do not know in what way Lord Henry suffers in the novel, though.

I believe that this quote is used mostly for forshawdowing. It does temp your tasts buds about what may happen.

I saw Lord Henry as the antagonist in this novel. This is just my opinion. Many disagree with me. Does Lord Henry suffer? Consider the time period, and the importance of "society", it must have been difficult to keep up an image during this period. More difficult yet, to keep up your image, and sustain integrity.

Interesting, "Picture" has come back to life, after a quick death in the discussion forum.

Hey Suzanne, thanks for the link! I would have replied earlier but I've been in London for the past week, so I haven't had access to a computer for a while.
I do think it's fascinating just in how many ways the book can be explained. I think the book is magnificent, one of the most magnificent I've ever read anyway. Shame this is Wilde's only novel.
Suzanne wrote

Consider the time period, and the importance of "society", it must have been difficult to keep up an image during this period. More difficult yet, to keep up your image, and sustain integrity.

Well it is the Victorian Age... and I don't really think that Dorian kept up his image, with all the friends he 'ruined' and who do not appear anymore in 'good society'.
Suzanne wrote:

Interesting, "Picture" has come back to life, after a quick death in the discussion forum.

I was considering giving the book another go, but when I discovered that the discussion forum was a bit deserted, I thought I'd post something and see what happened.
I do think the book is too fascinating to die a quick death in a discussion forum...[/quote]

It does seem odd that he could have gotten away with publishing such content back in those days.

But he fought for freedom of 'print', or whatever it was called. And he won.