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I am probably not the right person to lead a discussion on The picture of Dorian Gray, however, I would like to comment on the novel.

I don't know if you asked yourself why Mr.Wilde didn't give the Devil an active role in his novel-I think the 'Devil' was not present as a character who takes part in events. Goethe and Mikhail Bulgakov gave Devil a key role to act from the very beginning of their works.

I think Wilde was trying to move away from a strictly Christian interpretation. Since we all know the story of Faust, I think we're pre-programmed to just automatically assume Dorian sold his soul to the Devil. But there's little in the actual text that supports that. Whether or not it's the Devil that gives Dorian his eternal youth, the story is about Dorian's psychological decline - not some supernatural scare tactics.

I really truly think you can discuss the book without bringing questions of God and the Devil into it. I think one of the reasons Dorian Gray is such a great novel is because it's one of the earliest to show the sort of internal conflict and psychological decay that marks modern novels. The Devil is NOT Dorian's enemy; Dorian is Dorian's enemy.

Or, if you insist on seeing a Devil figure in the novel, I think you can look no further than Lord Henry. After all, one reading of the novel is that Dorian's decline is Lord Henry's fault. He's the bad influence that first makes Dorian realize his own beauty...giving him his vanity. Dorian is addicted to the man, even though he knows that Lord Henry isn't the best moral compass. I believe there are a few passages where Lord Henry is described in devil-like terms.

I would like to know your thinking on this theme.

Am I the only one who read The Picture of Dorian Gray? Does no one wish to discuss their interpretation of this classic story? I am shocked!

Hello there! I will be reading Dorian Gray but since this discussion is open for March and April, I will be finishing another book I'm currently on (The Dress Lodger - for another discussion group) before getting started on Dorian Gray. Happy reading!

Wonderful! I can't wait to discuss this marvelous book. Thanks for your reply. I was beginning to think I was on an island all by myself.

I will also be joining in the discussion. I too have another book before this one. I've skimmed through the first few chapters and can already tell this will be an interesting book!

Super!

Coincidentally, I will be in New York at the end of the month and hope to visit the Morgan Library and Museum, which has in its possession the earliest manuscript of Dorian Gray, as well as a number of other Oscar Wilde manuscripts and letters.

Oh how fascinating. I hope you will be able to take pictures to share with us.
Have a safe trip.

Unfortunately, I haven't finished the book yet, but I would like to contribute as far as can.
I believe the story, among other things, deals with losing ones innocence.
Dorian was living in a sheltered world, a world created by Basil Hallway, in which he is not conflicted by
anything, he is not touched by anything. He is the "body" of a picture.
Basil wants to keep him in such a way in order to get beautiful works done, but eventually causes him to fall
for the first person who approaches him as a human being.
Losing his innocence by opening his mind to ideas that everyone around him kept him from.
I haven't thought about the Devil concept- didn't occur to me. I might think differently when finished with the book.

(Please excuse any grammar mistakes, as English is not my native tongue).

"The supreme vice is shallowness" - Wilde wrote this in De Profundis. Somehow I think The Picture of Dorian Gray's theme is in this quote.

Lord Henry was a shallow person who cares about nothing but external beauty and almost-sadistic pleasure.

He corrupted Dorian and turns him into a shallow person obsessed with something as irrelevant as appearance. So in a sense I think it's to show how shallowness is the most evil of all vices. It stops us from looking deep within and see our soul. Does anyone agree or disagree?