The Picture of Dorian Gray

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1890

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-9

Chapters 10-16

Chapters 17-20

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Themes

The Destructive Effects of Vanity

The Picture of Dorian Gray, like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, is a satire, a cautionary tale about the excesses and destructiveness of the aristocratic class. Vanity is a tempting and socially-sanctioned vice within the aristocracy that leads to a reckless and destructive selfishness, a selfishness which in turn reveals the moral decay of the aristocracy itself. All of the wealthy people around Dorian, who blindly worship and celebrate him on the basis of his looks alone, are equally implicated in the man’s sordid destructiveness and downfall. Without their endless supply of flattery and quarter for his frivolous and uncontrolled vanity, the story of Dorian Gray could not come to fruition. Wilde forwards his notion that the malady of Dorian Gray is not his alone, but symptomatic of an aristocratic ethos that prizes physical beauty over moral and intellectual development: with disastrous and deadly consequence.

Tellingly, the most pronounced victim of Dorian’s reckless vanity is the penniless Sybil Vane, whose station in life prevents her and her family from securing justice through legal means. Dorian is only allowed to sustain his life and lifestyle by virtue of his looks, but also by virtue of his seemingly endless riches, which grant him both immediate respectability and status, and the means to cover his tracks and broker power. Lord Henry Wotton also concretizes this theme, as he makes endless pompous pronouncements and instrumentalizes other people’s lives from both behind the wings and on high: two positions that are secured through his riches. Ultimately, the basis for both Dorian’s and Lord Henry’s misdeeds is the fact that they are insulated from both social and economic ruin through their aristocratic station, no matter how much recklessness and destruction they cause and engage in. Through this fact, Wilde hopes to indict the predatory, decadent, and even fatal tendencies of a vain and shallow aristocratic class run amok.

The Futility of Attempting to Prolong Youth

Dorian hopes to make the most out of life, and to take the most pleasure from it, in concert with the enchantment that befalls himself and the painting, the gift of eternal youth ultimately ends up cursing him. Wilde hopes to assert the idea that this prolongation of youth, and decadent indulgence in the pleasures of physical beauty, is contrary to the natural unfolding of life, and to the development of nuanced and dimensional moral and intellectual faculties. By casting Lord Henry as the shaper of Dorian’s destiny, Wilde also invites the reader to speculate about how Dorian’s life could have unfolded in a more complex and fulfilling way, had he not been sucked into the whirlwind of both his own vanity and the shallowness of his circle of friends and associates. This is especially true because Dorian is not depicted as a wicked character from birth, but rather a character made wicked through his idolatry of his own beauty, the machinations of Lord Henry, and the complicity of an entire aristocratic class.

Beauty Is Not the Same as Goodness

The presumptive belief that external beauty correlates with moral goodness is shallow and destructive, and Wilde goes through great pains to address this throughout the narrative. Dorian succeeds in charming people due largely to his enticingly good looks. Basil Hallward most notably uses Dorian’s good looks as shorthand for a presumed moral goodness—which proves to be a fatal mistake. Despite Dorian’s pronounced track record of bringing disrepute and misfortune to many, and the clear unnaturalness of his lack of aging, Basil remains bewitched by Dorian’s good looks, unable to believe that any immorality may lurk beneath the surface. This is what ultimately allows Dorian to ambush and murder Basil, who is entirely too unsuspecting and unscrupulous of Dorian’s character. In the character of Basil, we see this theme most clearly expressed. Too, Dorian retains throngs of other admirers, despite his ill effects on others. These hangers-on are also clearly intoxicated by the man’s good looks and desirous of either sweeping any evidence of Dorian’s moral decay under the rug, or giving the man extra leeway because of his good looks. This is what enables Dorian to run rampant with his recklessness, selfishness, and destruction of the lives of other people.