Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

1. Oscar Wilde,The Picture of Dorian Gray *A VERY BRIEF OVERVIEW OF OSCAR WILDE AND HIS PERSPECTIVE ON AESTHETICS

2. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) • Born in Ireland • Father a prominent doctor, mother a well known writer • Attended Oxford • Won prizes for poetry • Moves to London after graduation • Marries Constance Lloyd in 1884 • Has two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan

3. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) • Publishes several poems and children's stories • Writes and stages several successful plays • Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) • A Woman of No Importance (1893) • An Ideal Husband (1895) • The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

4. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) • Publishes The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) • Meets with critical objections • Suggestions of homoeroticism caused scandal • Meets Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, 1891 • Remain partners for next four years

5. Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only novel, in 1890, before he reached the height of his fame. It was immediately criticized as scandalous and immoral. Wilde revised the novel the following year, adding a Preface and six new chapters. The Preface answers critics who charged the novel with being immoral and also sets forth the tenets of Wilde’s philosophy of art. Wilde believed that art possesses an intrinsic value that is beautiful and worthy, and thus needs to serve no other purpose. In The Preface, Wilde also cautioned readers against finding meanings “beneath the surface” of art.

6. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Part gothic novel, part comedy of manners, part treatise on the relationship between art and morality, The Picture of Dorian Gray continues to present its readers with a puzzle to sort out. There is as likely to be as much disagreement over its meaning now as there was among its Victorian audience, but, as Wilde notes near the end of the Preface, “Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.”

7. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) • Sues Bosie’s father, the Marquis of Queensbury, in 1895, for libel • Accused of homosexuality • Wilde winds up arrested for “gross indecency” • Sentenced to hard labor • Upon release, spends several years wandering Europe • Never fully recovers • Dies of meningitis

8. Wilde and the Aestheticism • Aestheticism was a movement in art and literature that developed in the last decades of the Victorian era • Often opposed to realism • Practiced “art for art’s sake” • More interested in results produced by colors and sensations than on moral purpose • Dante Gabriel Rossetti considered influential • Wilde becomes a symbol of this movement • Often parodied and lampooned in popular press

9. William Powell Frith, A Private View of the Royal Academy (1883)

10. Discussion Questions • Should we worry about the moral/message of a work of art? • Does The Picture of Dorian Gray have a moral or message? If so, what is it? How can you tell? • Is there such a thing as an immoral work of art? • How should we read the three central characters of the novel? • What does the novel say about the relationship between art and reality?

11. Major Characters from the Novel • Dorian Gray -  A radiantly handsome, impressionable, and wealthy young gentleman, whose portrait the artist Basil Hallward paints. Under the influence of Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian becomes extremely concerned with the transience of his beauty and begins to pursue his own pleasure above all else. He devotes himself to having as many experiences as possible, whether moral or immoral, elegant or sordid.

12. Major Characters Lord Henry Wotton -  A nobleman and a close friend of Basil Hallward. Urbane and witty, Lord Henry is perpetually armed and ready with well-phrased epigrams criticizing the moralism and hypocrisy of Victorian society. His pleasure-seeking philosophy of “new Hedonism,” which espouses garnering experiences that stimulate the senses without regard for conventional morality, plays a vital role in Dorian’s development.

13. Major Characters Basil Hallward -  An artist, and a friend of Lord Henry. Basil becomes obsessed with Dorian after meeting him at a party. He claims that Dorian possesses a beauty so rare that it has helped him realize a new kind of art; through Dorian, he finds “the lines of a fresh school.” Dorian also helps Basil realize his artistic potential, as the portrait of Dorian that Basil paints proves to be his masterpiece. Sibyl Vane -  A poor, beautiful, and talented actress with whom Dorian falls in love. Sibyl’s love for Dorian compromises her ability to act, as her experience of true love in life makes her realize the falseness of affecting emotions onstage.

14. Some Golden Lines from the Novel • All art is quite useless. (Page 2) • There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. (Page 4) • Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know. (Page 7) • I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world. (Page 11)

15. More Golden Lines from Dorian Gray • The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. (Page 21) • Beauty is a form of Genius—is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the graet facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. (Page 24)

16. One more sampling from the thousands in the novel…… • There is always something ridiculous about the emotion of people whom one has ceased to love. (Page 92) • Life has always poppies in her hands. (Page 105) • No theory of life seemed to him to be of any importance compared with life itself. (Page 136) • Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities. (Page 146)