The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray is no doubt a beloved, well written classic. The language used by Oscar Wilde can only be described as decadent, passionate, poetic, and impressionable.

For example, here is an excerpt from Dorian Gray, our protagonist, professing his passion for his love interest:

“She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an individual. I love her, and I must make her love me. I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.”

Stunning Imagery

I can’t speak about this book without mentioning its beautiful prose. The book opens up with a strong evoking of the senses, letting you seamlessly dive into the scene.

“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.”

Here are two other quotes that paint a vivid imagery:

“Death walked there in the sunlight. The grass of the forest had been spotted with blood.”

“The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.”

Let’s talk about the plot.

It’s simple, yet intriguing. It follows Dorian Gray, a wealthy Victorian aristocrat, who is exceptionally beautiful and has “pretty privilege” in his social circle.

Basil, an artist, enamored by Dorian’s captivating beauty, paints a grand portrait of him. The portrait captures Dorian’s youthful beauty, which makes him realize that the beauty and youth captured in the portrait won’t last forever. He then becomes fearful of aging and losing the privileges that come with it. In an attempt to hold on to his youth and beauty, Dorian becomes paranoid and gives into hedonism heavily influenced by his friend Henry.

The well-paced, philosophical dialogue between the characters, Dorian, Henry, and Basil, center around beauty, youth, vanity, hedonism, time, death, fashion, society, love.

There is such a direct correlation and social commentary to celebrity culture that I can’t quite put into words. I can’t help but think about how when one becomes a celebrity, they have access and comfortably in practicing hedonism, and you see a lot of celebrities struggle with such access to fame, drugs, power to arrest aging.

‘By the way, Dorian,’ he said, after a pause, ‘”What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose — how does the quotation run? — his own soul”?’