The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapters 1-5

Preface

• Expressive of Wilde’s aesthetic philosophy

  • Art for arts sake

• Defensive of his work

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

• Foreshadows the role of the main characters

  • Basil-- the artist

  • Lord Henry-- the critic

  • Sybil-- the medium

  • Dorian-- the art

“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.”

Influence

• Lord Henry affect Dorian who affects Basil’s painting

  • Dorian’s beauty affects Basil’s work

“There is nothing that art cannot express, and I know that the work I have done, since I met Dorian Gray, is good work, is the best work of my life. But in some curious way--I wonder will you understand me?--his personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style. I see things differently, I think of them differently. I can now recreate life in a way that was hidden from me before.”

• Dorian brings out the best in Basil’s work

  • Lord Henry speech affects Dorian

    • His speech is more impacting than beauty

      • Impacts the innocent Dorian

      • Meant to impact the reader

Lord Henry

• Every character in the book is influenced by him

  • With the expectation of Basil

• Basil does not want him to influence Dorian

  • Henry very much influences Dorian the most.

“There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral--immoral from the scientific point of view."

• Makes Dorian realise his own beauty and believe that beauty and youth is only things worth meaning and makes him see the world through a different lens

“He was dimly conscious that entirely fresh influences were at work within him.”

• Paradoxes in Henry’s Language

  • Lack of simplicity

  • He is happy with himself

  • No longer finds satisfaction in emotions, as he has made himself detached from them, he finds pleasure in these games of intellect

  • Looks like he is stimulating Dorian —> he wants to stimulate his intellect (like Socrates’ idea that philosophy is already in the people and has to be brought out by debate)

    • Henry would like to be philanthropic

    • He justifies his corruption of Dorian with philanthropy

    • He is lowering him down to his level —> values of youth

“Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.”

“The worst of having a romance is that it leaves one so unromantic.”

“Those who are faithful know only the pleasures of love: it is the faithless who know love’s tragedies.”

“He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.”

The Painting

• Although Lord Henry has a hand in making Dorian aware of his own beauty-- it is ultimately the painting that does

“I am less to you than your ivory Hermes or your silver Faun. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose.”

• Dorian becomes jealous of the painting

• Puts into perspective how youth and beauty are fleeting

• Feels like Basil only values him for his looks although that is not true

• Makes Dorian realise and fear his own morality

“How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will always remain young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

• The portrait is a constant reminder that he will age and grow old

Basil

“You know how I love secrecy. It is the only thing that can make modern life wonderful or mysterious to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it.”

• Brings romance

“As long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me”

• Art

  • Basil is totally involved with his work and it is the aspect of being an artist

  • He also puts himself into the art as much as he does what the art is really about

Dorian

“One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world.”

“He was made to be worshipped.”

“Dorian’s whims are laws to everybody, except himself.”

“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”

“Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I will kill myself.”

Lord Henry and Dorian

• Lord Henry wants to influence Dorian

  • He wants to shape the very being of Dorian

“Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow.... There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of Influence.”

• He views life and art as the same

  • Plays into the aestheticism that Wilde discussed in the preface

“It was delightful to watch him. With his beautiful face, and his beautiful soul, he was a thing to wonder at. It was no matter how it all ended, or was destined to end.”

“Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly--that is what each of us is here for.”

• Lord Henry will take this away from Dorian-- the ability to become his own person

• He just wants Dorian to be like him

Language

• Especially flowery and extragrant

  • Art

• Constant use of flower and botany imagery

  • Symbolic of the theme of beauty

  • Nature vs love

    • Nature is immortal and beauty is not

“The heat was terribly oppressive, and the huge sunlight flamed like a monstrous dahlia with petals of fire.”

Henry v. Basil

• Basil tells Henry he doesn’t reply and understands much.

  • Henry talks about marriage and basil disagrees

  • Same with Henry’s idea of friendship

“Basil You can’t feel what I feel you change too often”

• So Henry changes more often than Basil does

• Henry is “self conscious and self-satisfied”

• Basil says about Henry:

“He has a very bad influence over all his friends, with the exception of myself.”

• Could be because:

  • The relationship between the two

    • Compared as more of brothers than friends

  • Relationship between critic and artist

• The triangular relationship

  • Lord Henry wins out over Dorian-- Dorian is going to be influenced by him much more than Basil

    • He ditches Basil for Henry

    • Wants to hear him speak

Beauty

• Nature regains its beauty and regenerates itself but humans cannot keep their beauty

• Make the most of your youth, and seek new experiences now that the world is yours

• Language is indicative of this theme

Exploration of life

“Human life,—that appeared to him the one thing worth investigating. There was nothing else of any value, compared to it. It was true that as one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could not wear over one’s face a mask of glass, or keep the sulfurous fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams. There were poisons so subtle that to know their properties one had to sicken of them. There were maladies so strange that one had to pass through them if one sought to understand their nature.”

Oscar Wilde

• References to Greece

  • same sex relationships were supported in Greece

  • Older man and younger man —> respected

• Hate against capitalism?

“Anybody, even a stockbroker, can look civilized (with a suit)”

Sybil Vane

• The significance of her name

  • Sybil: Greek prophet/ oracle that the gods spoke through

    • She is an actress and thus is the medium of art-- Playwrights express their art through her

  • Vane: as in vain-- failure?

• Compared to a flower

“The curves of her throat were like the curves of a white lily. Her hands seemed to be made of cool ivory.”

“red petals of her lips”

• Shakespeare also writes about this in his sonnets, and it is a nice parallelism because she is a

• Shakespearean actress.

• Calls Dorian “Prince Charming”

  • Expresses her naive and fairytale like view of the world

    • Foreshadows that she will be manipulated

    • Her mother was also manipulated by the upper class- similar to Dorian

  • She never met him

    • She only judges him based on appearance and he her

    • Very shallow

“Sibyl is the only thing I care about. What is it to me where she came from? From her little head to her little feet, she is absolutely and entirely divine.”

• Dorian is offered to know where she came from but turns it down

• Judges her solely on appearance

• She wishes the best for her brother and plans out his future

  • Reinforces the idea of her naivety

James Vane

• Foreshadowing

“Don't forget that you will have only one child now to look after, and believe me that if this man wrongs my sister, I will find out who he is, track him down, and kill him like a dog. I swear it.”