The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Line of inquiry:

In what ways does Oscar Wilde explore the conflict of identity through his skilful portrayal of
Dorian Gray’s obsession with hedonism and aesthetic pleasure?

Introduction:

“The Picture Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde was originally published in 1890. Upon its release,
opinions were divided regarding whether or not this book should be allowed into people’s
hands. However, Wilde responded to the negative reviews of his controversial novel saying
his famous epigram: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well
written, or badly written. That is all”.1 He admitted that this novel “is poisonous if you like, but
you cannot deny that it is also perfect, and perfection is what we artists aim at.” 2 Readers
could discern this statement hidden in plain sight everywhere between the covers of this
great novel. Is Oscar Wilde trying to preach a philosophy of hedonism and total enslavement
to aesthetic pleasures in the one novel he had ever written, “The Picture of Dorian Gray?”
And this raises my line of inquiry: “In what ways does Oscar Wilde explore the conflict of
identity through his skilful portrayal of Dorian Gray’s obsession with hedonism and aesthetic
pleasure? Through his unique style of writing, his skilful use of symbolism and his
employment of various other stylistic features, Oscar Wilde has managed to convey a
powerful message about the hypocrisy of our modern society and about people’s eternal
obsession with youth and beauty.

1
Preface
2
Oscar Wilde. "To the Editor of the Daily Chronicle," in The Letters of Oscar Wilde. Rupert Hart-Davis (ed.). New
York: Harcourt, Brace, 1962. 264. Hereafter, all quotations from Oscar Wilde's letters will be taken from this
edition and will be followed by their page numbers in parenthesis

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 Oscar Wilde's Writing Style
in
The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde had often spoken of his belief that, in artistic matters, style
outweighed sincerity or substance. As such, in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his
attention was therefore paid to form and the nuances of wording in his novel. If the
novel was an “essay on decorative art”, it was also a piece of decorative art composed of
carefully selected phrases. In fact, Wilde was so determined to have perfection in his
works, when he was asked to write a story of a hundred thousand beautiful words, he
complained that “there are not one hundred thousand beautiful words in the English
language.”

Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil

Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I
would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.’’

Oscar Wilde had a phenomenal ability to incorporate aspects of both fantasy

and realism into his works. Through thoughtful imagery and realistic dialect, he
successfully merged two contradicting genres into a fascinatingly morbid tale. Wilde also
exceled in his use of imagery. He vividly described people and situations with many
types of literary devices though his favorite and therefore most frequented, is morbid
imagery. He commanded an astonishing mastery of the art of morbidity, describing in
unusual detail images of corpses and blood and a murder that would rival anything in
modern cinema.

“He [Dorian] rushed at him, and dug the knife (Wilde pg. 126). This passage
describes in haunting detail a gruesome murder and paints a terrifying picture in even the
most unimaginative mind.

However, most readers are divided in their response to a style and atmosphere
which early reviewers found deeply distasteful. Richard Ellman wrote of ‘a certain
gaminess’ about Wilde’s favorite poem ‘Charmides’ (Elmann, p.135), and the phrase
could also pertain to The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Another style that is prevalent in Oscar Wilde’s novel, is the presence of dialogue
rather than action. Oscar Wilde prefers his characters to engage in casual conversation in

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a sitting room much more often than actual action. Through his writing, Wilde seems to
be striving to stimulate the visual and musical arts through language primarily.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde’s only novel, is almost written in the
style of a dramatic play rather than the conventions of the novel at the time. He does
not seem to be concerned with going into long detail with describing the setting of the
story, but more concerned with the dialog and demeanor of the characters to further the
plot along.

Also like his plays, in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Wilde doesn’t use many
characters to tell the story. The plot centers on only three major characters: Dorian, Lord
Henry, and Basil. Besides focusing on what these characters say, Wilde depends a lot on
the reader’s interpretation of the way they act and behave to certain situations, instead
of just telling the reader about it as a typical author of the time would do in a novel.

Whether descriptive or dialogic, Wilde’s writing in the novel is characterized by

the use of paradox (a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd
but in reality expresses a possible truth). It is his favorite stylistic device. In The Picture of
Dorian Gray, Basil, Dorian, and Lord Henry-- the latter being called “Prince Paradox” by
his friends-- trade paradoxes constantly. Contemporary reviewers were quick to identify
the technique and belittle it, or argue that it only played on ‘the convertibility of
terms.’ However, his style was soon accepted by the vast majority of British
reviewers. Writing in the Free Review (June 1, 1895), literary critic, Ernest Newman
hailed Wilde’s style saying, “To hear one of Mr. Wilde’s paradoxes by itself is to be
startled; to read them in their proper context is to recognize the great fact on which I
have already insisted, that a paradox is a truth seen round a corner. There is not one of
his paradoxes that does not argue our straightly and squarely, and we rise from the
perusal of them with a self-conscious wisdom that we had not before.”

‘’The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for
both parties.’’

‘’You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply
a pose.’

‘Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know,’

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

‘’I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than
anything else in the world.’’

‘’It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the
world is the visible, not the invisible.’’

‘’The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows
sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its
monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great
events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the
great sins of the world take place also.’’

‘’And Beauty is a form of Genius – is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no

explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the
reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It
has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.’’

‘’As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly
satisfied. As for conversation, there are only five women in London worth talking to, and
two of these can’t be admitted into decent society.’’

Another style familiar to Oscar Wilde is his incredible talent for morbidity and
evil. He had an astonishing grasp on the reality of human nature and the darkness that
resides in everyone’s soul. Unlike most writers of his time, Wilde was particularly in tune
with the darker side of things. He recognized the lust for immortality that is built into
every human being and exemplified it in his novel. Dorian’s greed for eternal youth
results in the deterioration of his soul as seen in his portrait. He had an insight into evil
that few authors of his time period could claim and he mastered this insight and put it
into writing with incredible ease.

Few authors have successfully written with a skill to rival that of Oscar
Wilde’s. Though Stephen King mastered morbidity, he fails to grasp the eloquence and
rhetoric of Wilde’s style. Likewise, the eloquence of text can be closely matched by an

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author such as Charles Dickens, but Dickens cannot be closely compared to Wilde in his
sense of imagery. Wilde had the whole package and no writer, even to this day, has
been able to mimic his distinct, and slightly disturbing, writing style.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Once you have read his essays or stories, or seen one of his plays, or even heard
some of his witticisms, you can easily identify the distinctive style of Oscar Wilde. He
took enormous pains to polish his work, and drafts of Dorian Gray reveal a large
number of small alterations that show the attention he paid to the precise choice of
words and to the rhythm of his sentences. Brought up in an age and a country which
regarded story-telling and reading aloud as valuable accomplishments, he was at pains
to make his work easy on the ear.

Wilde’s prose varies in tone from sharp and witty one-liners to elaborate,
sensuous passages which develop argument but also hypnotise with their distinctive
rhythms. Certainly Wilde is always aware of the presence of his reader and takes pains
to shape a lively relationship between reader and writer. The Preface to Dorian Gray,
signed ‘Oscar Wilde’, is a direct challenge to us to pay attention and draw our own
conclusions about the story.

omniscient narrator or 3rd Person Point of View

Third person limited is the most commonly used viewpoint in most classic novels, or
traditional literature. The writer allows the reader into the innermost thoughts, feelings,
perceptions and prejudices of the point-of-view character. The third-person limited is
adaptable to multiple viewpoints, and writer is able to add suspense, because the
reader is limited to knowing what the POV character knows.

This is writing from the perspective of a narrator, hovering outside the story. The
narrator knows everything, but the characters don’t. It’s kind of like God is narrating,
or a fly on the wall.

Wilde could be called an omniscient narrator in that he appears able to tell us

every aspect of his characters’ thoughts. However, his usual method of doing this is to
use free indirect speech: that is, the thoughts are not reported dispassionately in indirect
speech ('Dorian thought that Sibyl had let him down by killing herself'); nor are they
treated as monologues in direct speech ('“Sibyl has let me down,” thought Dorian'),
which tends to sound false in the absence of a listening audience. Rather, they are
narrated in language consistent with the thinker, but in the third person, giving an extra
distance that invites us not simply to observe but to judge, as we ‘hear’ what they

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would never dream of voicing aloud. The passage beginning 'Had he been cruel?' (p.
74) relates Dorian’s thought processes about his treatment of Sibyl without comment.
Yet as he moves from self-righteousness ('She had been shallow and unworthy') to self-
centredness ('During the three terrible hours the play had lasted, he had lived centuries
of pain') to smug sexism ('Besides, women were better suited to bear sorrow than
men'), he is simultaneously comic in his immaturity and monstrous in his selfishness.

When characters speak aloud, they often do so with the wit for which Wilde
was famous. But while these bouts of wit provide a refreshing contrast in pace and tone
to the slower prose of their unvoiced thoughts, the jokes are not gratuitous. Sincerity
was not as important as playing your social part well.

Style
Style refers to how the writer tells the story and the language that he uses. In The
Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde uses sophisticated language which reflects the way
the characters speak. Educated members of the British upper classes at the time would
have been comfortable with the type of language used by Wilde. Many, like Dorian,
were well-educated and familiar with French, Latin and Greek.

• The choice of diction is an important feature of Wilde’s style and reveals a great deal.
For example, the flowery words and descriptions underpin the elaborate lifestyle that
Dorian has. At one point, the writer describes him as: “… reclining in a luxurious arm-
chair, in the little library of Lord Henry’s house in Mayfair. [Chapter 4, page 54.]

An analysis of the underlined words reveals details about Dorian, his lifestyle and the
people he spends time with.

Dorian has a relaxed, unhurried life, owing mainly to the fact that he has so much
money that he does not have to work. He does not sit in a chair, he reclines, which is
relaxed way of sitting. The chair is luxurious which means that it is very comfortable
and expensive, again reflecting the wealth that surrounds him. His friend has a library in
his home, a sign of sophistication and the means to afford many books. Henry is a
Lord, a member of the aristocratic class who inherit wealth and privilege as if it is a
right. The fact that Lord Henry has a house in Mayfair implies that he has homes
elsewhere too. Dorian himself has two homes: Grosvenor Square in London and Selby
Royal in the countryside.

• The Gothic imagery creates a mood of suspense and expectation, which adds greatly
to the entertainment value of the novel. On the night that Dorian murders Basil, Dorian
is “wrapped in heavy furs, as the night (is) cold and foggy.” Dorian meets Basil who is

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going to Paris by the “midnight train”. [Chapter 12, page 170.] In melodramatic fashion
Dorian later tells Basil: “I shall show you my soul!” [Chapter 12, page 175.]

* In the most general terms, Gothic literature can be defined as writing that employs
dark and picturesque scenery, startling and melodramatic narrative devices, and an
overall atmosphere of exoticism, mystery, fear, and dread.

• Lord Henry’s paradoxical (confusing) manner of speaking is called epigram. He speaks

in a humorous manner, using words that sound lovely and clever. On closer analysis,
his shocking ideas are revealed. The people around him do not often challenge his way
of thinking because he expresses himself so well, keeping the mood pleasant and non-
confrontational. In reality his dangerous ideas are poisonous and highly immoral. Most
of what he says is morally dubious. “What nonsense people talk about happy
marriages!” exclaimed Lord Henry. “A man can be happy with any woman, as long as
he does not love her.” [Chapter 15, page 207.]

• When characters do challenge Lord Henry, they do so in a similarly light-hearted

manner and never get angry with him. In response to the comment above, Lady
Ruxton says: “Ah! What a cynic you are … You are really an admirable tonic …”
[Chapter 15, page 207.]

Symbols

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The PEEL method explained:

The PEEL method essentially focuses on the format and structure when formulating a
written piece.

Each element helps to strengthen your argument by allowing you to produce overall
effective paragraphs that complement and connect to one another.

POINT – Your topic sentence is extremely important for providing variability and unity
within your paper. Therefore, the first sentence of each paragraph should clearly state
the point of the paragraph which should be directly connected to the argument of the
essay. Essentially keep it short and straight to the point.

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EVIDENCE – The evidence presented should be in line with your point of view,
meaning the evidence provided should be credible and verifiable such as examples from
the text.

EXPLAIN – This portion of your paragraph may be the largest one as it involves
interpreting, evaluating as well as providing additional details to accompany your main
idea. Similarly this section may also include a verdict or claim being made in which you
clearly state a supposition based on the evidence provided.

LINK – When providing the link sentence at the end of your paragraph, you are not
only linking back to the bulk of the paragraph and the topic, but you are also allowing
for a transition to the next topic or paragraph. In some cases, you may consider the link
sentence actually to be the first sentence of the next paragraph. This may provide unity
and coherence to the work.

Points to consider before you start with the HL Essay:

Write in the present tense: e.g. Instead of saying Dorian was vain, say Dorian is vain.
The writer has created him that way therefore he does not change.

Always write in the third person: Do not say I agree… Say it is evident that…

Do not use contractions or abbreviations: Don’t should be written as Do not

Do not retell the plot/story and respond directly to the question verb: Evaluate, Assess,
Discuss.

Use linking words e.g. However, in addition, considering, in contrast etc.

This essay is an argumentative essay; therefore, identify the argumentative element in

the topic.

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