Picture of Dorian Gray Analysis
Too often do we remember the winter and forget the frigid air thereof. We pray for the warmth of the summer, but during the heat, we yearn for the cool touch of snow. Our desires, when fulfilled, don’t lead to satisfaction, but bog the soul within the quagmire of dread. Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray demonstrates the insatiability of human desire, and its consequences.
The book begins by introducing Dorian Gray, a boy with profound beauty and charisma. Next, we meet the artist Basil Hallward and a friend, Lord Henry Wotton, a philosopher. Basil displays a portrait of Gray, while talking about how Gray inspired him profoundly. Basil seems to revere Dorian for his beauty.
Henry then begins prattling on and on about how one’s youth is the most important and valuable asset of life, and without it, life loses its meaning. It was this speech that kindled an insatiable desire for everlasting youth in Gray’s mind.
“I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die… Why should [a portrait] keep what I must lose?” Gray complains (Wilde 29). “If it were I who was to always be young, and the picture to grow old! For that- for that- I would give everything!.. I would give my own soul for that!” (Wilde 29). Gray’s yen sets up the premise of the novel, which is that Gray maintains his youth while his portrait displays his decline.
Lord Henry and Basil Hallward both seemed to represent the materialistic world, talking about beauty and art, without having any sort of practical function. They give Dorian an introduction to the higher stratum of society: the politicians and the wealthy. They drive Dorian to want to bask in success and to avoid any sort of toil.
As time goes on, Dorian continuously evades trouble by paying people for their silence and calling upon friends for favors. This behavior invites deeper problems like the death of his lover or the increasing jealousy and suspicion of others. However, these problems weren’t the worst he had to face; he could have moved or run from these problems. The central issue was his inability to change, although his sins did manifest themselves in his painted image. The life of the artist isn’t about lacking consequences, but about acknowledging them and pursuing the art anyway. Dorian Gray becomes a representation of stasis itself. His life is one without toil or loss; it is without growth or mistakes, and as cliche as it might sound, a life without growth cannot be deemed a life at all. Gray wasn’t as dynamic as his changing portrait. No, he was something else. He has value but no worth; he never changes yet is appreciated. He has no soul and so has no love.