Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray explained with chapter summaries in just a few minutes!
Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth analysis of the plot, characters, symbols, and themes of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Download the free study guide and infographic for The Picture of Dorian Gray here: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Picture-of-Dorian-Gray/infographic/
As both a morality tale and a horror story, The Picture of Dorian Gray traces the dissolution and destruction of the title character.
The devastatingly handsome Dorian Gray has his portrait painted as a youth and wishes that the painting, rather than his own visage, might reflect his increasing age. His idle wish comes true and his moral turpitude is reflected in his increasingly grisly likeness.
Whether this is an indictment of the character’s unethical dealings or of Victorian society’s disapproval of Gray’s veiled homosexuality remains a topic of intense debate.
Wilde’s own valorization of aesthetic beauty is well known and it seems likely that the story is in part an endorsement of that philosophy, which scandalized the ceaselessly practical Victorians.
Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in 1890. With characteristic savoir faire, Oscar Wilde weaves elements of the gothic and the aesthetic into the fabric of his best-known novel.
The novel The Picture of Dorian Gray contains many potent themes, including reputation versus character, as some find Dorian charming although his nature is dark and his reputation suffers; appearance versus reality, as the novel questions what is on the surface and what lies beneath it; and art versus life, as the difference between creating beauty and living beautifully is demonstrated. Important symbols include the painting, theater, and flowers.
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