REVIEW: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY- Oscar Wilde

Though I have seen and read The Importance Of Being Earnest several times, I have never read a novel by the colourful, charasmatic Oscar Wilde.

Dorian Gray is the handsome muse of Bail Hallward, an inspiring painter. Young Mr. Gray is an innocent participant, until he meets Basil's old university friend, Harry Wotton; with a few it well-chosen words, Wotton succeeds in unravelling and corrupting the world as Dorian knows it. As Gray begins to follow Harry's advice and worship beauty above all else, his quality of life seems to be on the rise- until a tragedy, indirectly his fault, causes him to view a portrait of himself (as painted by Basil) very differently...

Wilde's wild use of language certainly did not disappoint, as well as his development of the characters. There were several characters that left a bitter taste in my mouth- Harry, Dorian's corruptor and a quinessential dandy, and even Dorian himself after his turn for the worse- but I think that's exactly what Wilde wanted. He wanted me to be riled by Harry's masogynistic attitude; I'm not a feminist, but some comments definitely crossed the line. However, Harry- and Wilde, for I believe Wilde put a lot of himself into this character- redeems himself slightly with some beautiful words, so truthful it almost hurts.

'There are many things we would throw away if we were not afraid others were going to pick them up.'


'There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no-one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.'


'We live in an age where men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty.'

That last quotation makes me hark back to Keats' wonderful Ode to a Grecian Urn, with that unforgettable closing couplet:

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty- that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'


Wilde is clearly an advocate of this idea; he uses this novel to convey that beauty cannot be contained, and must be fully realised, inside and out. I was never quite sure whether Dorian's ever-changing portrait was real, or a figment of his corrupted imagination...and, like the character development, I think Wilde planned it that way.