Characters Discussed
Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray, a handsome young man who, while visiting the studio of an artist friend who is painting his portrait, idly wishes that the portrait would grow old while he himself remained young looking. Later, having treated a young woman cruelly, he notices the first sign of alteration in the portrait. Alarmed, he decides to repent and to marry her, but he learns that she has killed herself. He now gives himself over entirely to a life of corruption, under the tutelage of an evil friend. His crimes include murder. At last he decides to destroy the hideous portrait, which has been long locked away. He stabs it with a knife. Hearing a cry, the servants find lying before a portrait of their handsome master a withered, wrinkled body with a knife in its breast.
Lord Henry Wotton
Lord Henry Wotton, a witty, degenerate man who deliberately tempts Dorian into a life of debauchery.
Basil Hallward
Basil Hallward, Dorian’s artist friend, who paints his portrait. He asks Lord Wotton never to meet Dorian, saying that the older man’s influence would be evil; but Dorian comes to the studio while Lord Wotton is there, and the friendship begins. Hallward and Dorian become estranged; but on his thirty-eighth birthday, Dorian shows Hallward the altered portrait and then, angry because he has betrayed himself, kills Hallward.
Alan Campbell
Alan Campbell, a young chemist whom Dorian blackmails into disposing of Hallward’s body with fire and chemicals. Campbell later commits suicide under strange circumstances.
Sibyl Vane
Sibyl Vane, a young actress who knows Dorian only as “Prince Charming.” Dorian treats her cruelly, and she kills herself.
James Vane
James Vane, her brother. He has sworn revenge against “Prince Charming,” but he hesitates to kill Dorian, who looks years too young to be the man who ruined his sister eighteen years before. Assured that Dorian is in fact that man, he follows him to his country house and is accidentally shot and killed during a hunt on the estate.
Characters
Alan Campbell
Alan Campbell was once a close companion of Dorian Gray. Their friendship spanned eighteen months before ending for reasons unknown. Following their separation, Campbell fell into a deep depression and abandoned his passion for music. After Dorian kills Basil, he calls upon Campbell, a skilled chemist, to help dispose of the body. Reluctantly, Campbell agrees only after Dorian threatens him with blackmail. Tragically, Campbell later takes his own life in his laboratory by shooting himself.
Lord Fermor
Lord Fermor, the uncle of Lord Henry Wotton, is an unmarried former diplomat who dedicates himself to what the narrator describes as “the great aristocratic art of doing absolutely nothing.” He provides Lord Henry with information about Dorian Gray’s family background.
Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray is twenty years old at the novel's outset. He is the grandson of Lord Kelso, and his mother was the stunning Lady Margaret Devereux. Margaret married a man disapproved of by Lord Kelso, who then orchestrated the man's death in a duel. Dorian's mother passed away within a year, leaving him to be raised by his grandfather. Upon turning twenty-one, Dorian is set to inherit a substantial fortune, ensuring a comfortable lifestyle.
Dorian is exceptionally handsome, captivating the artist Basil Hallward. When Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, he falls under the sway of Henry’s philosophy of new hedonism, which prioritizes immediate sensual pleasure over ethics or morality. Shortly after meeting Lord Henry, Dorian falls in love with actress Sibyl Vane but cruelly rejects her when she confesses that her love for him has diminished her passion for acting. Sibyl’s subsequent suicide marks the first alteration in Basil's portrait of Dorian: a cruel expression appears on his face. Following this event, Dorian embarks on a hedonistic lifestyle, seeking beauty in transient sensations and artistic objects.
However, Dorian's lack of moral balance leads him into selfish and destructive behavior. He ruins many of his friends' lives, and as the years pass, rumors of his reprehensible conduct spread through London, causing people to avoid him. Despite this, Dorian's physical appearance remains as youthful as the day the portrait was created, with only the painting reflecting the degradation of his soul.
Dorian reaches his lowest point when he murders his friend Basil, who has made the mistake of probing too deeply into Dorian's activities. Dorian successfully conceals his crime, and when James Vane, who has been attempting to kill him, dies in a hunting accident, it seems Dorian is safe. However, the weight of his debauched life burdens him, and he desires change, a goal unsupported by his friend Lord Henry. Eventually, in a desperate act, Dorian slashes the portrait that reveals his sins. In a mysterious transference, Dorian dies from a knife wound to his heart, and the portrait reverts to its original state.
Basil Hallward
Basil Hallward is an artist who paints the portrait of Dorian Gray. Enchanted by Dorian's beauty, whom he has known for two months, Basil paints him in various forms. He secretly idolizes Dorian and later admits this adoration to him. Basil believes Dorian has inspired his finest work. Through Dorian, he has discovered a new painting style, hoping it will lead to a new artistic movement that merges Greek and Romantic influences, blending spirit and passion, body and soul. Basil does not wish to exhibit the painting, feeling he has put too much of himself into it, and instead, he gifts it to Dorian.
Unlike his friend Lord Henry, whose cynicism he views as mere pretense, Basil does not adopt an amoral stance on life. He tries to comfort Dorian after Sibyl Vane's death and is appalled by Dorian's indifference. Basil attributes Dorian's callousness to Lord Henry's negative influence.
Following this encounter, Basil and Dorian rarely meet. Eighteen years after their initial meeting, they cross paths by chance. Basil demands the truth about the numerous rumors surrounding Dorian's misconduct. Dorian resents Basil's criticism and decides to reveal the true state of his soul, as depicted in the portrait. Basil is only able to express his horror at the portrait's transformation before Dorian fatally stabs him. Basil was scheduled to leave for Paris that night and planned to stay for six months, so his absence goes unnoticed for some time.
Adrian Singleton
Adrian Singleton is a former friend of Dorian's. Dorian encounters him again at an opium den, and it is evident that Singleton's life has been ruined due to his association with Dorian. Shunned by his friends, Adrian seeks solace in opium addiction.
James Vane
James Vane, the sixteen-year-old brother of Sibyl Vane, becomes a sailor. Before setting off, he vows to kill Sibyl’s aristocratic admirer, known only as Prince Charming, if he ever wrongs her. Eighteen years later, James spots Dorian Gray in an opium den and follows him outside, ready to exact his vengeance. However, Dorian convinces James that he is mistaken. Realizing his error, James eventually tracks Dorian down again, but during a hunting expedition, he is accidentally shot and killed.
Mrs. Vane
Mrs. Vane is the mother of Sibyl and James Vane. Like her daughter, she is an actress, but she is weary from a difficult life. The family lives in poverty because Mrs. Vane was not married to the father of her children, who died without providing for them.
Sibyl Vane
Sibyl Vane is a seventeen-year-old actress who excels in performing Shakespearean roles at a shabby theater in London's backstreets. Dorian Gray falls in love with her, and she reciprocates his feelings. However, after a poor performance, Dorian rejects her, causing her such distress that she takes her own life.
Lord Henry Wotton
Lord Henry Wotton, a thirty-year-old aristocrat and friend of Basil Hallward, has a languid demeanor and is constantly smoking cigarettes. Although married, his wife eventually leaves him for another man. Upon meeting Dorian Gray, Lord Henry makes a significant impression, leading Dorian to adopt the lifestyle he believes Lord Henry advocates. Despite promoting the pursuit of sensual experiences, Lord Henry prefers to remain a spectator of life. He observes Dorian’s life as if it were a psychological experiment of his own making. Amoral and cynical, he shows no sympathy for Sibyl Vane’s death or Basil’s disappearance. Lord Henry enjoys using his sharp intellect to craft epigrams at dinner parties or in conversations with Basil and Dorian. He favors witty remarks that challenge conventional morality over engaging with life’s practicalities. Basil often remarks that Lord Henry doesn’t truly believe what he says. Late in the novel, Lord Henry admits he wishes to be young again but quickly hides his true feelings behind a witticism: “To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
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