illustration of the upper-right corner of Dorian Gray's picture

The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

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In "The Picture of Dorian Gray", how does Dorian conceive the idea of the portrait aging instead of him?

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Oscar Wilde's novel has an element of Gothic fiction. It is a story of a narcissistic obsession with youth. Dorian Gray wants more from life than what it can offer. Lord Henry Wotton tempts Dorian with the notion of eternal youth and beauty. He teaches Dorian the doctrine of hedonism, which gives the highest value to pleasure. Lord Henry believes that a person should never deny himself any pleasure in life, as "self-denial makes the soul sick." He gives Dorian a yellow book about a hedonistic lifestyle that will ravage his life for the next eighteen years.

Dorian succumbs to temptation without realizing the consequences of his decision. He moves from naivety to a state of sociopathy then, finally, to the depths of immorality. His ultimate act of evil is when he kills Basil, the friend who painted his portrait.

Lord Henry is the metaphorical Devil in the story. He corrupts Dorian's soul and enjoys his decline.

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Dorian gets the idea from Lord Henry Wotton, who talks about a philosophy of life in which morality is set aside in the pursuit of fulfillment through the enjoyment of sensuality and passion.  Dorian, who is enamored by his own youth and beauty, decides that he would give anything, even his own soul if, instead of growing old, he could retain his good looks and have a portrait of himself show the ravages of aging instead.

The portrait to which he is referring has been painted by his friend Basil Hallward, who has envisioned a new form of art in which soul and body are linked in perfect harmony.  Dorian first hears Lord Henry expound on his ideas, and makes his fatal wish, at Basil's house when the artist has just completed the picture.  Fittingly then, as Dorian pursues his hedonistic way through life, the face Basil has rendered on canvas really does become more and more sordid, in reflection not only of age but of the dissipation of its subject's soul.

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