TITLE The picture of Dorian Gray

AUTHOR                              Oscar Wilde

PUBLISHER                        La Spiga

DATE OF PUBLICATION 1891

GENRE          Novel

SETTING

time     1800s

place    England

CHARACTERS

The protagonist of the book is Dorian Gray, a beautiful young man who, under the influence of an older man (the cynic and aesthete Lord Henry Wotton) forfeits his soul to preserve his youth and beauty. He leads a life filled with sensations and pleasures, also committing crimes to gratify his wishes.

Also very important are the best friends of the protagonist: Lord Henry Wotton and the painter Basil Hallward. Lord Henry Wotton is a ten years older man than Dorian and he's fond of books, good music, beauty and eternal youth. He's a good orator and he is found of saying dangerous things, specially under the form of epigrams.

Basil Hallward is a painter and he is very popular. His friends say that he is not clever enough to have enemies. He is also really rather dull. He has a wild adoration for Dorian and he's the dominant motive of his art.

MAIN EVENTS

The scene opens into Basil Hallward's study, where he's talking with his friend Lord Henry Wotton about his last work: the picture of Dorian Gray, a beautiful young man, Basil's friend. In the second chapter the reader meets Dorian, who is immediately attracted from the way of speaking of Henry. As Dorian is so beautiful, young and pure, Henry begins to make conversations about the eternal youth and about the way of maintaining it. By the end of the chapter, the painter finishes his work and Dorian, seeing his image like reflected on the cloth, begins to cry. Unintentionally he makes a pact with the devil: he stays young and intact forever, in spite of the dissoluteness to which he abandon himself; it's the picture to grow old, showing also the marks of the corruption of his soul.

Dorian leads a life filled with sensations and abandoned to the satisfaction of the pleasures. He also kills Basil, because he thinks him to be responsible of the downfall of his soul.

The novel ends with Dorian's desperate attempt of killing his soul, that is reflected on the cloth of the picture, and in that moment he kills himself.

MEANING

The meaning of the book is this: every excess, like every excessive giving up, carries to the own downfall. Examples are the main characters of the book. Dorian Gray led a life filled with sensations and given to the satisfaction of the pleasures and tried to kill his soul and in that moment he killed himself. Basil Hallward, who venerated the physical beauty too much, died on account of a man in which soul he created a monstrous and absurd vanity. Instead Lord Henry Wotton tried to be only a spectator of the life; but he discovered that whoever rejects the battle stays wounded more deeply of whoever takes part really.

PENSONAL COMMENT

The book is written by the novelist, philosopher and poet Oscar Wilde. I read it in integral version and that caused me small problems of comprehension (not). Not so much for the reconstruction of the history, but more that other in those pulls without dialogues, where the author described the places, the states of mind and their sensations. Although these drawbacks I have appreciated the author's style. I have liked more specially the interventions of Lord Henry Wotton, who with his cynicism expressed his thoughts freely.

From the reading of the novel appears clear the author's passion for the art, the good music and the theatre; meanings that should be better appreciated also today.