The Picture of Dorian Gray Analysis

The portrait is the main symbol at work here. It's a kind of living allegory, a visible interpretation of Dorian's soul. Basically, the picture represents Dorian's inner self, which becomes uglier...

Deck The Halls With DecadenceLet's talk about time first. It's important, and not just because it elicits questions like "What are they wearing?" and "How did they clean up after all those horses?"...

Although we see the story mainly through the lens of Dorian's opinions, we also dip into the minds of other characters here and there, from Lord Henry to Mrs. Vane. We're able to see everyone's tho...

This short novel is an interesting combination of elements—Wilde wrote it in a sort of high literary mode (that is to say, with ornate, self-consciously artistic language and heightened sense of...

Admiring and judgmental? We know this sounds complicated, but stick with us. We get the distinct feeling that the narrator here is torn between fascination and disgust—Lord Henry and Dorian's dep...

Wilde really unleashes the rabid hounds of ornamentation on this piece of work. His prose is almost visibly sparkling with gems and gilded bric-a-brac; reading Dorian Gray is like watching an all-o...

You know how some titles are little mysteries in themselves, and how they can make you wonder, "Man, what was that author thinking?" Well, rest easy, because this is not one of those titles. The Pi...

There isn't an epigraph exactly, but there is a totally on-point "Preface." (Read the Preface here.) The Preface is a little confusing at first glance—we open a novel expecting to find something...

The novel ends, like it begins, with the painting. Dorian attempts to destroy the portrait, the image of his disgustingly corrupted soul, which haunts him like a conscience. He slashes at it with a...

Dorian is (literally) a model of youth and beauty (Chapters 1-2)Dorian's nature is unspoiled and his exquisite outer beauty mirrors the pure inner beauty of his soul. He's as innocent as the day h...

Innocent Dorian meets Lord Henry (Chapters 1-2)Dorian Gray is totally young, pure, and beautiful, and his only concerns at this stage seem to be related to staying young, pure, and beautiful. How...

After dumping Sibyl and dealing (quickly) with her death, Dorian reads the yellow book for the first time, and is profoundly changed… for the worse.Dorian kills Basil in a fit of moral-crisis-dr...

When Oscar Wilde went to court for holding an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, the prosecutor tried to quote Dorian Gray as evidence against Wilde (Source).Oscar Wilde's famous last words: "Either...

So nobody actually has sex overtly in Dorian Gray, but the sexual implications are scandalous (or at least were scandalous to Wilde's Victorian audience). We hear about well-bred young ladies who r...

Adonis, myth (1.7)Narcissus, myth (1.7)Austin Henry Dobson, "To A Greek Girl" (1.20)Antinoüs, myth (1.20)Plato (3.5)Bacchus and Silenus, myth (3.16)Antoine de la Sale, Les Cent Nouvelles (4.1)Will...