The nineteenth century was the glory age of the British novel – and for that reason the Eastbrook English curriculum features many of these fantastic texts.
One Year 11 student, Raul Comsa, took a real interest in Victorian Gothics. Having read ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ as preparation for his GCSE English Literature exam, Raul wanted to explore the genre in more detail and read Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ in full in his own time. But he didn’t stop there. He then wrote this wonderful review:
After finishing The Picture Of Dorian Gray last night, I found myself gazing at the ceiling, contemplating the majesty of this book. Being an investigation into the human soul that Oscar Wilde wrote, asking himself what would happen if one could live a hedonistic life as a beautiful man with no consequences for his actions.
While the realisation that Dorian has, that being that beauty is finite and fades over time, is rather obvious, it completely changes Dorian’s life. People, such as his friend Basil, who throughout the book displays numerous signs of homoeroticism, or Sybil, Dorian’s main love interest in the novel, only want him for his beauty, Sybil not even knowing Dorian’s name, calling him “Prince Charming” all throughout the book.
The titular character, Dorian Gray, is at first a young, beautiful, pure man, but as the novel goes on, he warps into being self-centred and self-destructive. Sure, he might be stunningly beautiful, but he leaves behind broken heart after broken heart (literally). Loved by both men and women, Dorian talks about the importance of aesthetic beauty and the ruin that a hedonistic lifestyle can bring.
Basil Hallward is the pure artist that painted Dorian’s portrait. Being concerned about Dorian’s reputation, but also caring about creating and capturing beauty, saying numerous times just how Dorian is beautiful and how they were destined to meet. Wilde opens his preface with “the artist is the creator of beautiful things”, and while that is true, Basil creating a perfect portrait depicting Dorian Gray’s beauty, his own creation ends up becoming his demise, and turning him into a “rotting thing upstairs”. However, Basil is not the one that changes Dorian the most.
That title goes to Lord Henry Wotton. In the preface, Wilde writes “The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.”. Lord Henry being a critic that explains life and beauty in a way that completely changes Dorian. While Basil is able to capture Dorian’s beauty on canvas, it is Lord Henry that explains them to Dorian in such a way that awakens Dorian to its significance. Henry completely influences Dorian’s life in regards to his ability to make Dorian think whatever he wants, and forces his ideals on him, however not practicing them himself.
The novel has many symbols that have deeper meaning than may seem at first:
The painting, being the most important of them all as it is THE centrepiece of the plot, interacts with Dorian, changing its state whenever Dorian does something immoral, going against Victorian beliefs that art is always beautiful and divine.
Flowers, that appear numerous times throughout the novel and that symbolise Dorian’s inevitable fading beauty, just as a flower’s beauty fades with time as it wilts.
The theatre, that is supposed to be a form of escapism but ends up being the catalyst to Dorian’s descent into corruption as it is after he breaks up with Sybil and she commits suicide, that Dorian notices the changing picture.
That stupid yellow book that caused chapter 11 (God that chapter). Dorian became obsessed with the book, buying numerous copies, carrying it with him wherever he goes, representing Henry’s influence over Dorian.
The main theme of the novel, being the duality of man, reminding me a lot of The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, expresses itself in many forms, such as Appearance vs Reality, making us wonder which is more important, or Reputation vs Character, reputation being the stories others tell about a person while character being the true nature of that person’s character. A lot of people would’ve expected one’s actions to reflect on his appearance, just like in Jekyll and Hyde, however anyone who sees Dorian rejects the stories they constantly hear about him because he looks so beautiful.
The novel also shows how despite being corrupted to the point of committing murder, Dorian (representing Victorian men as a whole) is not beyond redemption and he can still come back, ending it all. The ending was amazing, having a great allegorical meaning.
That is why I absolutely hated the film version! I did not watch the entire film. Frankly, I don’t want to. I only watched the ending, a 3 minute scene, and was absolutely appalled. They completely massacred the entire meaning of the book! This is now less about the book, and more of my feelings on the absolutely horrible adaptation.
It left me with so many damn questions! Why is Sybil alive? Why is Henry there?! The only person who ever saw the picture apart from Dorian is Basil, and it cost him his life, the poor fool only trying to be a good friend! Dorian and Henry started fighting and a fire broke out, that being the reason the portrait is destroyed, not because of Dorian’s own ideas, absolutely destroying the previously mentioned allegorical ending. The portrait literally came alive like a zombie and tried… eating Dorian?- What? After watching those 3 minutes, I’m not even going to bother watching the rest of the film to find answers to my questions. I’ve sent the scene to my friend who was as equally appalled as I was.
In conclusion, absolutely beautiful (just like Dorian himself) book. Absolutely horrible adaptation.
Well done, Raul. Who knows… with writing like this, maybe we have our own Wilde or Dickens or Stevenson in the making!
Miss Pearson