Dorian invites Basil and Lord Henry to see Sibyl perform in a play. Sibyl, too enamoured with Dorian to act, performs poorly, which makes Basil and Lord Henry think Dorian has fallen in love with Sibyl because of her beauty instead of her talent. Embarrassed, Dorian rejects Sibyl, saying that acting is her beauty; without that, she no longer interests him. Returning home, Dorian notices that the portrait has changed; his wish came true, and the man in the portrait bears a subtle sneer of cruelty.
Conscience-stricken and lonely, Dorian decides to reconcile with Sibyl, writing a letter. However, in the morning, Lord Henry arrives and informs Dorian she has killed herself. Rationalizing his cruelty, the young man decides that he has no need for love since his immortality protects him from any consequence. Dorian locks the portrait up, and for eighteen years, he experiments with every vice, influenced by a morally poisonous French novel that Lord Henry gave him.
One night, before leaving for Paris, Basil goes to Dorian’s house to ask him about rumours of his self-indulgent sensualism. Dorian does not deny his debauchery and takes Basil to see the portrait. The portrait has become so hideous that Basil can only identify it as his by the signature on it. Horrified, Basil beseeches Dorian to pray for salvation; angered by Basil’s reaction, Dorian stabs him to death. Dorian then blackmails an old friend, scientist Alan Campbell, into using his knowledge of chemistry to destroy Basil’s body. Alan later kills himself.
To escape the guilt of his crime, Dorian goes to an opium den, where, unbeknownst to him, an older James Vane is present. James has been seeking vengeance upon Dorian ever since Sibyl’s death but had no leads to pursue as the only thing he knew about Dorian was the nickname she called him.
There, however, he hears someone refer to Dorian as “Prince Charming”. James accosts Dorian, who deceives him into believing he is too young to have known Sibyl, as his face is still that of a young man. James relents and releases Dorian but is then approached by a woman from the den who reproaches James for not killing Dorian. She confirms Dorian’s identity and explains that he has not aged in eighteen years.
James begins to stalk Dorian, who starts to fear for his life. During a shooting party, a hunter accidentally kills James, who was lurking in a thicket. On returning to London, Dorian tells the elderly Lord Henry that he will live righteously from now on. His new probity begins with deliberately not breaking the heart of Hetty Merton, his current romantic interest. Dorian wonders if his newly found goodness has rescinded the corruption in the picture but when he looks at it, he sees an even uglier image of himself. From that, Dorian understands that he can never be truly redeemed as he only wishes to be absolved of his sins, without truly believing that what he has done is wrong.
Deciding that only a full confession will suffice, Dorian finds the knife with which he murdered Basil and stabs the picture in a bout of fury.
His servants awaken on hearing a cry from the locked room; on the street, a passerby who also heard it calls the police. On entering the locked room, the servants find an old man stabbed in the heart, his figure withered and decrepit. They identify the corpse as Dorian only by the rings on the fingers, while the portrait beside him is beautiful again.
Characters
Dorian Gray – a handsome, selfish young man enthralled by Lord Henry’s “new” hedonism. He indulges in every pleasure and virtually every ‘sin’, studying its effect upon him.
Basil Hallward – a deeply moral man, the painter of the portrait, and infatuated with Dorian, whose patronage realises his potential as an artist. The picture of Dorian Gray is Basil’s masterpiece.
Lord Henry “Harry” Wotton – an imperious aristocrat and a decadent dandy who espouses a philosophy of self-indulgent hedonism. Initially Basil’s friend, he neglects him for Dorian’s beauty. The character of witty Lord Harry is a critique of Victorian culture at the Fin de siècle – of Britain at the end of the 19th century. Lord Harry’s libertine world view corrupts Dorian, who then successfully emulates him. To the aristocrat Harry, the observant artist Basil says, “You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing.” Lord Henry takes pleasure in impressing, influencing, and even misleading his acquaintances (to which purpose he bends his considerable wit and eloquence) but appears not to observe his own hedonistic advice, preferring to study himself with scientific detachment. His distinguishing feature is total indifference to the consequences of his actions.
Sibyl Vane – a talented actress and singer, she is a beautiful girl from a poor family with whom Dorian falls in love. Her love for Dorian ruins her acting ability, because she no longer finds pleasure in portraying fictional love as she is now experiencing real love in her life. She commits suicide with poison on learning that Dorian no longer loves her; at that, Lord Henry likens her to Ophelia, in Hamlet.
James Vane – Sibyl’s younger brother, a sailor who leaves for Australia. He is very protective of his sister, especially as their mother cares only for Dorian’s money. Believing that Dorian means to harm Sibyl, James hesitates to leave, and promises vengeance upon Dorian if any harm befalls her. After Sibyl’s suicide, James becomes obsessed with killing Dorian, and stalks him, but a hunter accidentally kills James. The brother’s pursuit of vengeance upon the lover (Dorian Gray), for the death of the sister (Sibyl) parallels that of Laertes’ vengeance against Prince Hamlet.
Alan Campbell – chemist and one-time friend of Dorian who ended their friendship when Dorian’s libertine reputation devalued such a friendship. Dorian blackmails Alan into destroying the body of the murdered Basil Hallward; Campbell later shoots himself dead.
Lord Fermor – Lord Henry’s uncle, who tells his nephew, Lord Henry Wotton, about the family lineage of Dorian Gray.
Adrian Singleton – A youthful friend of Dorian’s, whom he evidently introduced to opium addiction, which induced him to forge a cheque and made him a total outcast from his family and social set.
Victoria, Lady Henry Wotton – Lord Henry’s wife, whom he treats disdainfully; she later divorces him.
Major themes
Morality and societal influence
Throughout the novel, Wilde delves into the themes of morality and influence, exploring how societal values, individual relationships, and personal choices intersect to shape one’s own moral compass. Dorian initially falls under Lord Henry’s influence and “narcissistic perspective on art and life”, despite Basil’s warnings, but “eventually recognizes its limitations”. Through Lord Henry’s dialogue, Wilde is suggesting, as professor Dominic Manganiello pointed out, that creating art enacts the innate ability to conjure criminal impulses.
Dorian’s immersion in the elite social circles of Victorian London exposes him to a culture of superficiality and moral hypocrisy. Supporting this idea, Sheldon W. Liebman offered the example of Wilde’s inclusion of a great psychological intellect held by Lord Henry. Before Sybil’s death, Henry was also a firm believer in vanity as the origin of a human being’s irrationality. This concept is broken for Henry after Sybil is found dead, the irony being that Dorian is the cause of her death and his motives are exactly as Lord Henry has taught them to him.
The novel presents other relationships that influence Dorian’s way of life and his perception of the world, proving the influence of society and its values on a person. While Lord Henry is clearly a persona that fascinates and captures Dorian’s attention, Manganiello also suggests that Basil is also a person that may “evoke a change of heart” in Dorian.
However, at this point in the novel, Dorian has spent far too much time under Lord Henry’s wing and brushes Basil off in “appositeness”, leading Basil to claim that man has no soul but art does. Dorian’s journey serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of succumbing to the temptations of hedonism and moral relativism, highlighting the importance of personal responsibility and moral accountability in navigating the complexities of human existence.
Homoeroticism and gender roles
The novel’s representation of homoeroticism is subtle yet present by manifesting itself through interactions between male characters in a way that challenges the strict social norms of Victorian England. The novel begins with a conversation between Lord Henry and Basil, where Basil reveals his artistic admiration for Dorian, setting the scene for a story with themes such as beauty, art, and the consequences of vanity. The interaction introduces the characters and foreshadows the complicated relationship between the artist and his muse.
It has been noted by scholars that Wilde possibly chose the protagonist’s name, Dorian, in reference to the Dorians of ancient Greece, argued to have been the first to introduce male same-sex initiation rituals to ancient Greek culture, being an allusion to Greek love.
Similarly, gender roles influence the relationships between characters and form their expectations and behaviors; in particular, the expectations of masculinity and the critique of the Victorian ideal of manhood are seen throughout the narrative. Dorian, with his eternal youth and beauty, challenges traditional male roles and the slow decay of his portrait reflects the deception of societal expectations.
Additionally, the few female characters in the story, such as Sybil, are portrayed in ways that critique the limited roles and harsh judgments reserved for women during that era. The novel’s exploration of these themes provides commentary on the structures of Victorian society, revealing the performative
