Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray | Summary & Analysis

well hello everyone and welcome back to my channel I thought it was time to take a break from all the romance and go down some darker rabbit holes starting out with a classic that I've been curious about for quite some time the Picture of Dorian Gray written by the god of quotes himself Oscar Wilde and first published in 1890 Dorian Gray is a gothic and philosophical novel which feels like an accurate description there is a story here of course but a large part of a novel consists of long philosophical conversations and monologues that makes this book a bit more unique to say the least that being said the book also contains some violent and gruesome scenes and implications so please be aware of that as we continue as usual we will start off with a detailed plot summary before moving on to the discussion timestamps are listed below should you wish to jump around so do make yourself comfortable with a nice cup of tea like I have here or any other beverage of your choice and let's get into it the story starts out at the London studio of artist basil Hallward he is currently working on a portrait depicting a young and very beautiful gentleman named Dorian Gray Faysal is with his longtime friend Lord Henry Wotton who asked him about the portrait basil then tells him that he met Dorian Gray at a house party and he left a very striking and mysterious impression on him over the time they spent together as the battle was painting him they had become close friends Lord Henry is intrigued and he wants to meet this mysterious mr. Gray and soon enough the man himself stops by the studio for a lost city so Bessel can finish the portrait lord henry and dorian gray like each other immediately Henry I'm guessing at least in his late 20s maybe even early 30s whereas Dorian is about 20 years old though he looks after Lord Henry as the more experienced and wiser they get into a philosophical discussion where Lord Henry advises Dorian to make the most of his life while this still has youth and beauty because one day it will all go away during this discussion Bassel finishes the painting they all go and have a good look at it and Dorian Gray realizes for the first time how beautiful he actually was then he becomes sad and fierce the day when he will lose his beauty he gets flustered saying that if this portrait will mock him someday he don't wishes that he could reverse it that he would give his soul in exchange for remaining young and beautiful while his portrait could grow old instead about a month passed and Dorian Gray and Lord Henry had now become close friends we see Dorian visit Henry's home in Mayfair where tells him that he's become infatuated with a young actress named Sibyl vane he goes to see her act every night at some shabby theater and he wants to show her to Lord Henry and Basil's so they make plans for the following night later that same night when Lord Henry comes home he finds a telegram there from Dorian saying that he is now engaged to Sibyl vane the next chapter has a POV changed and we now follow young Sibyl she is a talented seventeen year old girl from a poor family and both she and her mother works at the shabby tiara tearsa theatre she talks to her mother about being in love with a young gentleman who she calls Prince Charming but her mother warns her and thinks she's foolish they are then joined by Sybil's brother James who is about to leave for Australia native today and wants to say goodbye to his family he lost our walk with Sybil and he wants her about this mysterious man she's supposedly in love with they don't even know his name but Sybil insists on him being a gentleman before leaving on his ship James man vain than promises that if this gentleman in question ever has her he will hunt him down and kill him we then get back to Dorian the Lord Henry and battle as they have dinner together before going to the theater Dorian tells them that he had been to see her act again the previous night and afterwards he had gone backstage to meet her they had kissed and they were very lovey-dovey but despite never really discussing marriage Dorian explains to his friends that he is serious about making her his wife basil disapproves he doesn't seem to think anyone is worthy of Dorian Lord Henry on the other hand finds that all very amusing after that dinner they leave for the shabby theater the play for the evening is Romeo and Juliet and Dorian has seen Sibyl play Juliet many times so he was surprised to find a difference in her performance that night she was so terrible that audiences got up and left even Henry gets up puts on his coat and says she is quite a beautiful Dorian but she can't act let's go Dorian tells his friends to leave but he himself decided to stay when the play is over he goes to see Sybil backstage he gives her the benefit of the doubt asks her if she is ill because she shouldn't go up and she killed but Sybil was in a kind of delusion she said she couldn't do it anymore how could she stand there acting to be in love now that she knows what real love is Dorian suddenly becomes disgusted by her he realizes that he never even loved her at all it was her art her talent that made him admire her without this she was nothing to him realizing this Cybil begs him not to leave her throws herself on the floor she's crying but Dorian is unmoved he simply says that he will never see her again and he leaves he spends the remainder of the night wandering the streets of London and he gets home at dawn when he looks at his portrait in his bedroom something about it had changed the expression in the portrait was eerie and cruel and he wonders whether his wish had actually come true reminded of his cruelty towards full Sibyl he decides to make amends to her and as he woke up later that day he writes a letter to her asking for forgiveness but before he could send it Lord Henry shows up demanding to see him Dorian explains to him that he is still set on marrying Sibyl to which Henry is quite perplexed he tells Dorian that Sibyl is dead it's all over the papers apparently she had taken her own life the previous night Dorian is shocked but surprisingly indifferent they go on to talk about women and romances in general Dorian says he was cruel to Sibyl but Henry shrugs and says women love it when men are cruel and dominating they make plans to go to the Opera together later that evening and as lord henry leaves dorian examines the portrait again but the change is still there he thinks of him having eternal life before him a life of pleasure and sin that it would be the portrait bears the burden and shame of all his actions the next morning Bessel visits Dorian to talk about Sibyl and he's shocked to find him so indifferent after a bit of nagging basil eventually asks him if he's been summoned by the police Dorian replies that he hasn't since Sybil only ever knew his first name and he is certain that she never shared that with anyone bezel then asks why Dorian has put a screen in front of his portrait and said what he'd like to see it again Dorian gets livid he refuses to let Bessel see the portrait but doesn't tell him why after having convinced Bessel to let it go any finally leaves Dorian decides that he has to put the portrait away somewhere safe he then has the portrait moved to the old school room in the house and he gets the only key to the room from the housekeeper with his now most precious possessions safely locked away Dorian is free to live a life full of decadence many years went by during which he would give into every passion and every crude curiosity that went through his mind he would travel frequently and upgraded the locks on the door to the old schoolroom to make sure that the portrait were made safe in his absence every time that he returned from travelling he would make sure to visit his portrait to look upon it with fascination as the face continued to age and grow more evil Bradley himself remained young and beautiful he became a popular figure in high society London always being invited to parties as well as him throwing his own extravagant parties over the course of about 18 years he explored a good number of interests such as philosophy music culture perfumes jewelry and precious stones embroidery and tapestries the list goes on it was quite boring to read it out to be frank during this time he would get somewhat ambivalent regarding his portrait sometimes he would avoid it for a long time distracting himself with pleasures other times he would sit by it watching it with fascination pride and gloating he was also getting increasingly paranoid despite having upgraded the locks he would sometimes get completely panicked about it and rush home from wherever he was just to make sure the portrait was safe and despite being so popular he could feel people watching him whispering behind his back wondering what his secret was so then we get to the evening of his 38th birthday and Dorian is walking home from Lord Henry's house as he approached his own home a man passed him on the street and he recognized him as a vessel he tried to avoid him but it was too late vessel sees him and tells him that he has just been waiting for him at his house he continues to say that he's going to take the midnight train to Paris but he'd like to come inside for a quick talk before he leaves Dorian invites him inside reluctantly it's clear to the reader that despite their close friendship many years before they aren't as close anymore so once they're inside Bessel proceeds to talk to Julian about the horrible things people are saying about him apparently this many years later Dorian isn't as popular anymore Bessel mentions various people who've lost their reputations as a result of being friends with him some had to flee the country others have even taken their own lives gentlemen in high society leave the room when Dorian enters they speak badly of him at dinner parties and never invite him to their homes Dorian responds to this by calling them hypocrites they avoid him simply because he knows their secrets basil goes on to plead with Dorian to live a more respectable life think about your soul he says Dorian laughs at the mention of his soul tells Bessel that he will show it to him and he takes a lamp and invites him upstairs after they approached the old schoolroom door Ian tells Bessel that he is the only one entitled to know everything bezel as puzzled as he enters the old dusty room Dorian walks up to the painting and pulls away that curtain covering it basil is filled with horror he recognizes his own artwork and Dorian as the motif but the man in the picture had a cruel evil horrible face he could hardly believe it was the same portrait Dorian casually watches his astonishment telling him that that is the face of his soul basil sits down in the chair before the portrait he realizes that it must have been his own adoration of Dorian that has caused this he said that they will have to pray to God for forgiveness to try and set things right as he said this Dorian was struck by a sudden hatred for basil he felt as if the portrait was whispering to him and he grabbed a knife that was lying nearby and stabbed vessel with it several times listening as his old friend choked on his own blood after the murder Dorian left the body in the room and quietly went downstairs to retrieve vessel's coat and luggage he then took on his own hat and coat and went outside to ring the doorbell thereby waking up his palate who had to come down and open for him Dorian apologizes for waking him but says he had forgotten his key he then asks if there were any messages for him and the Velan replied that vessel had stopped by but he had to go to get to catch his train but he will write to him from Paris the next morning Dorian has to find a way to literally clean up the mess he's made he starts by writing two letters one he puts in his pocket and the other is addressed to mr. Allan Campbell at 152 Harvard Street he calls for his valid to go and deliver the letter immediately and then he waited he was determined not to think about battle but as time went on he became increasingly nervous mr. Campbell was a chemist or a scientist of some sort and he'd been a friend of Dorian's about five years earlier but as we learned from vessel before most of Dorian's friendships over the years had been short-lived after a while the valid returned and announced mr. Campbell he looked Stern as he came in saying that he had intended never to enter that house again and the only reason for him coming was the Dorian his sentence letter that it was a matter of life and death Dorian confirms this saying that someone has committed suicide upstairs and he needs mr. Campos help in dissolving the body mr. Campbell is rightfully horrified saying that Dorian is mad for thinking that he would help him when he refuses Dorian panics and even admit admits to him that it was murder and he will be hanged if Campbell doesn't help him but he still refuses Dorian then tells him that he has a letter in his pocket and if he doesn't agree to help he will have no choice but to send it mr. Campbell is shaken by this and reluctantly agrees so they sent Dorian's valid to fetch campus chemistry things and once they got them they go upstairs as Doran enters the schoolroom he sees the portrait and finds that there is now blood who seemed from the hands in the painting he covers it up with a curtain as Campbell enters and begins to excel in the body Dorian became uneasy by the sight of it and leaves him there though about five hours later Campbell comes downstairs that it is done and he never wants to see Dorian again after you'd left Dorian goes upstairs to check and finds that there is indeed no trace of the body left later that evening Dorian and Henry attend a dinner party at a mutual friend's house lady Narborough Dorian has no appetite and Henry wonders what's the matter with him lady now Roland says that she will find Dorian a nice wife and they go on to have a philosophical discussion about men women and marriage concluding with Lord Henry's saying that a man can be happy with any woman as long as he doesn't love her later Henry confronts Dorian again about him not being himself and asks if anything had happened after he had left in the previous night Dorian gets agitated and gives him some messy lie about having gone to the club but then he takes it back and says no he just went home as he's in a foul mood he decides to call it a night so Dorian goes home realizing how close he had been to reveal his guilt to Henry he decides that he has to get rid of Basil's things and he burns them in his fireplace it made him feel sick and he just wanted to forget about everything so he sets off towards a secret opium den down by the river that's how you know this is definitely Victorian once he's there a haggard woman starts to bother him and he gives her some money in exchange for being left alone she then calls him the devil's bargain and this aggravates Dorian he tells her much to Coleman that she knows says something like oh that's right you like being called Prince Charming don't you Dorian then leaves the opium den for another one and as he's walking down the street he gets seized by a man who holds a pissed to his head durian doesn't recognize him but thinks he looks like a sailor the man introduces himself as James vane brother of Sibyl and he has searched for many years for the man responsible for his sister's death Dorian is thinking on his feet he asks him how long ago was and he says 18 years Dorian pleads with him to look at him in the light and as he does so James vane realizes that this boy could not be the man he was looking for as he could couldn't be more than twenty years old he gets distraught and apologizes to Dorian and lets him go Dorian walks away and the Haggard woman from the opium den approaches James saying that he is much older than he looks people say that he sold himself to the devil for a pretty face James then tries to follow him but Dorian had already disappeared about a week later a party of 12 people had gathered at Dorian's country home and more were expecting to arrive within the following days they were having tea in the conservatory and we see Dorian and Lord Henry having a playful discussion with Henry's cousin the duchess of monmouth they talk about romance and duchess is very flirty with dorian then dorian goes to pick up a flower for her and on a side note there is a lot of flower talk and flower analogies in this book these victorian dandies really love their flowers as dorian is walking off he suddenly collapses on the floor he has fainted he is carried inside and as he came to he realized what it was that had made him faint outside the glass walls of the conservatory he had seen the face of James vane Dorian remained inside the house for several days overcome with the terror of being hunted while also wallowing in his own guilt a few days later he finally agreed to go outside to join a shooting on the grounds during this shooting one of his guests accidentally kills one of the beaters when trying to shoot her hair this caused a bit of commotion and Dorian is deeply affected by it thinking it a bad omen he talks to Lord Henry but he is very insensitive about it saying it would have been far more interesting if the man had shot him on purpose as he would have liked to know someone who committed a real murder Dorian gets pale at this comment and he retreats back to his room full of terror he then decides to go back to London that evening and let Henry remain as the host to his guests then he's gay McKeever comes to his room to talk about the accident Dorian asks if the man had any family but the gamekeeper says it wasn't for one of the beaters after all they didn't recognize him but he looked like a sailor Dorian then asks to see the body and he arrives off towards the farm where it is kept then he is showing the body and he finds that it is indeed James vane he is overcome with joy and relief he is safe a few weeks passed and we find out that Dorian is making an effort to change his ways he turns Lord Henry in third he has met a good honest country country girl whom he really likes and had decided not to seduce Henry is skeptical however he doesn't take Dorian's alleged Reformation seriously they go on to talk about Basil's disappearance as it had been the talk of the town the last couple of weeks this speculate about what might have happened to him concluding that he might have died in some hushed up accident in Paris Lord Henry also mentions his own wife running off with another man and mr. Alan Campbell committing suicide and soon everyone will forget about battle and talk about that instead Henry then talks about youth and finds it remarkable that Dorian had managed to hold on to his Dorian gets grumpy by this subject and decides to call it a night as he's walking home he has some insightful moments he longed for the lost innocence of his boyhood he knows that he is corrupt and he was an evil influence on others he had begun to loathe his youth and beauty as it was that which had ultimately ruined him he's thought about all the people that were dead because of him Alan Campbell among them who had shot himself in his laboratory without revealing Dorian's secret thinking of this he became determined to change he wanted a new life for himself and he had after all already begun this by his honest relationship with the country girl he life he thought about the portrayed and that it must have changed somewhat for the better now that he was actively improving himself he went to go and have a look he was so sure of him that he was full of joy when he opened the door but what he found was quite the opposite the hideous portrait had not changed it if anything it was worse than the for Dorian began to doubt his ability to be good mainly Henry had been right to mock his efforts after some thought he decided it was time to destroy the painting he took the knife he had used to kill bezel and he stabbed it the cry that followed was so loud it woke the servants they went to investigate what had happened but as they couldn't get through the door to the schoolroom they had to go in through balcony from another room what they found there was a hideous old man dead on the floor with a knife in his heart and before him stood the Magnificent painting of their young master it wasn't until they examined the clothes and the ring of the dead man that they realized who it actually was the end so when running up our main characters we get Dorian Gray Lord Henry Wotton and basil Hallward these three men are very different Dorian is narcissistic but he's also quite impressionable at the start of the story Dorian is a young man so it makes sense that he would be more naive basil is considered the one with higher morals it is also implied that he is gay but in this is more clear in the unedited version I think he even says it in dialogue that he's never been interested in women regardless we see that here my historian and that is putting it mildly he absolutely adores him and that is apparent from the very first chapter he gets jealous of Dorian's and Lord Henry's immediate connection apart from his obsession with Dorian Bethel is also seen as the more balanced person he has Christian values and he stands against Lord Henry's libertine views I honestly can't see why battle would even be friends with Henry to begin with unless it's just because Henry is a wealthy patron and vassals an artist I actually find that a very likely explanation so then we get to Lord Henry he is the catalyst of Dorian's downfall he is a corrupting influence in how he views and treats other people not mention his liberty in philosophies I think this is really interesting because when I started reading I thought the corruption would come from the portrait and the so-called bargain that Dorian made I mean already in the first chapter it says that he's willing to give his soul in exchange for youth youth youth and beauty but clearly that is not what happened I would argue that Dorian's soul remained because he is far too emotional to be soulless throughout the book he feels emotions like guilt paranoia anxiety and fear and those are not feelings of a soulless person also had he actually been soulless he would never have wanted to redeem himself at the end he would have been contented as he was therefore I'm struggling to see what kind of bargain it was but he made in the first place because from where I stand it looks like Dorian only got the benefits and didn't have to give anything up unless we entertained the idea that the devil in this story is in fact Lord Henry I know it sounds wage but let's look at the evidence Lord Henry was present when the painting was finished and if he was the devil he would have heard Dorian's internal wish for the painting to age instead of him and of course granting him this wish in exchange for his soul and I don't mean this literally but rather the corruption of his soul because over the course of 18 years Dorian is heavily influenced by Lord Henry's philosophies and lifestyle he even becomes an advocate for them and spread their influence on to others thereby corrupting them to Lord Henry is the one person now that questions how durian has kept his youth despite being the closest friend he has he never approaches him for immoral behavior on the contrary he encourages it and when you really think about it he might have been behind Sibyl vanes suicide it would have been in the devil's best interest to remove any influences of goodness from durian after all regardless of this being a valid theory or not I want to talk about how the portrait is more of a gimmick rather than the center of the story because let's say we removed the portrait altogether then only two things would be different the first is that durian would never have murdered basil and the second is that durian would have died at the hands of James vane outside the opium den because he would still have broken Sybil's heart even without the portrait it was only a few weeks old when this happened and it wasn't until after this event that the portrait began to change and of course without the portrait he would never have been able to get out of the situation with James as he would have the appearance that matched his true age and in the case of vessel he lost the portrait itself that whispered to him and influenced him in the moment when he murdered him so there we have it the portrait is the title of the novel but it doesn't actually affect the plot that much and don't get me wrong I don't think this is inherently a bad thing I think there's subtlety to it that Dorian Gray was doomed with or without the painting and I'm always a fan of subtlety [Music] so let's ignore my theory about him being the devil for a minute and just discuss him as a character because he is by far the most interesting character in the story the quote I put in the beginning of the video is from him and pretty much every good quote in the book is from him - he is a paradox a walking contradiction every statement that he makes he contradicts at the same time not only does this make for very amusing dialogue it has a depth to it that I find really interesting I will now bring up three examples number one to get back my youth I would do anything in the world except take exercise get up early or be respectable this is an easier one and I think many of us can relate to it we all think that we'd be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to become healthy but there is Lord Henry telling us that we are all fools to even think that it's a heavy generalization of course but that's just something tragic in that statement that I find funny next example the only difference between a Caprice and a lifelong passion is that the Caprice lasts a little longer hmm he's not exactly the most cheerful type what I love about this one is that you can't compare two things if one of them doesn't in fact exist he claims that there is no such thing as a lifelong passion that all romances are in fact short-lived or at least that's how I interpret it this book is full of philosophic discussions about romance and relationships in general and Lord Henry is consistently pessimistic in his news and now the last one we live in an age that creates too much to be wise and the things too much to be beautiful the first part here is contradictory since according to popular opinion reading is what makes you wise this would imply that reading has a negative influence and that ultimately it stands in the way of individual reflection that we simply adopt the ideas we read about instead of thinking for ourselves thereby cultivating our own wisdom the second part is a bit more on the nose I assume that he means that people overthink their appearance and end up losing their natural beauty as a result strangely enough I think this whole quote in itself is very applicable on society today which just makes it even more interesting and clever to me feel free to share your thoughts below if you agree or disagree with my interpretations [Music] I wanted to keep an open mind when reading this book so I didn't read up on things like critical reception of the novel the complication nor did I read any modern reviews so I will begin by explaining my thoughts based only upon my first impressions I thought the story was a bit too thin there was a lot of telling sometimes several chapters of it but very little showing the balance between dramatization and narration was a bit off we are told that Dorian spends 18 years living as a kind of libertine a hidden istic lifestyle of pleasure and sin but readers are meant to fill in the blanks on their own here you are meant to already know what this implies I know where that Victorian audiences would never have accepted a full showing of said hedonistic lifestyle but I think Oscar Wilde could have given us a little bit more than just the words he lived a life of pleasure and without restraint without getting into even more trouble than he ended up doing anyway so yeah after finishing the book I did read up on how the book was received upon publication mouse is about to form his pillow now this hair everywhere so yeah after finishing the book I did read up on how the work was received upon publication and I must have underestimated that fragile sensitivities of Victorian critics it caused a scandal to say the least the funny thing is it wasn't because of Dorian's supposedly Bateen lifestyle but rather the implied homoerotic nature in which vessel viewed Dorian I also found out that there were some edits done but for the first publication to tone down some of these elements about 500 words or so was removed from the original manuscript not that it did much good the story was still seen as immoral unclean and contaminating as a way to counter the critique Oscar Wilde wrote a preface for the novel where he talks about the moral of art more specifically that there is no such thing as moral or immoral art art is just art in this particular case I'm inclined to agree with him but I think this goes far deeper than just one book that goes against its society's contemporary values I think the moral lies in the influence of art not in the artwork itself so when viewing the Picture of Dorian Gray through this lens we can ask ourselves would anyone be influenced to do immoral things by reading this would anyone feel inclined to murder or commit adultery for instance I hardly think so this book does not romanticize in the least I would therefore say that for modern audience this book isn't contaminating at all on the contrary I think it could have been a lot more conspicuous in his themes without getting too much backlash from a modern modern audience it's because of this that I feel like the Picture of Dorian Gray is stuck somewhere between being ahead of its time and yet not being quite bold enough for a modern audience to feel surprised don't get me wrong though I still really enjoyed this book it's so subtle which you know is my weakness we never find out what it was in the letter that Dorian used to blackmail mr. Campbell into helping him with vessels body nor do we find out about secrets that he knows of the illusion other gentlemen in his social circle I think that works pretty well we can use our imagination to fill in the blanks in those cases the only part where I feel like we could use more detail was the chapter where we learned that Dorian spends 18 years living a very unrestrained lifestyle I think a few examples here would help us understand why he became more unpopular over time that being said this book was beautifully written Oscar Wilde really had a way with words that was really clever and just lovely so it was still an enjoyable and interesting read for me now I would like to know whether any of you watching has read it and what are your thoughts feel free to share them in the comments below if you'd like to make my day then don't forget to give me a thumbs up and consider subscribing to my channel Nelson I thank you so much for watching today and we hope to see you back next time [Music]

Channel: Arnella Hobler

Views: 1,381

Keywords: oscar wilde, the picture of dorian gray, classic novels reviews, dorian gray, dorian gray analysis, dorian gray characters, victorian literature, gothic novels, victorian books, 1800s books, classic literature, dorian gray summary, arnella hobler, booktube, darkacademia reading, darkacademia books, LGBT books, classic books to read, how to read classics, classics for beginners

Id: 600IGKODj8c

Length: 39min 31sec (2371 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020