The Picture of Dorian Gray, centering around the philosophies and experiences of three men; Dorian, Lord Henry, and Basil Hallward. The opening of the book finds Basil Hallward, a notable artist, infatuated with his current portrait's subject, Dorian Gray. In describing him to Lord Henry, we find that Basil is conflicted with his obsession concerning this young man, and struggles to prevent him from becoming a major turning point in his life, his experiences from painting the young man drawing forth a sense of "artistic idolatry." Basil is infatuated with Dorian's innocent and perfect beauty, and fears that being influenced by Lord Henry's sarcastic and harsh speeches will spoil him. This proves to be true. Within very few moments of meeting each other, Dorian is turned from a carefree youth into a young man despairing in the face of his own morality. Basil sees that part of Dorian's beauty is ruined in this, and just as Lord Henry declared before, "The moment one sits down to think, he becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid.(Wilde 2)" Thus, the theme emerges that perfect beauty and intelligence cannot exist within the same person, one will always taint the other. Thus the intellectual influence of Lord Henry becomes a symbol of a force that corrupts beauty, whereas Basil's romantic and artistic notions would preserve that pure beauty forever. These two men stand as extreme opposites on one another, and influence the life of Dorian. Lord Henry explains that experience, or simply "mistakes," will change him and age him just as much as time. This is evident in Dorian's love affair with Sibyl Vain. His unquestioning, romantic passion is soon tempered by Sibyl revealing herself as an ordinary person, governed by emotion as she takes herself out of the actress role by preforming badly. Thus Dorian questions his love for Sibyl, and his perfect, romantic notions are marred.
The portrait of Dorian allows him a mirror of how his "sitting down to think" ruins his physical beauty, and by the end of chapter 7, he is horrified to find that a line of cruelty slashes across the painting's perfect features.
Are women generally viewed positively or negatively in "The Picture of Dorian Grey?" How is this evident in the conversations between Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian?
Considering the first seven chapters, how might "The Picture of Dorian Grey" be considered a banned book?
Why is Lord Henry considered a poisonous influence on Dorian? How do his morals contradict the society's views at the time?
Lord Henry influences Dorian negatively in that he makes the young man put his beauty over intellect. He claims that true beauty is void of education and so on; he had a very shallow view of life and the people in his life. Dorian, being youthful and beautiful himself, eats these ideals and takes them as his own. By acting passionate, reckless, and without care for those around him, he hurts the innocent and becomes somewhat cruel. This is the opposite of the educated, reserved, well-to-do noble men of that era.
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