Badea Ioana Mihaela

Group 1, Year 2,
Victorian Literature Seminar
Seminar Instructor Alina Bottez
16.01.2015

Views on Morality in Oscar Wildes The Portrait of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde states in the preface of The Portrait of Dorian Gray that There is no such
thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
(Wilde) and this is how he states his view on art. This essay focuses on the views on morality in
Wildes novel, the novel was extremely controversial when it was published, and its various
interpretations are not always to the advantage of the writer.
Lord Henry is the one that seduces the young Dorian and somehow poisons his innocent
mind with the most; therefore Dorian ends up creating his own moral code with strong influences
from Henrys beliefs. But the thing that degraded Dorian the most was The Yellow Book, he
accuses Henry of the harm the book did to him and his morality. This actually contradicts
Wildes views of aesthetics, and he slightly ridicules his character.
In his essay Come See About Me: Enchantment of the Double in The Picture of Dorian
Gray, Christopher Craft compares Dorian with Narcissus, the Greek mythological character that
falls in love with himself. Dorian ends up self-absorbed; he is obsessed with the portrait that
suffers the mutilations and effects of his actions. As Narcissus is filled up with himself for whole
his life, the same is for Dorian who steps into delirium when deciding to follow Henrys
philosophy. Dorian Gray exposes the immorality of self absorption, as Dorians portrait
becomes more disfigured with each one of Dorians selfish acts. (Duggan 64-65). Dorian is fond
of the life he lives, his eternal youth makes him sink deeply in narcissism, thing that leads to his
inevitable punishment.
In a letter Oscar Wilde writes to the editor of of the St. Jamess Gazette, the writer states:
And the moral is this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment. The painter,
Basil Hallward, worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most painters do, dies by the hand of
one in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurd vanity. Dorian Gray, having led a life of

mere sensation and pleasure, tries to kill conscience, and at that moment kills himself. (St. Jamess
Gazette, Wilde).

Dorian lives a purely aesthetic life, he disregards all social moral codes, and creates his own, he
is a representative character for the absolute aesthetic lifestyle, but his behavior ultimately kills
him and others, and he dies unhappier than ever. Rather than an advocate for pure aestheticism,
then, Dorian Gray is a cautionary tale in which Wilde illustrates the dangers of the aesthetic
philosophy when not practiced with prudence. (Duggan 62). As the writer himself states the
novel was intended to be understood by the readers to describe the relations, intimacies and
passions of certain persons guilty of unnatural practices (Mason), that are in the end without
exception punished or victims of their own fate.
In Chapter two Lord Henry talks to Dorian about the return of the Hellenic Ideal of life
where, the main focus is on beauty, but which implies a denial of self-denial. This ideal
disregards the idea of sin, and sin is seen only as a superficial image created by humans. Sin is
seen only as a product of the human mind, it should not have any effect on the body, but as the
novel follows, Dorians portrait changes proportionally with the sins he commits, so this would
lead to the idea that Dorian is a prisoner of his consciousness, and cannot renounce the sickness
his soul bears.
In my opinion Lord Henry is the one that creates the monster that Dorian has become. He
pushes the young Dorian to follow his philosophy and seduces him with the sweetest words, but
he never shows any proof that he follows his own beliefs. Dorian is for him merely an object of
study, although he is sustainer of sin, he is not a sinner, but he forces Dorian to become one in
order for him to observe what effect they have. He is strongly against modern morality and is in
favor of a self-determined morality, but he never applies any of his deranged beliefs.
In conclusion Oscar Wildes The Portrait of Dorian Gray is even today a controversial
novel, because it still contradicts many religious and moral codes. The writer states in the preface
of the book that: In writing a play or a book I am concerned entirely with literature, that is, with
art. I aim not at doing good or evil, but in trying to make a thing that will have some quality of
beauty.(Wilde). So it is clear that the morality described in the book is not to offend the public
and the reader, but to create art and send a powerful message. Men are to be consumed by their
own excessive desires; desires that are impossible to bear, because humans are limited, thus they
cannot defy the laws of nature and in the end they will suffer the consequences of their actions.

Works Cited
1. Craft, Christopher. Come See About Me: Enchantment of the Double in The Picture
of Dorian Gray. Representations 91 (2005)
2. Duggan, Patrick. "Journal of the CAS Writing Program." Ed. Deborah Breen.The
Conflict Between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian
Gray (2009): 61-68. Www.bu.edu. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/files/2009/11/wrjournal1duggan.pdf>.
3. Mason, Stuart. "THE MORALITY OF "DORIAN GRAY." Art and Morality; a
Defence of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" London: Jacobs, 1908. N. pag. Print.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33689/33689-h/33689h.htm#THE_MORALITY_OF_DORIAN_GRAY
4. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.