There's no such thing as a moral or an immoral buk. Review on Picture of Dorian Gray, The - Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s name is not new even to those who are remotely connected to books.

Irish author and a famous playwright, he is well known in the annals of literature for his brilliant and witty words.

Wilde’s relations with younger men had scandalized the 19th century England and this book, bearing its undercurrents, was under controversy when it was first published. It remains the only novel penned by him.

The plot of this book is nothing much to write home about but the beauty of it lies in it’s sentences which reverberate with profound wisdom.

It is an allegory about the vanity of the beautiful and the degeneration of the human soul.

Dorian Gray, a handsome youth, in a fervent burst of emotion wishes for eternal beauty of self and old age for his portrait by Basil Hallward.

Incredibly, his wish comes true and thus begins the downward journey of Dorian, influenced largely by Lord Henry and ultimately finds it too late for penitence.

Each character is like a different facet of a crystal:

Basil Hallward:

The self-righteous painter who makes an exceptionally brilliant portrait of Dorian. Though his appearance is brief in the book, he is the only character who reprimands Dorian for his wayward life.

Dorian Gray:

Envy of every man and pride of every woman who knows him. A very handsome youth who enamours both Basil and Henry. In the words of Lord Henry,

“Beauty is a form of genius –is higher indeed than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has the divine right of sovereignty.”

He falls in love with a theatre artist Sybil and her suicide is a turning point of his moral life. He discovers that his portrait bears testimony for all his misdemeanors because

“Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.”

He is ultimately tormented by his conscience and tries to reform things but in vain.

“It was the living death of his own soul that troubled him.”

Lord Henry:

In spite of the title of the book suggesting Dorian Gray to be the protagonist, I feel, Lord Henry is the pivotal character in this book and most of the philosophy is brought forth through him.

In the words of Dorian, Henry cuts life to pieces with his epigrams.

He is the one who remains the single large influence on Dorian by merely using words as weapons of amoral aphorisms encouraging him to pursue self-gratifying pleasures.

After Ayn Rand, Wilde seems to be the most powerful writer in conveying unconventional ideas. Most of the lines from this book have been very famous quotes,

“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak. That is all that can be said for them. They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.''

“Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.''

Sometimes poetry also creeps into his writing like this

“But a chance tone of colour in a room or a morning sky, a particular perfume that you had once loved and that brings subtle memories with it, a line from a forgotten poem that you had come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had ceased to play -- I tell you, Dorian, that it is on things like these that our lives depend.”

All in all, a wonderful read and I highly recommend this book for it’s rich literary value but it doesn’t necessarily imply that I am advocating the radical views presented in it.