The Picture of Dorian Gray

"It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors."

I must say, this novel - in its own boring, poetic form - is quite chilling and exciting to digest. From what I gathered in Oscar Wilde's brief biography at the beginning of the book, this was suppose to the man's most personal work; written at a very controversial and depressing point in his life. After the succession of his popularity in the late 1880's, Wilde was involved in a homosexual scandal (while having a wife and two children) that ended in a withdrawal of all his plays from their respected theaters and for him to declare bankruptcy. After becoming somewhat of a recluse, Wilde wrote this book as what seems to be a method for battle with his moral demons.

Hey, I'm about to ruining to the story for anyone who hasn't read it... but then again, I think most people have at least heard of the plot before. Well, fuck it. Just read on.

Wilde constructed this novel about a young aristocrat, Dorian Gray, in England who - by mere chance - imparts his soul into a portrait of himself so that he may never age, physically. Instead of his body growing old, he sees that the portrait ages for him. At first, Dorian is horrified by this strange turn of events, but eventually sees it as some sort of blessing allowing him to become this huge hedonistic jackass that hurts everyone around him for his own gain. Even with his new found life to relish in, Dorian becomes very protective of his portrait - that grows even more hideous by the day - and locks it up for no one to see. However, by the end of the story Dorian, mad with guilt for the crimes and murders he's committed though has never felt the repercussions for, takes a knife to his infamous painting to destroy it. The last scene is Dorian's servants entering his chambers only to see Dorian dead on the floor sporting a giant knife wound while portrait hangs up on the wall with a knife sticking out of it.

Although I found this tale chilling, it was really Wilde's dialogue that entertains you the most. Dorian has two friends throughout the novel that, more-or-less, represent his moral barometer. There is Basil, the man that unknowing paints the cursed picture, who speaks of all things good and morally sound in the book. Then there is Lord Henry; a douche-bag through and through. What Henry truly represents is Wilde's affinity for the aesthetic philosophy. Henry is a guy that lives for the moment, to soak in every experience for that is truly how to live. He'll marry a girl just to dump her if only for the "experience" of marriage. As Dorian progresses through the novel, he eventually is convinced by Henry that the aesthetic way of life is truly the right path to take - this is clear when he murders Basil for pestering for him to see his portrait that Dorian has hidden away. It is a story of a tragic anti-hero who learns the ultimate lesson: It is the moral that are beautiful, and the immoral who are ugly.