Hanzely 1

Tristin Hanzely
Aughenbaugh
English 12
19 February 2016
Beauty Must Be Destroyed
Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together (Petrarch.). If one were to
summarize The Picture of Dorian Gray in one sentence, this quote by Petrarch, the Italian,
Renaissance scholar, would fit the part exactly. The author of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar
Wilde, had an intense fascination with beauty and fashion throughout his entire life (Beckson
210). Throughout the novel, Dorian Gray projects similar views and bases his entire life on his
worship of beauty, which ruins him in the end. The Picture of Dorian Gray illustrates that the
obsessive worship of beauty destroys a persons conscience.
Oscar Wilde was born as Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills on October 16, 1854 in Dublin,
Ireland (Wilde, Oscar Contemporary Authors 403). His mother was quite displeased when she
did not have a daughter. As a result of her disappointment, she dressed her son as a girl until he
was four years old. His mother did have a daughter later, Isola. However, her daughter passed
away at the age of ten. Wilde never completely got over the death of his sister. After Oscar
Wildes death, an envelope was found with containing locks of her golden hair. The envelope
was labeled My Isolas Hair, drawings, and the quote She is not dead, but sleepeth. Isolas
death influenced his future writings. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, there are a couple
implications of an inspiration where a young beautiful person never grows old (Fitzsimons).
Due to his mothers early influences, Wilde continued to dress in quite a flamboyant
manner until his death in 1900. He was once noted for mentioning that his clothing was much

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more important to him than any religion. He became very preoccupied by aestheticism and
enjoying art not just for some deep meaning or moral lesson but simply because it was beautiful.
His slogan became art for arts sake (Holland 20).
His main career was writing, most commonly poem and plays. That being said, The
Picture of Dorian Gray was his only published novel (Wilde, Oscar Contemporary Authors
409). He also went on lecturing tours through Canada and the United States of America in 1882.
However, Most Americans thought him very pretentious for coming to their country to lecture
them on fashion and beauty. We doubt if there are any persons in America that take Mr. Oscar
Wildes present venture seriously(The Critic). In turn, he hated America.
When he was 40 years old, he was imprisoned for sodomy with evidence against him
used from The Picture of Dorian Gray and its preface to show his stance on morality. His lover,
Lord Alfred Douglass, father was who put Wilde on trial. Douglas had met Wilde after reading
The Picture of Dorian Gray, and became obsessed with the idea the book portrayed and Wilde
himself. After two stressful years of transferring through four different prisons, he was released
in 1897 and had a very difficult time readjusting to his new life. Because of that, he moved out of
the country and went by an alias, Sebastian Melmoth, until he passed three short years later
(Wilde, Oscar Contemporary Authors 403).
The Picture of Dorian Gray is Wildes personal spin on a Faust legend, where Dorian
Gray sells his soul for beauty (Ellman x). Dorian is a young beautiful man that wants his beauty
forever. Wilde seems to put some of his personal views into Dorian Grays mind. He originally
published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in Lippincotts Monthly Magazine in
1890. Many people harshly criticized the controversial nature and there was a huge dispute on
the moral standards of Wilde or the lack thereof. One critic stated that not only was the book

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very immoral, but hastily written and clumsily constructed (Wilde, Oscar Contemporary
Authors 411). Wilde later added six chapters and a preface in reply to the critiques to let them
know how he felt. In the preface, he writes there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book
and that beautiful things only mean beauty (Wilde 3).
The idea emerged during one of Wildes frequent visits to the studio of real life artist
Basil Ward. The conversation started when Wilde saw a beautiful portrait and stated, What a
pity that such a glorious creature should ever grow old! The artist replied, How delightful it
would be if he could remain exactly as he is, while the portrait aged and withered in his stead!
(Holland 69). Basil Ward became a direct influence on the artist in the book as the character
Basil Hallward.
Oscar Wilde was obsessed with beauty and art, believing that a sense of beauty ... is the
highest sense of which a human being can be capable (Holland 74). The themes of beauty and
how one cannot have both beauty and a long healthy life are consistent in Wildes book.
The novel starts with Basil, the artist, speaking to his friend, Lord Henry, of a recent
painting he has created. It is a life size portrait of Dorian Gray, which Basil refuses to exhibit due
to the fact that he had put too much of himself in it (Wilde 4). Lord Henry thinks that is quite a
silly excuse not to exhibit the painting, so Basil starts to explain his adoration for Dorian. Lord
Henry insist on meeting this so called wonderful being and Basil gets shy about Dorian and
hesitates.
When Lord Henry and Dorian are introduced, Henry understands how he is so appealing
to Basil and recognizes how Dorian can get many benefits in life from his beauty. Henry warns
Dorian that his extraordinary beauty and youth will fade (Florman and Kestler). When Dorian
considered Lord Henrys warning, he decided he would give anything, including his soul, to

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trade places with the portrait, allowing him to keep all his beauty while the picture would grow
old (The Picture of Dorian Gray 149). After meeting Lord Henry, Dorians innocence is
slightly tainted.
Dorian later falls in love with an actor, Sybil Vane. He is fascinated that she gets to die
every day and come back to life after each of her performances. She begins to become more
concerned with her love for Dorian than her acting. One night, Dorian takes Basil and Lord
Henry to see Sybil act. Her lack of talent ruins Dorians love and he abandons her. Poor Sybil is
distraught over their breakup.
When Dorian gets home, he notices that the painting is different. Because he acted
cruelly towards Sybil, the portrait has lost a little beauty. He later finds out that Sybil has killed
herself. He is overcome with sadness for only a short time. Lord Henry makes it clear to him that
he should not be sad, that she was foolish and she never really lived anyway. It was also added
that now her beauty can forever stay young, being that she never really had the chance to grow
old and lose it (Florman and Kestler).
Meanwhile, the portrait continues to show Dorians evil soul. His once-great reputation is
tarnished, but Dorian could not care less.
Eighteen years after the portrait was created, Basil plans to leave the country; he wishes
to say his goodbyes to Dorian before he leaves. Dorian avoids contact with Basil at first. Once
Basil finally catches up to him, he brings up Dorians reputation and how he has heard such nasty
things about him. Dorian invites Basil into his home to show him his true soul.
When they get to his home, Dorian leads Basil to the picture, which has become a
horrible sight. Basil cannot believe it is his own work and refuses, at first, to accept it. Basil
begins to pray for forgiveness for worshiping such an evil being, and prompts Dorian to pray

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also. Angry, Dorian lashes out and stabs his one-time friend to death and finds the drip of the
blood somewhat beautiful.
He decides that he can no longer get forgiveness from his sins so he plans to just forget
them using drugs. He goes to an opium den, but feels uneasy. A woman approaches him before
he has a chance to leave and calls him Prince Charming. From hearing this pet name, James
Vane, Sybils brother attacks Dorian. James has had a grudge against Dorian since he ruined
Sybil and he wanted Doran dead. Dorian convinces James that he could not possibly have been
old enough to have been the man he was looking for, considering Dorian still appeared twenty
years old.
Eventually, Dorian can no longer stand to see his monstrous portrait and uses it as a cop
out. He blames the portrait for all his wrong doing, while once again, not taking the blame for
changing his ways. He decides he needs to destroy the painting in order to do any good. When he
strikes the painting with the same knife that killed Basil, a scream is heard through the house and
his servants rush to his room. When they finally get in they see a beautiful painting hanging of
Dorian, and find a dead, grotesque, old man that they did not know. They only recognized him
once they saw the rings he wore as their master, Dorian Gray (Wilde 220). In the end he had
ruined himself and his conscious with his obsession and reliance on his beauty.
In Wildes novel, Dorian Grays worship for beauty grew but all of his morals faded
quickly, teaching that an extreme obsession of beauty can and will destroy every moral standard.
Dorian would have given everything to remain young and beautiful. So, he sells his soul for
eternal youth and beauty. He had always been concerned more with beauty and perfection than
he ever was with the truth or morals. Henry explaining to Basil spoke of Dorian as vain. He is a
Narcissus, and you have an intellectual expression, and all that. But beauty, real beauty, ends

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where intellectual expression begins (Wilde 5) Which proved very true, when he no longer
cared about anything but his looks.
Sybil Vane killed herself because of how Dorian had reacted to her confession of serious
love. Dorian never really cared about Sybil as a person. His code of ethics was not as it should
have been. Dorian told Sybil the harsh truth that he never actually loved her, rather he only loved
how beautiful she was as an actor. Once she was no longer beautiful to watch on the stage,
Dorian wanted nothing to do with her. He did not care how that made her feel either.
Dorian later murders his only real friend, Basil. Right before Dorian kills Basil, he tells
him that the painting has destroyed him (Wilde 204). Dorian continues to blame his portrait
rather than himself. Rather than being horrified that he had just killed another human with his
own hands, he finds the beauty in Basils death. Once again showing that Dorian Gray had
completely lost a sense of moral. Dorian never paused his focus on beauty, even when his good
friend was bleeding out, dead in front of him.
There is a disconnect between an addiction to beauty and a sense of moral. Dorian feels
immortal, like there is no connection with his sin. Even though he will not be physically
punished for his wrong doings, his portrait will become very ugly. He begins to act completely
recklessly. While Dorian has always had a vain obsession with himself and beauty, the longer he
stayed beautiful, the less conscience he felt. He reveals moral corruption and no longer had to
deal with the consequences of mortality (Wilde, Oscar 518).
Dorian can not balance his fixation on beauty and his morality, he becomes a poisonous
influence. With this loss of conscience, he no longer paid attention to the difference between
right and wrong. Dorian felt bad, but not in a guilty way. He was angry that his portrait had

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become ugly, he never felt guilty, because it was never his fault. He believed it to be the
paintings fault.
Even though Dorian Gray seems to keep his beauty without consequence, he pays for it in
the end. He was not able to see past his preoccupation with his beauty enough to see that it truly
was impacting his life. He does not kill himself for his own death, he just can no longer stand his
ugly portrayal. He becomes everything he hates, in death he is the hideous person who he has
truly become.
The Picture of Dorian Gray shows, by many examples, that an obsessive fascination with
beauty and youth will destroy any sort of moral sense. The main character, Dorian, destroyed
himself essentially through his worship of beauty. He sells his soul to be able to keep his
addiction, which also takes his conscience. His sense of right and wrong are proven to be lacking
when he loses two people who were important in his life at his own fault and is not fazed. The
worship of art and beauty may have its place, but it proves to be an inadequate guide through the
troubled maze of real human experience (The Picture of Dorian Gray 158). Worshiping
beauty will not suffice as a way of a healthy life. The consuming passion for beauty and art
would undoubtedly cause a loss in a moral sense.
Works Cited
Beckson, Karl. Oscar Wilde. Dictionary of Literary Biographies. Ed. Stanley Weintraub. Vol.
10 Part 2. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1982. 209-210. Print.
The Critic. Vol. II. New York: Critic Printing, 1882. 8. Print. A Fortnightly Review.
Fitzsimons, Eleanor. "Isola Wilde." Women's Museum of Ireland. Women's Museum of Ireland,
2013. Web. 03 Feb. 2016.

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Florman, Ben. and Justin Kestler, LitChart Editors. LitChart on The Picture of Dorian Gray.
LitCharts LLC, 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Holland, Vyvyan. Oscar Wilde: a Pictorial Biography. New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1960.
Print.
"Petrarch." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2016. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.
The Picture of Dorian Gray. Novels for Students. Eds. Ira Mark Milne and Timothy Sister.
Vol. 20. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 146-165. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Wilde, Oscar. Contemporary Authors. Ed. Frances C. Locher. Vol. 104. Detroit: Gale
Research Company, 1982. 518. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. Contemporary Authors. Ed. Hal May. Vol. 119. Detroit: Gale Research
Company, 1987. 403-411. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. Introduction. The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings. By Richard
Ellmann. New York: Bantam Dell, 1982. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings. New York: Bantam Dell, 1982.
Print.