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Reflections of Author’s Personality in Different Characters of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture

of Dorian Gray.”

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” explores the basis of moral tenets in the society

especially how ones conscience undermines the pursuit of individualism. It is through

such conscience, whether or not influenced by the environment, that a conception of

what constitutes right or wrong is built. Conscience also factors in developing a person’s

personality which, for authors, can be expressed through literature. For instance, the

personality of Wilde the author of “The picture of Dorian Gray” is brought out by the

characters found in the book. But Wilde does not conceal such associations even as he

penned the preface to the book. As an example, his indifference for the society’s

perception of morality as exemplified by his statement that “there is no such thing as

moral or an immoral book [that] books are [only] well written, or badly written” (p. 3);

finds its match in Lord Henry Wotton’s witty aphorisms throughout the book.

Wilde’s personality does not however present itself in only a single character.

Aspects of his personality can at least be pinpointed to varying extents in the three main

characters around whom “The Picture of Dorian Gray” revolves. The similarities

between Basil’s romantic fascination with Dorian and later revelations into the author’s

homosexual pursuits; for instance leaves it to the reader’s interpretation whether Basil’s

statement that he had “put too much of [himself] into it” – the painting (p. 6) - was not

the author’s way of conceding having portrayed much of his life in his book’s narrations.

This paper first seeks to explain how Wilde’s personality is reflected in the three main

characters of his book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - Basil Hallward, Lord Henry and
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Dorian Gray. An opinion as to the character who best exemplifies Wilde’s personality

among the three is then presented.

How Basil Hallward Character Betrays the Author’s Personality

Wilde’s obsession with art as a way to shape the society has been brought out in

Basil and his works. It is in Basil’s painting that for instance the reader is informed on

the author’s vision of how life should be – where one must not age. This fascination with

art as a way of expression has also been evident in other artistic pursuits that the author

has been engaged in (Baker 350). With regard to “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, the

author notes in his preface that “the artist is the creator of beautiful things [and that] to

reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim” (Wilde 3). Basil is the character who fulfils

this perception of the author. He does not only paint a magnificent picture of his

fascination but that also turns out to be the yardstick against which Dorian examines his

life. At the end of the book it is the picture and the artist that point out the rot that Dorian

has become though that leads to the demise of both.

Basil’s fascination with Dorian, a person he considers to epitomize beauty also bears

similarities to Wilde’s personality. Though the artist in Wilde’s novel starts out on a self-

realization path, his encounter with Dorian transforms him into idolatry. But it is not just

mere fascination, Basil realizes that he is overly obsessive with Dorian and knows such

is not what the society would encourage. For instance he tells Harry: “I have always

been my own master … till I met Dorian Gray. Then … Something seemed to tell me

that I was on the verge of a terrible crisis in my life” (Wilde 9). This fascination with men

has been replicated in the author’s sexual indiscretions at a time when homosexuality

was largely frown upon in the entire society (editor’s introduction XXXi).
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Lord Henry’s Character Similarity to Wilde’s Personality

Harry’s indifference to convectional wisdom is evident right from the first chapters

of Wilde’s book. Possessed of an aesthetical view of life and with a refined wit with

words, Lord Henry – Harry - easily recruits Dorian as a protégé. Dorian effectively plays

the role of an experimental subject to Harry’s theories. Through Harry’s epigrams Wilde

advances his unconventional perception of life. Such is for instance noted in his preface

to the book where he writes that “no artist has ethical sympathies [that] an ethical

sympathy in an artist is unpardonable mannerism of style” (P. 4). Harry confirms these

critical perspectives that the author holds about life. For instance, when Harry informs

Basil that “one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely

necessary for both parties” (Wilde 7) despite the fact that marriage was considered

sacred in those ages; reflects the authors’ take on widespread outrage following the

publishing of the book (cited in the editor’s introduction).

How Wilde’s Personality is Reflected in Dorian Gray

Wilde’s portrayal of his lead character - Dorian Gray - changes from an epitome

of male beauty – at the beginning of the novel; to that of a villain at the end. From the

start to the end Dorian symbolizes the character of the author. Though Lord Henry is the

one who introduces and guides Dorian through aestheticism, it is the latter who actually

puts the philosophy to practice. Dorian is for instance fascinated by Sibyl Vane and

thinks he has fallen in love because of her acting ability (p. 45). However when Dorian

takes Harry and Basil to see her perform she falls short of her expectations and Dorian

through the mentorship of Lord Wotton loses interest in her leading to her suicide (p.70
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– 80). Dorian’s conscience haunts him for letting Vane die but Harry is successful at

convincing him to never waste his tears for a girl who was “less real than they are” (P.

89). His character progressively plummets to engaging in the business of the dark

streets where “there were opium-dens…dens of horror where the memory of old sins

could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new” (P. 157). When he kills the

painter of his portrait, Dorian’s conscious haunts him to his death; an event that even

his mentor cannot help him pull through. The change in Dorian’s life and the role that

conscience plays throughout his life can be likened to the author’s life up to his

conversion to Roman Catholicism at his deathbed (cited in editor’s introduction,

“chronology” XL).

Conclusion

Wilde’s personality in the novel is best reflected in Lord Henry. In his other

literary works such as “The critic as Artist” for instance Wilde’s paradox perceptions of

conventional moral issues is exposed. In one of his arts he for example advances that

“what is termed Sin is an essential element of progress [and that] without it the world

would stagnate, or grow old, or become colourless” (qtd. in Manganiello 26). This could

be compared with Lord Henry’s perception when Basil tells him that “you never say a

moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing” that his cynicism is a simple pretense but

Harry is of the view that what is a simple pose is being natural (Wilde 8).

Harry is also the only one who follows the aesthetical theme to very end. Wilde,

on the other hand was always considered a “Professor of Aesthetics” in London (editor’s

introduction ix). Harry also achieves his way through adept use of wit which the author

must have had to succeed in his poem writing – an act the editor of the book notes to
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have won the author the Newdigate Prize (editor’s introduction XXXVIII). For instance,

Harry woes Dorian with his witty epigrams that; “the only way to get rid of a temptation

is to yield to it” (p. 17) and that resisting such and urge would make his soul to grow

“sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself” (P.19). It such a hilarious

portrayal of conventional “wisdom” by Harry that Wilde mirrors in his preface suggestion

that “… the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium” (p. 3).
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Works Cited

Baker, Houston A. “A tragedy of the Artist: The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Nineteenth-

Century Fiction 24.3 (1969): 349-355. Web. 21 Feb. 2010.

Manganiello, Dominic. “Ethics and Aesthetics in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The

Canadian Journal of Irish studies 9.2 (Dec., 1983): 25-33. Web. 21 Feb. 2010.

Wilde, Oscar. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oxford World’s Classics. Ed. Joseph

Bristow. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.