Il ritratto di Dorian Gray: The picture of Dorian Gray was written by Oscar

Wilde and it is his unique and most important novel.

The artist Basil Hallward paints the portrait of his friend, Dorian Gray.

This young boy is attracted to a man named Henry Wotton. Henry tells Dorian
that beauty and pleasure are everything in life: for him, beauty is a form of
genius, is a marvel. Dorian is surprised by these words and expresses a desire to
ensure the portrait would age rather than he.

His wish is fulfilled: so the picture becomes its inner part. Dorian holds his
charm and youth while the picture shows the signs of time, vices and corruption,
becoming horrible. Dorian indulges in every forbidden pleasure, and reaches the
climax of his debauchery when he murders the artist, Basil Hallward because he
believes that the portrait and not his behaviour is responsible for his fate.

So he decides to destroy the painting by piercing the canvas with a knife, but
doing so he causes his own death, while the painting reverses to its original
perfection.

(ITALIANO) Il ritratto di Dorian Gray è stato scritto da Oscar Wilde ed è il suo

unico e più importante romanzo. L'artista Basil Hallward dipinge il ritratto del
suo amico, Dorian Gray. Questo giovane ragazzo è attratto da un uomo di nome
Henry Wotton. Henry dice a Dorian che la bellezza e il piacere sono tutto nella
vita: per lui, la bellezza è una forma di genio, è una meraviglia. Dorian è sorpreso
da queste parole ed esprime il desiderio che il ritratto sarebbe invecchiato al suo
posto. Il suo desiderio si concretizza: così il dipinto diventa la sua parte interna
(l'anima). Dorian conserva il suo fascino e la sua giovinezza, mentre il dipinto
mostra i segni del tempo, i vizi e la corruzione, diventando orribile. Dorian si
abbandona a ogni piacere proibito, e raggiunge il culmine della sua dissolutezza
quando uccide l'artista, Basil Hallward, perché crede che il ritratto e il suo
comportamento non sono responsabili per il suo destino. Così decide di
distruggere il dipinto perforando la tela con un coltello, ma così facendo si
provoca la sua morte, mentre il dipinto inverte alla sua perfezione originale.
Allegorical meaning
Is an allegorical story with a Faustian theme. The myth of Faust is the story of a man who sells his
soul (vende la sua anima) to the evil so that all his desires might be satisfied (ogni suo desiderio deve
essere esaudito).
Wilde believes on the Renaissance idea of correspondence existing between the physical and
spiritual realms: beautiful people are moral people, ugly people are immoral people. So in “The picture
of Dorian Gray” the picture is the dark side (il lato oscuro) of Dorian’s personality and records
(registra) the signs of time, the corruption, the horror and the sins (peccato) of Dorian. Picture is
symbol of the immorality of the Victorian middle class and Dorian apparently pure and innocent is
symbol of  bourgeois hypocrisy.
The picture restored to its original beauty means that the art survives peoples, is eternal.
DUALISMO

The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde ”, embodies the characteristics of the theme of

the double. Where Jekyll is light, Hyde is shadow, and there is no overlap between the two

characters.

Instead, in "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", Oscar Wilde approaches the theme of the double always

from a moral point of view, but focusing on aesthetics and spirituality.

The real double, in this case, is consciousness itself. The desire to completely eliminate her will

lead to the novel's tragic ending.