Summer Reading: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

For my summer reading, I chose to read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Throughout my life, I had heard my family discussing the tale and knew the basic plot of the story; thus, I was excited to form my own opinions on the novel and join the dinner-table discussions. I found that I greatly enjoyed the story due to several types of excellent storytelling, such as complex characters, unpredictability, and audience engagement, or a moral worth thinking about.

The characters in the novel are multifaceted, riddled with incongruities, and thus, fascinating. Every character has redeeming qualities, though all also have their flaws. Dorian Gray, for example, struggles periodically between good and evil, and I was able to empathize with his plight to an extent because I understood the circumstances that shaped him; however, I also condemned much of his behavior because I knew the possibility of what he could be. This complexity made Dorian an interesting character, who in some ways I could relate to on the basis of understanding. Lord Henry, too, is a multi-faceted character. While he preaches sin and corrupts young Dorian, Wilde never actually discusses the evils he does. This piqued my interest and made me wonder if the evils he does are more influential and vicarious through Dorian or if he actually is doing anything himself. I tend to believe that he is not because he believes he can’t as he is no longer “youth.”

One trait I particularly liked about the novel was its unpredictability. Even knowing the basic plot, I was surprised at many points. When I read James Vane’s promise to kill “Prince Charming” if he ever hurt his sister, I was expecting the rest of the book to unfold in a typical pattern. I was not surprised in the slightest when as a drunken sailor he meets and threatens Dorian at the opium den. However, when Vane ultimately dies without finishing his quest to kill Dorian, I was legitimately shocked, as I had seen the whole book through the lens of postponing what I thought was the inevitable murder. I was pleased to find out that I had been wrong about the ending, as it showed unpredictability, which I consider a crucial element of good story telling.

While reading the novel, I often felt as though I was reading something taboo at certain times. So when Wilde writes about Dorian’s reading of a “poisonous book” that exposes him to all sorts of sins, I was drawn deeper into the book, comparing my reading to Dorian’s. Similarly, as some of the beliefs expressed by Lord Henry—and to some extend Dorian as well—about sin and human nature were so grossly against mine, I found the novel to be fascinating in its divergence from ethical norms. Lord Henry resolutely upholds vices that are shunned in society, and Wilde’s monologues were so well done that they nearly convinced me, as the reader, to believe the different moral code. The tough questions that the novel pose—about the value of beauty versus substance, intellect versus art, the picture versus real life, and moral versus evil—have left me ruminating about what I believe since I finished the book, and have left room for vast conversations at the dinner table.