Dorian Gray’s fall from grace, the price to pay for immortality

Esther Bautista-Naranjo

University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

The fear of ageing grows parallel to the birth of consumerism, which praises quality more than quantity regarding life expectancy. On the one hand, growing old means achieving a complete psychological maturity. On the other hand, it implies physical deterioration, memory loss and vulnerability to disease and pain which seem to prelude the approach of death.

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray fictionalizes the Victorian concern about the ageing process. In his only novel, Wilde supports two of the greatest ideological pillars of his time: through the cult of individualism and aestheticism the protagonist remains young while his portrait ages with the ravages of his evil soul.

The novel presents a love triangle. Dorian Gray is a young man of extreme beauty. Basil Hallward paints his portrait. Lord Henry, Dorian’s mentor, shows him the great mystery of life: the philosophy of aesthetics, which tries to overcome the fugacity of life through hedonism and carpe diem. For aestheticists, the key to happiness is satisfying one’s own individuality. By depicting young Dorian’s unspoiled beauty, Basil Hallward is defying nature itself. In this sense, art becomes a redeemer for the ageing process. This marks the protagonist’s fall from grace; his salvation comes only after self-destruction.

Asked about this novel, the author declared: “Basil Hallward is what I think I am; Lord Henry what the world thinks me; Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.” Couldn’t we all say the same?