Commentary on an extract from O. Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" chapter 2

Résumé du document

This passage takes place in the middle of chapter II, in which Lord Henry has just been introduced for the first time to Dorian by his friend Basil. During this scene of first encounter Lord Henry made an impressive philosophic speech about one's self and soul, moral influence, virtues and sins, desires and temptation, but also about youth and beauty and the passing of time, that is another version of the Latin "carpe diem" and Greek Hedonism.. In the meantime Basil was painting Dorian's portrait and as Dorian was listening to Lord Henry's terrible words, falling into great trouble and fascination, Basil could paint all these emotions on the picture. The passage that follows and that we are going to study is a key moment : it is the turning point of the novel because it will have decisive consequences for the rest of the story. Actually Basil has just finished the portrait and he lets his friends look at his masterpiece and judge it.

Extraits

[...] We shall therefore study firstly the ambiguous triangular relationships between the three characters that are Lord Henry, Basil and Dorian ; secondly, the pact with the portrait and the issue of Dorian's identity ; and thirdly, the dramatic irony which emphasises the key events of the passage. First part The relationships between the three characters 5 The influence of Lord Henry on Dorian First of all this passage is marked by the arrival of a new character in the relationship between Basil and Dorian. This fact is a motive of inequality and disequilibrium. Thus The relationship Dorian has with Lord Henry is not the same as the one he has with Basil. [...]

[...] It may be one of the most striking passages of the novel that may suggest the sexual ambiguity of the characters and the homosexuality for which Wilde has been blamed The rivalry between Lord Henry and Basil Lord Henry seems to be interested in Basil mainly because he is an artist. is one of the greatest things in modern art. I will give you anything you like to ask for it. I must have He is more interested in his art than his person. We can wonder if it is not really friendship. Chapter 19: Of course he had a wonderful genius for painting. But a man can paint like Velasquez and yet be dull as possible. [...]

[...] Yourself can be Dorian's behaviour, his soul, his life. It therefore suggests that the picture will allow Dorian to do what he likes (even crimes) without it being visible on his face. Another rhetorical question is “What had happened?” by which the narrator implies “what had happened to Dorian?”, and suggests that Lord Henry is a bad influence on Dorian, but the reader can also ask himself what had happened between Dorian and his portrait. This sentence can be used to characterise the whole passage and to suggest the strange and fantastic event that had happen and which constitutes the turning point of the novel. [...]

[...] That is the occasion for Wilde to use of some of his favourite narrative techniques that are free indirect speech and internal focalization. On a narrative level it corresponds to the disturbing key moment of the discovery of the painting, which introduces the fantastic dimension of the novel. It constitutes the main turning point of the story, that is the beginning of the degradation of Dorian's moral behaviour and change of personality, due to Lord Henry's arrival that leads him to formulate a fatal wish and to realize a pact with the picture. [...]

[...] Basil has the intention of destroying the portrait, but Dorian stops him. He says would be murder!” talking about the picture, but he does not realise that destroying the picture would be murder when he himself try to destroy it, and effectively that will kill him. In this sense, the phrase shall kill myself” is only to true, even though he does not know that it will not be made on purpose and not for the same reasons. It sounds thus quite paradoxical that Dorian both says shall kill myself” and “Don't! [...]