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

Extraits de l'exposé

[...] 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. [...]

[...] I must have Moreover the issue of whose property it is is even debated between him and Basil. Basil considers too that it is finest piece of work [he has] ever done? but at the end he even tries to persuade himself that it is canvas and colour?, and becoming an element of discord, it is not worth quarrelling with his friends Subjectively : a fourth character subject) But this is not the point of view of Dorian who would give everything not to possess it, but to exchange his ageing with the immutable appearance of the portrait. [...]

[...] Commentary on an extract from O. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapter 2 Chapter II From : After about a quarter of an hour to what you like with yourself Introduction 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 . [...]

[...] The paradox is that he morally accepts and decides to kill himself and in the meantime he morally saves the portrait life and refuses its destruction : this constitutes a turning point since he considers that now his life and his soul lie in the portrait and no more in his body, and because it affirms that the survival of physical appearances is more important than the life of the soul. So the portrait is no more a fourth character but as Dorian says it has become part of [himself]?. But Dorian is now a half-character whose second inseparable part is the portrait : they are now inextricably linked for the better and the worse. [...]