The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
adapted by Malcolm Brown
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Oscar Wilde's only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was first published in 1891.
but it still continues to fascinate us with its depiction of one of society's overwhelming obsessions: the cult of
youthful beauty. It tells the story of a young man, Dorian Gray, whose friend, Basil Hallward, paints a portrait of him.
Dorian wishes that the picture could age and decay, while he could keep his youth and beauty. When this
actually happens, he leads a life of increasing depauchery, under the malign influence of the charming and clever
Lord Henry Wotton.
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The book was originally condemned as 'a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours
of moral and spiritual putrefaction' and 'a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French decadents'.
Wilde deliberately offended the Puritans in his preface to the novel by asserting 'There is no such thing as a
moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.' He went on to claim that 'it is the spectator,
and not life that art really mirrors' and stated that a central point of the book was that 'Each man sees his own sin in Dorian Gray'.
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"The Picture of Dorian Gray" Set Model
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Critics identified Wilde with Lord Henry Wotton, the young aristocrat whose charm and eppigramatic dialogue mask
his heartless disregard for the damage he does to others. Wilde himself identified far more with Basil Hallward, the artist
whose obsession with Dorian leads to his own death, and seems to prefigure Wilde's obsession with Lord Alfred Douglas,
which ultimately led to his trial, imprisonment, bankruptcy and exile.
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The moralizers who condemned the work confused the portrayal of evil with an exhortation to evil. Lord Henry's
arguments are sophistries which are clever but unsound and even contradictory. Basil Hallward cannot control the events he
sets in motion by painting the portrait, and ends up being murdered by Dorian. Dorian himself is increasingly terrified by his descent into corruption
and crime. Unable to drown his fears in sex or drugs, he tries to defeat his conscience by destroying the picture
which has become its visible symbol, and instead destroys himself.
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ACT ONE
ACT TWO
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