Elements of a Gothic novel in The Picture of Dorian Gray – Notes
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PEARSON (PEARSON)
English Literature 2015
Unit 2 - Prose
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H/W 16th November 2017
‘There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book’ – How and in what ways can this apply to ‘The Picture
of Dorian Gray’? Discuss
This quote was written in the preface of Wilde’s novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, a year after its publication
where it was heavily criticised for being immoral, implying homosexuality, corruption and exploitation; he continued
‘books are well written or badly written. That is all,’ which already implies that Wilde saw no immorality in his novel,
rather art that can be judged through aestheticism. This quote can be recognisably linked to aspects of the novel,
such as through characters and objects, which heavily influence the protagonist Dorian, but also could reflect the
activities of upper classes of Victorian society that were considered illegal.
One application of this quote on morality is the characters, in particular Dorian Gray and Lord Henry. Lord Henry is
a man who speaks of having done immoral acts, and speaks in epigrams that blur the line between morality and
immorality, however the reader is never explicitly told what these actions are and the feeling s Henry has towards
them, much like how no-one really knows the past of Dracula, but by understanding that he is a vampire and
therefore the Undead – and as a result cannot enter heaven – we can infer that he has done terrible and immoral
acts, such as take Lucy’s blood and start her transformation into a vampire, which could be seen as her being raped.
The idea that Lord Henry has acted in this way, involving homosexual acts, drugs and prostitution does suggest that
‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ is an immoral book for the contemporary audience, as the Victorian era condemned this
type of behaviour as illegal, which can give evidence as to why there was a period where some campaigned for the
book to be banned. However, from the perspective of a modern day audience, these activities are widely known
about, and have become legal, such as homosexuality – despite the modern audience being rather blasé about
topics surrounding sexuality and identity, the contemporary audience wouldn’t have been, which can be seen by
how when Dorian shows Basil the portrait before murdering him, Basil’s reaction is to pray, saying ‘the prayer of
your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also. I worshipped you too much. I
am punished for it.’ By reading into the idea that Basil indeed reflected Wilde’s homosexual thoughts and possibly
actions, Basil has in this quote admitted to ‘worshipping’ – a verb meaning to feel great admiration and adoration –
Dorian, a beautiful male, and therefore has implied that he has feelings he shouldn’t have for Dorian, and is
therefore ‘punished’ for it. For a contemporary audience, this information would be seen as immoral – shown by
how Wilde was arrested for being with a man in an intimate way, and being involved with male prostitutes – as it
goes against the law but also religion, as that is not ‘what God intended when he made Adam and Eve.’
; tThese actions that are so controversial to the Victorians may still be judged by modern society, but with drug use,
gay marriage and areas such as the ‘Red Light’ district being legalised or only loosely controlled by the government,
are not as shocking and immoral as the Victorian audience would find them; however, if the reading of Lucy being
raped is followed, then this gives evidence to suggest even more so that Dracula is an immoral character, as both a
modern audience and a contemporary one – although may not have read into this argument too much – would see
rape is unacceptable and therefore he is a character who has no morality, possibly no soul, which could be the result
of turning into a creature not allowed into heaven. In this context, ‘The picture of Dorian Gray’ is neither moral nor
immoral, as Lord Henry is only suggesting ideas that give him pleasure, and are doing no harm; a modern audience
may find agreement with this statement as the novel doesn’t specifically state anything, and therefore it is for the
interpretation of the reader to determine what actions are moral or immoral, with Dracula being a novel that shows
the actions of an evil character, and therefore both types of audience would possibly not find that Stoker was writing
an immoral book, rather that he was depicting an immoral character for the sake of the plot, who in turn suffers the
consequences. This is furthered by how Wilde says that ‘art is quite useless,’ as it stands for its own sake, and not for
moral judgement; it would be ‘quite useless’ to judge the actions of the novels characters as they are subjective to a
person’s own views and beliefs, particularly if religion is a factor the individual is basing their opinions on.
The religious reading is implied by Faust’s deal with the devil, Lord ‘Harry’ Henry being read as the devil, and Basil
being read as the angelic ‘hero’ – the person who, along with Sibyl, tries to intentionally tell Dorian about his
mistakes and immoral actions, but ultimately fails - which all suggest that this novel is indeed immoral and Wilde’s
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