Concetti Chiave
- "The Picture of Dorian Gray" explores the theme of eternal beauty versus the acceptance of reality, with Dorian selling his soul for youth.
- Wilde examines the contradiction between truth and beauty, illustrating a society focused on appearances rather than genuine identity.
- The novel presents a paradoxical narrative, blurring the lines between the true and false versions of Dorian Gray.
- Art in the novel is depicted as a reflection of reality, showing Dorian's corrupted soul, despite his outwardly innocent appearance.
- The story's moral emphasizes that art is eternal, and reality cannot be avoided, as shown when Dorian's destruction of the portrait leads to his own demise.
Wilde’s masterpiece is “The picture of Dorian Gray”, an allegorical story of a young man who sells his soul to the devil in order to have endless beauty and timeless youth. It expresses human difficulties of accepting reality.
Wilde represents the contradictory relationship between truth and beauty, being and appearing: Dorian Gray is the expression of an hypocritical society based on appearances: the most important thing isn’t what you are but what you manifest; the portrait reveals the true dark side of this corrupted context.
The novel is paradoxical: it shows us a true and a false Dorian Gray without saying which is which.
According to aesthetic conception, art expresses the nature of Beauty and its differences from truth and morality. It is a form of perfection untied from reality that “reveals everything, because it expresses nothing”.
But in the novel, Dorian is the metaphorical representation of Beauty while art becomes the mirror of reality, reflecting his soul and his true self. In fact the portrait records the signs of time and the horrible sins of Dorian despite his beautiful and innocent appearance.
The moral of the novel is that art is eternal and reality can’t be escaped: when the protagonist destroys his portrait, he kills himself. In that moment, Dorian became the old man he actually was while the picture is restored in its original beauty.
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