One Pager the portrait of Dorian Grey

the picture of dorian grey

a philosophical and gothic novel

setting

main character

London, late 19th century

Dorian Grey

Basil Hallward, Lord Henry Wotton

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde nacque a Dublino nel 1854 in una famiglia benestante (suo padre era un celebre chirurgo, sua madre una scrittrice e una donna piuttosto eccentrica).Oscar Wilde imparò che l’arte non aveva uno scopo didattico e morale, adottò uno stile di vita basato sull'estetismo e cominciò a comportarsi e a vestire in modo stravagante. Oscar Wilde scrisse una serie di racconti come The Canterville Ghost (1887), The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) che scrisse per i suoi figli, e il suo unico romanzo The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), in cui espresse le sue teorie estetiche. Oscar Wilde scrisse anche molte opere teatrali di successo tra cui la tragedia Salomè (1892).

themes literary period

moral

Dorian forces us to look into the darkest part of each of uor souls, into our most hidden desires, into wanting to be above the consequences of our actions, with which, instead, sooner or later, human beings must deal.

art victorian period beauty aestheticism narcissism decadence

later some bad events make the portrait age until Dorian stabs the painting, Dorian becomes a disfigured old man again and the portrait returns to its beauty

Dorian remains young and beatiful while his portrait grows old

Dorian sees the portrait painted by Basil

Dorian falls in love with his own beauty and makes a pact with the aesthete Lord Henry