Astory about hedonism, superficiality and moral emptiness, this late-Victorian gothic novel by the flamboyant Irish playwright Oscar Wilde did not become a classic until after his death in 1900. It champions the appeal of timeless art “whose beauty does not die” and warns of the dangers of a purely aesthetic life. The protagonist is a man called Dorian Gray who sells his soul in return for eternal youth. When an artist called Basil Hallward meets Gray, he becomes obsessed by his unblemished beauty.
“Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him.”
“Sí, ciertamente era maravillosamente bienparecido, con sus labios rojos delicadamente arqueados, sus francos ojos azules, su rizado pelo dorado. Había algo en su cara que le hacía a uno confiar en él de inmediato. Tenía todo el candor de la juventud, así como la apasionada pureza de toda juventud. Notaba uno que se había mantenido sin mancha del mundo. No era extraño que Basil Hallward le idolatrase”.
ETERNAL YOUTH
Hallward paints a perfect portrait of Dorian Gray, who declares that he would trade his soul to keep the beauty he sees in the painting. So begins a life of deceit and secrecy. As Gray loses his innocence, his portrait grows older and more sinister-looking, while Gray himself never ages. He hides the painting so that no one can see the changes. But his appetite for wrongdoing grows stronger:
“That curiosity about life […] seemed to increase with gratification. The more he knew, the more he desired to know. He had mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them.”
“Esa curiosidad por la vida […] parecía incrementarse con su gratificación. Cuanto más sabía, más deseaba saber. Tenía hambres locas que se volvían tanto más insaciables y rabiosas cuanto más las alimentaba”.
POISONOUS
Dorian Gray becomes involved in terrible things: murder, suicide and debauchery, but he refuses to take any responsibility for his behaviour. When Hallward visits him, Gray reveals the much-changed portrait, the “face of my soul”, as he calls it. Hallward is horrified:
“‘It has the eyes of a devil.’
‘Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil,’ cried Dorian, with a wild gesture of despair.
Hallward turned again to the portrait and gazed at it. ‘My God! if it is true,’ he exclaimed, ‘and this is what you have done with your life, why, you must be worse even than those who talk against you fancy you to be!’”
“—Tiene los ojos de un demonio.
—Cada uno de nosotros tiene Cielo e Infierno dentro, Basil —soltó Dorian, con un salvaje gesto de desesperación.
Hallward se volvió otra vez hacia el retrato, y lo contempló.
—¡Dios mío! ¡Si es cierto —exclamó—, y esto es lo que has hecho con tu vida, porque, debes de ser peor de lo que se imaginan esos que hablan contra ti!”
DESIRE
When it was published, Victorian England was scandalised by the novel, especially its homoeroticism. Contemporary reviews described it as “unclean” and “poisonous.” Five years later, at the height of his theatrical fame, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency for his homosexual relationships. The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence against him. The author was a victim of his age and his authenticity. In Wilde’s moral fantasy, Dorian Gray’s past eventually catches up with him, even as he tries to conceal it:
“Was he always to be burdened by his past? Was he really to confess? Never. There was only one bit of evidence left against him. The picture itself – that was evidence. He would destroy it. Why had he kept it so long?”
“¿Iba a estar siempre soportando la carga de su pasado? ¿Iba a confesar realmente? Jamás. Sólo había quedado una pequeña prueba contra él. El propio cuadro: esa era la prueba. Lo destruiría. ¿Por qué lo había guardado tanto tiempo?”
MORALITY
After two years in prison, Oscar Wilde was released, a broken man. He died in exile in Paris aged firty-six. He is remembered as a brilliant writer whose plays remain popular to this day. His only novel, Dorian Gray, has been adapted many times for screen. Directed by Albert Lewin, the 1945 film version won two Oscars. Although the book is often used as a study of Victorian morality, the author himself wrote persuasively in the preface:
“The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim […] Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
“El artista es el creador de cosas bellas. Revelar el arte y ocultar al artista es el propósito del arte […] Los que encuentran significados feos en las cosas bellas son corrompidos sin ser encantadores. Esto es una falta. Los que encuentran significados bellos en cosas bellas son los cultivados. Para éstos hay esperanza. Son los elegidos para quienes las cosas bellas sólo significan Belleza. No existe eso que se llama un libro moral o inmoral. Los libros están bien escritos, o mal escritos. Eso es todo.”