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.”
“Senza dubbio era straordinariamente bello, con le labbra scarlatte, dal contorno fine, i limpidi occhi azzurri, i capelli biondi inanellati. Nel suo viso c’era qualche cosa che ispirava un’immediata simpatia. C’era il candore della giovinezza, e della giovinezza aveva anche l’appassionata purezza. Si sentiva che s’era serbato incorrotto dal mondo. Nulla di incomprensibile nel sentimento di adorazione di Basil. Era fatto per essere adorato.”
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.”
“La curiosità di vivere […] pareva aumentare quando veniva soddisfatta. Più egli sapeva, e più desiderava di sapere. Più i suoi mostruosi appetiti erano saziati, e più aumentavano.”
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!’”
“«Ha gli occhi d’un demonio.» «Ognuno di noi riunisce in sé il cielo e l’inferno, Basil» gridò Dorian, con un gesto disperato e folle. Hallward si volse di nuovo verso il ritratto, e lo scrutò. «Mio Dio, se è vero» esclamò «e se questo tu hai fatto della tua vita, devi esser peggiore di quanto credono i tuoi calunniatori.»”
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?”
“E quel delitto l’avrebbe perseguitato per tutta la vita? Sempre oppresso dal passato? Avrebbe veramente dovuto confessare? Mai. Non restava che una sola piccola prova contro di lui. Il quadro: ecco la prova. L’avrebbe distrutto. Perché l’aveva conservato così a lungo?”
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.”
“L’artista è il creatore di cose belle. Rivelare l’arte senza rivelare l’artista, è il fine dell’arte. […] Coloro che scorgono cattive intenzioni nelle belle cose, sono corrotti, senza essere interessanti. Questo è un difetto. Quanti scorgono buone intenzioni nelle belle cose, sono spiriti raffinati. Per essi c’è speranza. Eletti son gli uomini ai quali le belle cose richiamano soltanto la Bellezza. Non esistono libri morali o immorali come la maggioranza crede. I libri sono scritti bene, o scritti male. Questo è tutto.”