Once Wilde said that the three important characters in this novella are a reflection of himself, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am; Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me; Dorian is what I would like to be – in other ages.” Every human being has three perspectives basically, one is what society thinks about her or him, what S/he thinks about themselves and what they are in real life.
This is the only novel written by Oscar Wilde. The novel is short and the meaning is deep. The novel is set in the Victorian age. This age brought the class culture very strongly. The women are appreciated for their beauty. They are sought for pleasurable sex. Wilde constantly brings that Victorian age ideology through Lord Henry. Women are considered Gossip mongers. These two were basic criticisms thrown on Victorian-age women. Wilde brings that through Sibyl and Lady Agatha.
That society thought crimes, murder, drugs and homosexuality are illegal. Apart from Homosexuality everything is illegal now too. But Wilde brought these things into this work. The novel runs for 75 pages oddly. But Wilde brings in all these features. He highlights the famous genre of that period, “Horror”. The murder and haunting elements bring that feature.
The painting of Dorian is different from the Dorian we see at the end of the novel. This brings out the paradoxical existence of eternal youth and immortality.
