While the introduction goes over Oscar Wilde's life and speculates on the characters of his novel, as well as other notable things, the preface gives Wilde's opinion of art, summed up in three sentences: "All art is at once surface and symbol... It is the spectator and not life, that art really mirrors... All art is quite useless." (3-4)
The book itself follows those thoughts, bringing forward three major characters. First, there is Basil Hallward, who believes "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them." (13) Second, there is Dorian Gray, the famed star of whom the painting reflects, and who we will talk about momentarily. Third, there is Lord Henry, who believes "Art has no influence upon action." (172)
Dorian Gray has varying opinions of life and art that shift throughout the book, but his central opinion was to experience everything life had to offer, art or not. This opinion was influenced by Lord Henry as Dorian sat for Basil to paint him. The joining of the three in one afternoon led to the famed painting of Dorian.
Now, if you're like me and you saw "League of Extraordinary Gentleman" before reading Dorian Gray, you believe the painting keeps Dorian alive no matter what physically happens to Dorian, including old age. He also cannot look upon his own portrait or everything that has happened will happen to him. None of this is the case. While Dorian does cease to show signs of age, with the portrait aging instead, it is only the things that affect his soul that are portrayed in the picture.
The reason behind this is the novel was written in the late Victorian era, where society believed that all your sins were physically written upon the face and body. This idea, and similar others, led to many great monster novels of its time, including Jekyll and Hyde, The Turn of the Screw, and Dracula. But let's get back to Dorian Gray.
As far as not being able to look upon his portrait, Dorian actually visits the portrait quite often. When he first notices it changing, he hides it away where only he can access it. He visits it with revelry, comparing his beautiful, youthful face in a mirror against it. Then he starts to go mad, wondering if his servants have tried to break in to see it, refusing to show Lord Henry and Basil the painting, claiming it got stolen.
Through the brilliant writing of Oscar Wilde, the reader sees Dorian's madness deepen and his misdeeds grow greater, until Dorian finally commits the biggest sinful act: murder. This sends him over the edge into truly being a monster, although not physically. Again, all of this is evident in the painting of Dorian alone.
Finally, at the end of the book, Dorian comes to despise the painting. In a wonderful sentence by Wilde, he recounts "Its mere memory had marred many moments of joy." (176) With that, Dorian decides to slash the painting with the same knife he used to commit his murder.
What happens, you ask? I think you should read it for yourself. The book does have the flowery language of Victorian writings, but Oscar Wilde does a phenomenal job of showing the ideals of times and rebelling against them, at times mocking them. He gives us three wonderful characters and a unique monster. I give you, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
