First of all, let me say, OH MY GOD WHAT AN AMAZING BOOK. People reading this, shift your eyes elsewhere, more specifically shift them towards this book. Go get it. Don't allow me to spoil anything. Actually my analysis probably won't do the book justice so I guess you can read this.
Theme theme theme. Multiple themes stuck out to me. There's the large theme revolving around art and its relation toward the youth. How the youth somewhat is art. Poor little Dorian is young, naive, and so easily influenced. The easily influenced part is where I find the relation of art. I see primarily Lord Henry Wotton (everyone else that influences Dorian, such as Basil Hallward, are also important though) as the artist. He corrupted, manipulated, and of course influenced Dorian Gray in a negative light. What used to be an innocent man became a man that question everything and became overtly consumed with his youth. This big theme got me to the little one that I prefer, the theme of influence. How influence is an artform.
Characters, characters, characters. Well of course there's mister Dorian Gray. Along with him are Lord Henry Wotton, Basil Hallward, Sibyl Vane, and James Vane. (There's also Victoria Wotton, Mrs. Vane, Lady Agatha, and others but they're not as important.)
Dorian is directly characterized as beautiful, handsome, young, and indirectly characterized as naive and easily influenced. He is the subject of Basil's best portrait, and through that portrait (and Henry's words) he becomes concerned with becoming ugly and horrid so he seeks all the pleasure of youth, no matter if they be morally right or not. As he indulges in these pleasure he finds the portrait of him turning ever so slightly crude, taking all the moral flaws that he has committed. Don't want to spoil to much so I'll stop there.
Lord Henry Wotton. Best character out of the whole thing. He's witty, sarcastic, and to be honest confusing(in a delightful way though). Throughout the whole story he has these long epigrams that just get you thinking and kind of erk you. It's great though..... I can't explain it. He influences Dorian with his philosophy of new hedonism which is basically indulging in pleasure for the sensory feeling without any moral concerns for others, only yourself.
Basil Hallward. This man is the painter. He is madly in love with Dorian and feels that the portrait of Dorian he created exposes too much of himself. He grows obsessed with young Dorian and incredibly protective of him when his friend Henry begins to corrupt the poor lad.
Sibyl Vane. Sibyl Vane is a young and incredibly beautiful actress. She works as a theatre and often plays many of Shakespeare's wonderful leading ladies. Dorian quickly falls in love with her incredible acting and her ability to influence the audience with certain emotions by engulfing herself into characters. She shares the aspect of naivety with Dorian and quickly falls in love with him, not even knowing him and instead calling him "prince charming". She tells her mother and brother of him and while her mother is approving, her brother is a little skeptical of the young fellow. One night she decides that the true love she shares for Dorian outweighs the fake love she portrays onstage and thus makes that onstage love not real. She begins to act horribly from them on on purpose and I won't reveal what happens after that.... read it...
James Vane. I don't want to give up too much about this fellow either seeing as how most of characterization comes about after what happens to Sibyl. Let's just say he's very very very protective of his sister and deeply cares for her.
I'm just going to list off some literary elements I noticed in the book rather than indulge in the plot so I don't give anything away.
Epigram: This book is full of them, all of them mainly from Lord Henry Wotton. They're clever remarks that get you thinking.
Colloquialism: The book is written with a Victorian era language.
Imagery!: Best example of this is in the first few pages where Basil and Henry are outside in the garden talking about Dorian. Go forth and conquer.
Symbolism: It's pretty obvious how the portrait of Dorian turning crude is symbolic of his true self and how he's developing.
Last words. Sorry for being so vague. Take it as me having read an amazing book that is too complex and beautiful for me to explain through words and also take it as me not spoiling anything incredibly cool(which I did, thank me later). It's a must read.
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