The Power of Belief: A Discussion on "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

The centrality of Basil’s masterpiece portrait of Dorian creates many questions about art, representation, responsibility, character, craft, society, life….. what do you make of the artist – Basil – and his art – the portrait? What about the artistic object – is it Dorian, or the portrait?

The concept of a painting that contains a soul is not a new notion, but it had certainly never been conveyed in such a fashion as this. Art is very ‘up-to-interpretation’ and each person that looks upon it sees something different. Basil sees himself; Lord Henry Watton sees Dorian as he truly is, and Dorian sees a version better, more perfect than himself at the outset, attributing such a likeness with the painting that he thinks to harm the painting would be akin to actual murder. They all see something different here, and while Lord Henry does not have much to do with the actual painting after this scene, Basil and Dorian are absolutely shaped by the painting.

Basil thinks he put his soul into it. He tried to capture the truth of Dorian Gray in the painting, and he succeeded in doing this. I would say it was done by trading his own artistic prowess to give the painting life. After the painting, he never does something as wonderful, and his career was in his prime during the painting of this portrait, but that talent seemingly disappears.

Dorian too gives up something integral. Whether that’s his soul or something else is irrelevant, really. He wishes for the portrait to age instead of himself. Combined with the artist bringing the painting to life and subject wishing the painting to take his natural course of life, Dorian loses something innately. He has no integrity, and this is proved by the fact that he would have checked himself if it had’ve been his own face to age. The fact that he can hide his vices encourages him to be further engage in them, and his painting starts rotting.

To the point: one must be careful about where they place their belief and power. You can attribute these things to anything and find meaning in anything if you have such a will to do so. The responsibility falls to each individual to curb their shortcomings and to take ownership of their follies without shirking it onto someone/something else (as Dorian does on the painting to take the fall for him). Basil painted the painting with one intention in mind, and Dorian applied meaning on top of that intention, corrupting it. It is not Basil’s responsibility how others apply themselves to his work. Wilde’s assertion here, taken from the preface, is that art is neither moral or immoral. It’s people that are moral or immoral, and the application surrounding it has equal capacity for good or bad irrespective of the content of said artwork. It's the quality of one's character that is the determining factor. 

Despite the fact that Lord Henry Watton never sees the painting again, he is correct when he says it is Dorian’s truth, though it’s only Dorian’s truth because Dorian  adopted it as such.