Dorian Gray Revision

Dorian Gray Revision

1. Key Themes

   • morality/immorality
   • youth
   • Art vs. Nature
   • Aestheticism & Beauty
   • Victorian Spiritualism
   • Hedonism
   • Victorian Class System
     • Hypocrisy
   • Time
   • Duality
   • temptation and corruption
   • appearance vs. reality
   • Creation vs. Destruction
   • Nature of friendship

2. Motifs

   • Colour
     • Gold
     • White
     • Red
     • Yellow
   • Nature
     • Laburnum and other flowers
     • Birds
     • the Garden
   • Items
     • clocks
     • The purple pall
     • The yellow book
     • The portrait

3. Characters

   • Dorian Gray
   • Lord Henry Wooton
   • Sybil Vane
   • Basil Hallward
   • The portrait

4. Form & Narrative

   • Free indirect discourse

5. Literary influences

   • Faustus and mephistopheles
   • Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
   • Gothic Literature
   • Frankenstein
   • Melodrama
   • Tradgedy
     • Hubris/Hamartia
   • Social satire
   • The Bible
   • Greek mythology

6. Structure

   • innocence -> knowlage -> corruption
   • a collection of morality plays and a tradgedy
   • the corruption will always lead to a bad ending
   • Loss of innocence gained in physical items
   • Destruction of morality

7. Context

   • Homosexuality
   • Victorian England
   • Fin du siecle (end of the century)

8. Settings

   • The East end
     • Opium dens and brothels
     • Sybil Vane's house
   • The West end
     • The Garden
     • Basil's studio
     • Lord Henry's library
     • the schoolroom