The purposes of the portrait in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

Abstract

Oscar Wilde’s (1854-1900) characters have been a popular topic of research over the years. However, this thesis focuses to the portrait that is in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray ([1891] 1994), which I will be using as my primary source. The purpose of this thesis is to study all the different purposes the portrait has in the novel, and I aim to prove that its effects are more crucial to Dorian Gray’s character development than any other influence. I have found in my research several different purposes the portrait has, including but not limited to, the portrait as a depicter of soul, an enabler, a moral guide and even an object of addiction and obsession. Therefore, I have concluded that the novel is rightfully named after the portrait in it, and it should be taken into consideration when analysing the characters in the novel.