Relevant Background Information on The Picture of Dorian Gray and Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in 1890 and a revised version was published in 1891. The decade of the 1890s was right on the cusp of two important historical periods. The Victorian Age was just beginning to wrap up (Queen Victoria, for whom the period is named, died in 1901), and the Age of Modernism was just about to begin. This book nicely straddles the two time periods and the themes and conventions of both eras.
The Victorian period (1837-1901) is known mostly for its conservative ways – and the literature reflected this. Most Victorian novels highlighted social realism and the exterior world through omniscient narrators (although Persuasion is technically part of an earlier period, you can see it emphasizing domestic, social realities of everyday life), while Modernist novels (roughly 1900-1940) came to inhabit the world of the mind (interiority) more readily through the use of first-person narrators and stream-of-conscious narration (like Faulkner). Victorians emphasized traditional religious belief systems, although religious principles were first challenged during this period when science began taking on a more important role, while Modernists highlighted new and different belief systems that were replacing the old ways. Victorians are commonly considered to be asexual or sexually repressed, while Modernists are credited with liberating the sexual nature of humans.
Watch for how conventions of both eras play out in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was born in Ireland but moved to England at age 24, spending most of his time in London. He married in 1884 and had two children. Wilde became famous for his involvement in the aestheticism movement and his love of art and his talent for using language. Dorian Gray was his only novel, but he also wrote plays and poetry. Besides Dorian Gray he is best known for his play The Importance of Being Earnest, his wit, and for the extreme controversy surrounding his sexuality. In 1895 he was put on trial and his work and private life were examined; The Picture of Dorian Gray was utilized by prosecutors as evidence of his opinions and homoerotic activities. He was eventually convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to 2 years of hard labor, following which he assumed a different name and wandered about in Europe, enjoying a similar lifestyle to that of his past. Wilde died of cerebral meningitis three years after his release from prison. Today his only novel is considered a classic and is studied in most survey courses of Victorian literature.
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