Oscar Wilde (post #3): The Picture of Dorian Gray and who Wrote all those Quotations

“Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages perhaps.” Letter from Oscar Wilde, 12 February 1894

The main characters of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray are three young English gentlemen: Basil, the Artist, who has painted the picture and is infatuated with Dorian; Lord Henry, the Quotable; and Dorian, the pretty-boy who is corrupted by the hedonistic ideas given to him by Lord Henry.

Basil (the character with whom the writer of the above letter identifies) knows Dorian before Lord Henry does, and is reluctant to reveal his name. Lord Henry asks why. Basil explains, “When I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It seems like surrendering a part of them. You know I love secrecy.” This is the prototypical attitude of the person with multiple personality. The last thing they will reveal is the actual name of another personality, and their general attitude is one of secrecy.

“Dorian Gray” appears to be the name of a group of personalities. “For years, Dorian Gray could not free himself from the memory of this book [that Lord Henry had given to him]…He procured…no less than five…copies…bound in different colors, so that they might suit his various moods and the changing fancies of a nature over which he seemed, at times, to have almost entirely lost control.” This reminds me of the different colored notebooks used by different personalities in Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook (see Lessing posts).

One or more of the Dorian Gray personalities is interested in various esoteric aesthetic interests, while one or more other of the Dorian Gray personalities leaves home for “mysterious and prolonged absences” … "under an assumed name, and in disguise” or he “would often adopt certain modes of thought that he knew to be really alien to his nature.”  “Curious stories became current about him…It was said that he had been seen brawling with foreign sailors…and that he consorted with thieves and coiners and knew the mysteries of their trade.” He would also ruin women from both the upper and lower classes. Thus, “Dorian Gray” was multiple Jekylls and multiple Hydes.

“Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities. Such, at any rate, was Dorian Gray’s opinion. He used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the Ego in man as a thing simple, permanent, reliable, and of one essence. To him, man was a being with myriad lives…”

To conclude, let’s take a fresh look at the letter quoted at the beginning of this post. The personality of Oscar Wilde who wrote that letter says he is Basil, the Artist, not Lord Henry, whom the world thinks he is. Who is Lord Henry? He happens to be the character who provides most of the novel’s numerous quotable remarks. So the letter writer is saying that he is not the personality responsible for the public’s image of Oscar Wilde as someone who is famous for memorable quotes. The quotes are from Oscar Wilde’s other “Lord Henry” personalities.

Wilde, Oscar. The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge Massachusetts, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012.