The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Historical Context

The Victorian era (1837-1901) was characterised by industrial expansion, cultural flourishing, and the expansion of the British Empire. At the time Wilde was writing his novel in 1891 the Education Act made elementary education free, a significant step towards increasing literacy.

The old landed aristocracy was slowly being ousted from power by the industrial middle class. However, there remained an upper-middle-class of titled people. They populate the salons in The Picture of Dorian Gray. These people possess their titles, their homes and their money through inheritance. The men usually inherited a seat in the House of Lords, giving them the opportunity to vote on political matters and so maintain a certain power. They also owned a town house in London as well as their countryside estate, as did Dorian Gray.

Literary background

Romantics embraced nature as an alternative to industry early in the 19th. century; in the middle of the century, the Aesthetic movement succeeded Romanticism. Adepts believed in the motto popularised by French poet Théophile Gautier: "Art for art's sake." Victorian society was practical and valued art that carried a useful social cause or a moral message. However, for the Aesthetics, beauty was enough in itself. Wilde was influenced by this movement through the art critic Walter Pater, who helped shape the movement in Britain. 

Wilde incorporated the Aesthetics' philosophy of beauty in The Picture of Dorian Gray, while also criticising it in the same work. Lord Henry Wotton represents aesthetic philosophy in the novel and he encourages Dorian to adopt it as a lifestyle. However, Wilde also shows how Dorian ruins many others' lives by living out this philosophy.

Just as Romanticism at the beginning of the century opposed industrialisation, the Gothic literature revival in the 1880s exposed the dark side of the romantic movement. Where romanticism saw the good in emotion, Gothic literature showed the dangers of excess passion and irrationality. 

Gothic literature was a mature tradition by the time Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray, and he was one of a number of authors in the period, such as Robert Louis Stevenson, who adapted Gothic techniques for philosophical and critical ends. Wilde's novel applies several Gothic clichés, like the doubled self, forbidden knowledge, intense passions, and life-threatening hidden secrets. The author was inspired by the themes of Faust and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and there are allusions to these texts in the plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray.