The Picture of Dorian Gray. An AwEsOmE book review/summary + top 10 quotes
Hello.
My name is Zinna and I’m a 21 year old
health science student with a secret
passion for arts and literature.
Welcome to my channel.
First of all, today,
what I’m going to be doing is
talking about this book right here.
It’s called The Picture
of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.
Firstly, what I’m going to be talking
about is the book itself,
a little bit of a summary,
a bit of a book review, and second of all,
going to mention 10 of my favourite
quotes in no particular order.
So let’s jump right into it.
So The Picture of Dorian Grey talks about,
you’ve guessed it Dorian Grey.
So he is the protagonist, antagonist,
anti-hero, main character.
I’m going to call him the main
character, main character.
So basically you follow Dorian, the main character.
Along his journey from being a
very kind of innocent, charming,
beautiful, young and youthful man into
bit of an immoral and kind of
narcissistic douchebag.
The book follows him from 18 to about fourty
years of age, which is a lot of time
and basically
describes his transition from this naive,
pure and very boyish character into this
person, driven by his hedonistic desires
partying, on money and riches, and jewellery.
And all that kind of stuff.
And the major
influence of this transition is
the people who surround him in his life.
In particular,
this character called Lord Henry.
So basically
one day the three of them meet in person
and they have a bit of a conversation.
And at the end of the conversation between
Henry and Dorian,
it’s instilled into Dorian’s mind
by Lord Henry
that his beauty and beauty in general is
one of the most important things
you can have and ask for it’s
what makes the world go round.
So after this conversation
with Lord Henry, Dorian realises that he’s
just that guy, that that rich,
good looking Prince Charming
that everybody loves.
And due to this
he kind of falls in love
with himself in the form of his portrait
because it has cemented
his beauty in time.
He can never be as beautiful as that day.
He sat for Basil to paint his portrait
and in that in that little
brain of Dorian’s he makes
a wish and that wish comes true.
So the moral of the story.
Be careful what you wish for.
Basically, Dorian wishes that he could
stay forever young and forever beautiful
and that he would never age a day
physically as time goes on and instead,
in his stead, his portrait would age.
And this drive Dorian absolutely insane.
So as the story progresses,
Dorian stays physically beautiful.
But the portrait begins to decay and rot
before his very eyes, mirroring
the continued corruption of his soul.
And the portrait as time goes on becomes
more ugly, more grotesque, more
demonic I want to say and this portrait
becomes Dorian’s,
biggest, deepest darkest secret.
He wants nobody to ever see this portrait,
even though Basil and Lord Henry, they
know how beautiful that portrait was.
It was a work of art.
It was the best work,
that Basil had ever made, but he
pretends that he’s lost it,
that it’s gone.
So that’s basically my summary.
All in all it was a very good book that I
would highly recommend to everybody.
It is a classic, so it’s got that
classic style.
So some parts might be a bit harder.
Well, not harder, a bit more challenging
to read, but overall a wonderful
book that I highly recommend.
Now let’s move on to my favourite quotes.
I think I might read them out to you guys,
the first ones in the preface.
And I think it’s a beautiful quote
that summarises the whole book.
Here we go.
There is no such thing as
a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written or badly written.
That is all.
Another one that’s very similar.
You and I are what we are
and will be what we will be.
As for being poisoned by a book,
there is no such thing as that.
Art has no influence upon action.
These two quotes, I think they fit really
well together and is a
great fit to the book.
I feel like it summarises the entire book,
especially because in the story
Lord Henry gives a book to Dorian that he
becomes obsessed with,
and he basically identifies with the main
character in the book that he reads
because of their similarities.
And basically he ends up blaming the book
for his actions,
which just isn’t the case.
He is responsible for his
actions, not some book.
Yeah.
And I think it’s very relatable in our
world as well, with movies like
The Joker, all that controversy.
So that’s why I like those two quotes.
The next quote basically expresses how
society views beautiful people and within
the book, how Lord Henry and many
of the people surrounding Dorian view Dorian.
He is some brainless,
beautiful creature who should always be
here in winter when we have no flowers
to look at, and always here in summer when
we want something to chill
our intelligence.
The fourth quote is spoken by
Lord Henry, and it goes like this.
There is no such thing as a good
influence, Mr Gray, all
influence is immoral immoral
from the scientific point of view.
Why asks Dorian?
Because to influence a person
is to give him one’s own soul.
I really like this quote because I think
it expresses Lord Henry,
who is this very cynical, pessimistic,
opinionated but intelligent man
who kind of
lives his life through
other people’s lives.
He’s like, how do I describe him?
He’s like this scientist who makes
experiments analysing the people
in his life and his friends.
And he basically, I think,
lives the life that he wants to live
through, Dorian, but it’s a life that he
cannot lead because of his age and also
because he does not
possess Dorian’s beauty.
The next quote goes like this.
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses,
just as nothing can cure
the senses but the soul.
Now, my English teacher would say
that’s a technique.
That’s a technique in there.
But my University brain,
I just don’t know.
I think there is a technique when you
change the phrases or clauses
of a sentence and they
mean two different things
here.
Here is the name of the technique,
if I find it
quote number six.
And beauty is a form of genius is higher
indeed than genius,
as it needs no explanation.
I think I mentioned this
before in my summary.
But yes, that’s basically Lord Henry.
That’s what he thinks.
And that’s what influences Dorian.
Quote number seven.
I.
Wonder who it was.
defined man as a rational animal.
It was the most premature
definition ever given.
Man is many things,
but he is not rational.
It’s just I just love this quote, it
encompasses and describes
human nature so accurately.
I feel everyone is just stumbling,
not knowing really what
to do with their life.
I know no one is rational.
I’m not rational, you’re not rational.
We kind of just do things
on a whim, even planning
nothing ever goes according to plan.
So that’s why I like that quote.
So during the next quote, Dorian is
basically looking at his portrait.
And it’s not as beautiful anymore.
It’s ugly.
And he basically says this.
But here was a visible symbol
of the degradation of sin.
Here was an ever present sign of the
ruin man brought upon their souls.
I don’t need to say anything.
That’s just a beautiful description
by Oscar Wilde
So the next two quotes basically gives you
a bit of an insight into Dorian’s character.
The first one goes like this.
Don’t leave me, Basil,
and don’t quarrel with me.
I am what I am.
There is nothing more to be said.
The next one.
Come I tell you, you have chattered
enough about corruption.
Now you shall look on it face to face.
Yeah.
So both are conversations
between Dorian and Basil.
And I think it
kind of gives you
a bit of the dynamic between
the two
and showcases
the rollercoaster of
of emotion Dorian
goes through
due to this gift,
or more accurately,
this curse.
So that’s it
for today’s video.
Thank you so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Let me know in the
comments below your favourite quotes
and also if you liked
reading the portrait of Dorian Gray
yourself.
Thank you again
and I’ll see you next time.
Goodbye!
