1 Universidade São Marcos The Picture of Dorian Gray : Summary of Chapter One São Paulo, 2008
2 Alexandre Rodrigues Nunes Maria Fernanda R.S. Gomes The Picture of Dorian Gray : Summary of Chapter One This paper is presented to the English subject of the Languages Course at Universidade São Marcos of the morning group at the fourth semester, to Mr. Torres. São Paulo, 2008
3 Oscar Wilde (1854 1900) No man is rich enough to buy back his past." "Nowadays all the married men live like bachelors and all the bachelors live like married men." "Women give to men the very gold of their lives. But they invariably want it back in such very small change." "It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true." "Young men want to be faithful and are not; old men want to be faithless and cannot." "Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect - simply a confession of failures." Oscar Wilde
4 TABLE OF CONTENT The Author : Oscar Wilde... 5 The Novel: The Picture of Dorian Gray... 6 Summary - Chapter One: An extraordinarily Beautiful Young Man... 7 Bibliography Reference... 9
5 The Author : Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and at Magdalen College, Oxford, and lived in London, where he married Constance Lloyd in 1884. Wilde began by publishing mediocre poetry but soon achieved widespread fame for his comic plays. The first, Vera; or, The Nihilists, was published in 1880. Wilde followed this work with Lady Windermere s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and his most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Although these plays relied upon relatively simple and familiar plots, they rose well above convention with their brilliant dialogue and biting satire.
6 The Novel: The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, before he reached his great success. In the summer of 1890, the first edition was published in Lippincott s Monthly Magazine. It was criticized as scandalous and immoral. Disappointed with its reception, Wilde revised the novel in 1891, adding a preface and six new chapters. In the Preface, Wilde also cautioned readers against finding meanings beneath the surface of art, as it can be seen in this passage from the Preface: The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things His satiric tone is reaffirmed at profoundly critic line of the Preface: All art is quite useless. This resembles the critics he received and it also criticizes the artists.
7 Summary - Chapter One: An extraordinarily Beautiful Young Man The novel begins in the elegantly appointed London home of Basil Hallward, a wellknown artist who had painted a portrait and did not want to exhibit it anywhere. The clever and scandalously amoral Lord Henry Wotton, Basil s friend, could not understand his attitude and in a conversation he asked Basil why he would not exhibit it. Hollward answered that he had put too much of himself into that portrait, and Lord Henry reacted laughing. He said that the painter did not look like the the man painted. Basil replied saying that he was glad not to be like the handsome young man, because stupid and ugly have the best of the world. However, Basil did not expect himself to pronounce the name of his inspiration, and although he did not want to say, he told Lord Henry the name: Dorian Gray. Both went out into the garden together and kept the conversation on. Henry still could not understand why the artist did not want to show the others his beautiful portrait and asked again, trying to be answered with the real reason. Basil explained that every portrait which is painted with feeling was a portrait of the artist, not the sitter. He would not exhibit that picture because he was afraid that he would have shown in that the secret of his own soul. Lord Henry laughed again, and asked Basil to explain what was in Basil s soul. Hallward started telling the story in which he met Dorian Gray: Two months before that conversation, Basil went to a party at Lady Brandon s. When he was in the room, he realised someone was looking at him, that was Dorian Gray. At the moment their eyes met, he felt the blood leaving his face. He knew that that boy would become his whole soul, his whole soul art itself. They became friends and started meeting themselves everyday since then. Basil admited that Dorian Gray was all his art to him then. He knew that the work he had done since he met Dorian was the best work of his life. Lord Henry asked Basil to be introduced to Dorian, thus Basil denied. Then Henry remembered he had heard about Gray, that that young man would help his aunt work with the poor people in the East End of London, nevertheless, Basil asked Henry again not to meet him. Suddenly a servant came into the garden and told them that Dorian Gray was waiting in the house.
8 Basil asked Henry not to spoil nor influence the person who made him a true artist, and both entered the house.
9 Bibliography Reference WILDE, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin Readers Level 4. Pearson Education Limited, 1999. CMG WORLDWIDE, Oscar Wilde c/o. Bibliography and Fast Facts of Oscar Wilde. Available at : <http://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/bio1.htm>. Access on Mar. 8, 2008. BARNES & NOBLE, SparksNotes. Study Guide : The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde. Availabe at : < http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/doriangray/>. Access on Mar. 9, 2008