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The Gothic genre, classical allusion and other influences in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a Victorian-era novel in the Gothic genre, is one of the two possible texts selected for study in Grade 12 Home Language English in South African government/state schools (Department of Basic Education [DBE] 2016:2, 2018:4). At one level, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a simple narrative – a man who is the subject of a painting wishes to remain young and unmarred, while his portrait reflects the consequences of ageing and debauched living. The wish is mysteriously granted, and Dorian Gray remains youthfully attractive, while the image in the picture (concealed in an upstairs room) grows increasingly old and sinister, in concert with the character’s evil doings. The story moves through a tragic arc and ends with Dorian’s unintended self-inflicted death, at which point the mysterious doubling process is reversed: his dead body is seen to be that of an old man, and his image in the picture is restored to its former youthful state (Wilde 2003:213).