The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, a quintessentially Gothic novel, presents the story of Dorian Gray, a beautiful, young man who possesses a supernatural painting which reflects his aging face and stained soul while Dorian himself remains young and flawless. The novel employs several conventions of Gothic literature, including the presence of the supernatural, a secret room, and a bargain with the devil (Junger). One of the most compelling Gothic elements in the story is the Gothic and Victorian idea of the duality of the self, resulting in a doppelgänger double that manifests as Dorian’s portrait. Through the portrayal of Dorian’s doppelgänger as a supernaturally changing painting, Wilde implements the Gothic literary technique of mirroring to develop broader ideas concerning morality and the purpose of art.

The Victorian era is often considered an age of duality itself, full of contradictions and double standards in areas such as religion, science, and society. The Picture of Dorian Gray can be read as a microcosm of a number of these competing ideologies that shaped the Victorian era as Dorian Gray attempts to hide the true ugliness of his soul in a painting to maintain his polished, artificial exterior. Marquette University explains in their “Glossary of the Gothic: Doubling,” “doubling plays out an internal splitting of the self between the public face of high Victorian respectability and professionalism, versus the carefully hidden face of despicability and immorality. It makes an oblique reference to Victorian hypocrisy, duplicity of standards and multiplicity of facades, as well as the fear of being discovered as such. It also dramatizes the inner struggle and vacillation between choices of good and evil in the individual.” In the novel, Wilde’s characters, namely Dorian, deal with many of the same issues plaguing Victorian society, including sexuality, treatment of women, religion, and morality. Most notably, however, Dorian and his doppelgänger portrait represent the duality of the self explored in Victorian psychology (“Glossary of the Gothic: Doppelgänger”). Dorian’s ability to remain looking young indefinitely while his portrait bears the shame and age of his true self points to the same way Victorian individuals attempted to button up their inner grappling with ugly issues beneath a seemingly modest, refined externality. 

The emergence of the painting as Dorian’s doppelganger begins with his initial wish to maintain his youthful appearance in Wilde’s take on a Gothic “deal with the devil.” Gazing upon the freshly finished painting for the first time, Dorian exclaims, “‘How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young … If only it was the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this–for this–I would give everything! Yes: there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!’” (Wilde 82). Unbeknownst to him during this desperate proclamation, Dorian’s wish will be granted. At the same time, Basil and Lord Henry begin to refer to the portrait as having personhood. After finishing the painting, Basil tells Dorian, “‘as soon as you are dry, you shall be varnished, and framed, and sent home. Then you can do what you like with yourself’” (Wilde 84, emphasis mine), already personifying the portrait with the use of the second person pronoun. Later, in a conversation between Basil and Lord Henry, Basil chastises Lord Henry, “‘You really must not say things like that before Dorian, Harry.’ ‘Before which Dorian? The one who is pouring out tea for us, or the one in the picture?’ ‘Before either’” (Wilde 85). This further establishes the painting as possessing agency in its ability to interpret Lord Henry’s influence, who represents the Gothic “devil” character of the story as he unravels Dorian’s identity and prompts him to commit greater sins. 

The supernatural nature of the painting continues to develop into Wilde’s version of a doppelgänger, or double, of Dorian Gray as it takes on both the burden of Dorian’s fear of aging as well as the shame of his inner ugliness projected onto his outward appearance. Though not a literal mirror, the picture reflects Dorian’s immorality, which Dorian notices after he wrongs Sybil Vane: 

He had uttered a mad wish that he himself might remain young, and the portrait grow old; that his own beauty might be untarnished, and the face on the canvas bear the burden of his passions and his sins; that the painted image might be seared with the lines of suffering and thought, and that he might keep all the delicate bloom and loveliness of his then just conscious boyhood. Surely his prayer had not been answered? Such things were impossible. It seemed monstrous even to think of them. And, yet, there was the picture before him, with the touch of cruelty in the mouth … It had altered already, and would alter more … For every sin that he committed, a stain would fleck and wreck its fairness. (Wilde 121-2)

Dorian discovers the reflection of his soul as disembodied from himself and projected onto his portrait instead. Although he initially vows to be good and refuses to allow his actions to mar his portrait further, he eventually devolves to indifferent immorality. Thus, Dorian is haunted by his portrait as a mirror for his soul as well as his body. Consequently, Dorian begins to lose himself as he disconnects his soul from his inner being, now able to hide away all his ugliness in a secret, locked room and feeling a strange pleasure in watching it change: “This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal to him his own soul” (Wilde 136). By embracing the painting as his Gothic doppelgänger, Dorian is able to hide the ugliness of his immorality and partake in all the pleasures Lord Henry first opened his eyes to the very day his painting was completed. “Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins–he was to have all these things,” Dorian reflects. “The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all” (Wilde 135.) As the novel continues, Dorian watches his portrait change with a horrific fascination and becomes increasingly obsessed with his secret. However, the end of the story serves Dorian a tragic justice. Attempting to finally destroy his conscience and rid himself of all evidence of his wrongdoings, Dorian takes a knife to the painting, but ends up himself dead with the “withered, wrinkled, and loathsome visage” of his painting transferred back onto his body (Wilde 217). 

Although Wilde, as a major proponent of aestheticism, might claim there is no morality in art–that art cannot be good or bad–The Picture of Dorian Gray undoubtedly complicates Wilde’s purported view on aestheticism. As Dorian Gray grapples with the “Heaven and Hell” inside him and every human (Wilde 189), his doppelgänger portrait, transformed from pure perfection to utter ugliness, affirms the presence of morality in connection to art. As a reflection of his soul mirroring his conscience marred by indulgent sins, the painting does not stand independent of reality–the art, in fact, quite literally imitates life. However, it is also true that Dorian is portrayed as a work of art himself fashioned by Lord Henry and by society, making his life an imitation of art. While Wilde’s true views on aestheticism remain unclear in this examination, the duality of the self central to The Picture of Dorian Gray can certainly be seen as arising out of the contradictions of Victorian society which Wilde himself was inevitably tied to, a struggle apparent in his own identity and his life. 

Works Cited

“Glossary of the Gothic: Doubling.” E-Publications@marquette, Marquette University, epublications.marquette.edu/gothic_doubling/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024. 

“Glossary of the Gothic: Doppelgänger.” E-Publications@marquette, Marquette University,  epublications.marquette.edu/gothic_doppelganger/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024. 

Jünger, Mathias. “Elements of a Gothic novel in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” (2008).

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