Lord Henry Wotton’s Lonely Punishment in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

초록

Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890, 1891) has been analyzed for the principles of aesthetic hedonism which Lord Henry Wotton teaches to Dorian, resulting in his self-corruption via the decaying painting—as well as for biographical affinities between these principles and Wilde’s dandyish life. Yet while the novel explores the personal and moral punishment visited on Dorian, Henry has largely been viewed as immune to retribution, problematizing the ethical arc of the book. Some scholarship has noted Henry’s disillusionment at the story’s end due to his aging and divorce, but this work intends to more closely analyze how Henry’s punishment is fuller, precipitating itself in social isolation stemming from his loss of community, family, and Dorian.

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