#254 | Dorian Gray: The Original Influencer Who Sold His Soul for Likes—Is Oscar Wilde’s Classic Novel a Cautionary Tale for the Social Media Age?
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti explores Oscar Wilde’s classic novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray." He discusses Wilde’s life, literary significance, and the novel’s themes of vanity, morality, and the tension between public and private selves. Vigliotti highlights the book’s symbolism and memorable quotes, drawing parallels to modern social media culture and aiming to inspire men to read and reflect on classic literature and its enduring relevance.
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TOPICS COVERED IN the EPISODE:
Introduction & Book Promotion (00:00:09) - Douglas introduces the podcast, mentions "The Picture of Dorian Gray," and promotes his own book "Aristotle for Novelists."
Oscar Wilde’s Background (00:01:19) - Overview of Oscar Wilde’s life, literary significance, legal troubles, and his legacy.
Summary of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (00:03:18) - Brief plot summary, main characters, and central themes of the novel.
Themes & Symbolism (00:04:27) - Discussion of the novel’s symbolism, especially the portrait and its relevance to modern life and social media.
Oscar Wilde’s Prose & Style (00:05:55) - Analysis of Wilde’s aphoristic, witty, and philosophical writing style.
Favorite Quotes & Paradoxes (00:07:19) - Sharing and reflecting on notable quotes from the novel, focusing on paradox and duality.
More Memorable Quotes (00:08:26) - Additional punchy, humorous, and philosophical lines from the book.
Quotes on Love, Uncertainty, and Mystery (00:11:08) - Quotes about love, uncertainty, and the allure of mystery, with personal reflections.
Final Thoughts & Broadway Adaptation (00:12:49) - Closing thoughts on the book, mention of the Broadway adaptation, and encouragement to subscribe.
Contact & Podcast Information (00:13:54) - Information on how to contact Douglas, learn about his book, and sign up for the podcast newsletter.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to “Books for Men”, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week, I am sharing a work of fiction, and it is a classic that clocks in at around 220 pages or so. I guess that will be determined by which edition you read. Some are a little longer than others, some have introductions, and so on and so forth. The original publication was in 1890, and then some of the other reputable reprints were done in 2003 by Penguin Classics, and then again in 2017 by Macmillan Collector’s Library, and it is titled “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. So now, before I share any more about the book or the author, some of my larger takeaways and favorite excerpts and quotes from the book, I did want to quickly remind you about my new book that is out, “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you are a novelist, an aspiring novelist, or perhaps you're just looking to tell a story of any kind, whether it's on the page or the screen or even in your life, then I think you will get a lot out of this book.
01:19 - In conjunction with that, I also designed a ten-question assessment for one to know if they are telling a working story, and if you're interested in the book or that free assessment, all you have to do is visit the website AristotleforNovelists.com. Without further ado, now let's turn back to the reason why you are here: “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. As always, I like to start with the author. So he is a legendary Irish writer, most active in the late 1800s. So when this book came out, and most notably for his plays in poetry rather than his fiction, although he has written a bunch of short fiction along with essays, poems, and I think it's nine plays. But in fact, the novel that I am sharing with you today is the only novel he ever wrote, and to me, the novel really feels like it is written by a poet, even more so than a playwright. But I will get into all of that in just a moment.
02:17 - Back to Oscar Wilde for a second. So he was famously sent to jail for two years at the end of his life, I think in 1895. So, five years after this book came out, for basically being openly gay. So sodomy was illegal at the time, or what it was referred to then as, gross indecency. Of course, I am being a little curt, but you can read more about the details of that. The more interesting part for me, anyway, was that it was one of the first celebrity-like trials. Much of his work was very well known at the time, and of course, he was convicted and sent to prison for two years following his prison stint. He spent the final three years of his life in exile before dying in France from meningitis. And actually, when I was in Paris, I visited his tomb, which is in Pere Lachaise, a beautiful cemetery on the eastern side of Paris, great for wandering, but it also features the burial sites of Gertrude Stein, someone else who's been on this podcast Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust, Chopin, Balzac and just many more.
03:18 - But I'll conclude this little tidbit on Oscar Wilde by just saying the name is often thrown around. You've likely heard it before, and that is because there's something that is distinctly Oscar Wilde when you read him, and I think that it is exemplified in the only novel that he ever wrote, the book that I am sharing with you today. So now let me turn to the work more specifically. In short, it's a tragic story about a man named Dorian Gray, a young and beautiful man, when we first meet him, who gets a portrait painted of him by an artist capturing his charm and beauty. And as we follow Dorian through his life, he adopts this hedonistic worldview, mostly stemming from his introduction to a man named Lord Henry Wotton in that worldview focuses on pleasure, sensuality, vanity, and ultimately the painting begins to cause great distress for Dorian, so much so that it is as if he wishes the painting would grow old instead of him, and the central tension of this predicament is exemplified with this quote.
04:27 - He says, “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose?” And it becomes such a problem for Dorian that he sells his soul for a life of freedom, youth, and decadence. I'm not going to get into all the plot details, but like all tragic arcs, things do not end well for our indulgent, unrestrained protagonist. In many ways, this book and story is a cautionary tale, one that is just as applicable today, maybe even more so than it was when it was first written. It's really a story about the cost of indulgence, superficiality, and pleasure without considering your conscience. At its deepest level, it is about the morality that is seated deep inside of us. Or better said, we cannot hide from ourselves. So maybe most importantly, the story tackles the difference between the person we present to the world and our private lives. So I think this is a good place to lean into some of the takeaways, and first is around the symbolism, which to me is just so rich in this novel, whether it's Lord Henry as the pressure we face daily, or even the portrait itself, right?
05:55 - Which is this ever-existing mirror into a version of ourselves that has long since faded? And this is something we have all come so close to since the advent of social media, which for many of us who have grown up with it, sort of internalizes our youth, something that is meant to fade with time. Many tend to be concerned with the delusional perception social media provides of the world, but in many ways, this story is a reminder that it is perhaps the more subtle, delusional perception of ourselves that may wreak havoc on our lives, just like it does to our troubled protagonist, Dorian Gray. And the second thing that I want to highlight here, because you kind of can't talk about this book without talking about it, is Oscar Wilde's prose. My God, it's probably the most aphoristic writing style of all time. It's memorable, it's clear, it's concise, simple, witty, humorous, and definitely philosophical. And if you've ever read an Oscar Wilde quote, which there are hundreds of them probably floating around the internet, and wondered where it came from, I bet it came from this book, and I have six pages, I think, of punchy, witty, paradoxical quotes from this story.
07:25 - It's really remarkable how often I stopped reading to jot down a quote when I read it, and looking back at my notes, it was extremely hard to pick some of the quotes that I wanted to share with you, but I think this will be a good place to end and share some of those favorites. Since I just mentioned the word paradoxical, I think that I should start with a quote on Paradox, because I think that that is a central foundation for much of the way Oscar Wilde writes and thinks. Meaning there's a duality when talking about any subject matter. You can't have good without bad, bad without good, and sometimes they are the same thing. To me, that's a very natural way of looking at the world, even if it is poetic and romantic in the way that, say, Oscar Wilde would describe it. But anyway, in the book he writes, “The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test reality we must see it on the tightrope.”
08:26 - Going further into that, I will share some of his quotes that exemplify this. Like when he writes, “For there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Or when he writes, “The advantage of emotions is that they lead us astray. And the advantage of Science is that it is not emotional.” So you can see how playful and philosophical these musings are. And there are tons of them throughout the book. But at the same time, they reveal what I would consider to be a larger truth. And then he just has so many. What I would think of as punchy one-liners, like when he writes. “None of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.” There's just so much to a line like that, whether it's our ego, our selfishness, or the other side of the coin. In a paradoxical way, I guess, having to see our faults in front of us. All of that stuff can make a simple line like the one I just read be true, and it really hits hard.
09:42 - There are so many others like it. For instance, “The bravest man among us is still afraid of himself.” “Time is jealous of you, it wars against your lilies and your roses.” “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” I can go on and on with these, but they get a little bit more humorous as the novel goes on. When he writes, “Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious; both are disappointed.” And then he goes on to say, “There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.” And then he keeps on going in the same paragraph, when he writes, “When one is in love one always begins by deceiving oneself, and one always ends by deceiving others.” And then there are these, like what seem to be throwaway lines similar to the first one that I read to you, that pack so much into them. Like when he says, “Of course it is sudden; all really delightful things are.”
11:08 - There's just so much packed into that. One of my favorites comes about halfway through the book, and he says, “You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.” Or when he says, “A man could be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.” And I just love that for highlighting the fact that when we care, things become painful. If we don't care, they are not painful. Or another that I really like is on the topic of uncertainty. Something that has come up on this podcast quite a bit. And he writes, “It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful.” I can't help but think about the book “Bitter Sweet”, which I shared a couple of weeks ago. And on that episode, I talked quite a bit about what Oscar Wilde would call a mist and the pull of mystery and desire. There are so many quotes in this book. I've shared quite a bit with you here, but I assure you there are a lot more and you will be quite entertained quite frequently in what is a densely populated novel of quotes and lines like I just shared with you, I will end it with one that I think combines both that idea of paradox, wit and punchiness.
12:49 - And it comes at the end of the novel. And Wilde writes, “The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” All right, so I've given you a lot to stew on with this book. I think you have a good idea of what it is and who Oscar Wilde is, and the style in which it is written. I will just say that I am going to see the Broadway adaptation of this today. As of this recording, it is what made me want to share it with you on the podcast. So Sarah Snook won a Tony for her performance, and it is closing, so I wanted to go check it out before it does. I'm really excited about that. Anyway, let me wrap this up and say if you enjoyed today's episode, then please remember to subscribe on whatever podcast platform you were listening to this on, because it is the best way for new listeners to find the show and inspire more men to read. If you want to tell me what you thought about this podcast, whether it was this episode or the podcast more broadly, then reach out to me.
13:54 - There are two ways to do so, on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti—it's the only social media that I have, or via my website, DouglasVigliotti.com. As I mentioned at the top of this episode, I have a new book out. It is titled “Aristotle for Novelists,” and you can find out more information about that at AristotleforNovelists.com. Last but not least, I want to thank you so much for listening and remind you that if you want more information about this podcast specifically, which includes signing up for the monthly newsletter, then all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
