Oscar Wilde

[Blue_sky]

Hi,everyone!

I just want to know your opinion!)
Is The Picture of Dorian Gray a moral or immoral book?

Thank you=)

[soundofmusic]

Are you asking from a scholastic point of view, or what age it is appropriate for?
The story shows the very best of human nature: the innocence of Dorians first love; the great faith and decency of Basil.
Basil's friend, I believe his name is Lord Henry: is a cynic at first glance; but if you will note, often he is merely pointing out the idiosycracies in human nature.
The book is not very explicit, one must assume what Dorian is up to; so if someone who has a very evil or incredible imagination reads it, they can jump to almost any conclusion.
I believe Dorians model for the book was his companion, Bosie; and he compared the relative progression of what he assumed was Bosies innocence as a school boy to the things he delved into later.

[Neely]

Hi,everyone!

I just want to know your opinion!)
Is The Picture of Dorian Gray a moral or immoral book?

Thank you=)

Personally, I would go along with Wilde from his prologue:

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.

[Dinkleberry2010]

That question is amazing, because it was being asked in 1890 as well. Wilde was baffled by some of the criticism that The Picture of Dorian Gray received. He simply couldn't comprehend why some would think and label the book as immoral. As far as we can trust anything that Wilde said or wrote as being sincere or earnest (and he was sincere and earnest in a lot that he wrote), he did not consider The Picture of Dorian Gray as an immoral book. To Wilde, judgments such as "moral" or "immoral" was immaterial; they were meaningless.