I've just read De Profundis (kinda sad ) but what struck me is that Dorian Gray is soooo similar to Lord Alfred Douglas!!! It's like Wilde is Basil in his relatiuonship with Dorian and Lord Henry in society....Dorian has some strange power over Basil Hallward, as well as Wilde couldn't help himself when Bosie needed something(think how they met!); there's a simile also in the difference of age between Dorian and the painter....
At the same time Lord Henry is this charming witty cynical aristocratic man, just as Wilde appeared to society: an eccentric, yet fascinating man, a man who knows sin, but skilfully hides it. Like Dorian has power over Basil, Lord Henry is the one who inspires D. his life of pleasure, he even says, at the end, that Dorian's life had been a work of art. Maybe Wilde wanted to be Dorian Gray, everyone would say he was, but he poured his soul mostly in two opposite characters.
I don't know it's just I was reading De Profundis and I felt it was a sort of echo of The Picture of Dorian Gray (no need saying I read it again for the 100th time I think); it's cool cause everytime I read it I discover something new, or it hits me some strange ideas (like this one) or I recognize a name I didn't notice before...
Anyway what do you think about this?? Could it be or it's another odd oddity from my wiocked mind???