The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
First impressions
Which character did you trust most at the start of the novel, and did that change by the end?
Think about Basil, Lord Henry and Dorian as they first appear in the studio, and how each of them talks about the others.
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of Dorian before he wished for the painting to age in his place?
- Was there a moment when your sympathy for one of them clearly shifted?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
Which character did you trust most at the start of the novel, and did that change by the end?
Think about Basil, Lord Henry and Dorian as they first appear in the studio, and how each of them talks about the others.
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of Dorian before he wished for the painting to age in his place?
- Was there a moment when your sympathy for one of them clearly shifted?
Does Lord Henry change Dorian, or give him permission to become who he already wants to be?
Consider how Dorian responds to Lord Henry’s ideas — and the choices he makes when no one is watching.
Keep the conversation going
- When does influence become responsibility?
- Where could Dorian have chosen differently?
Why are the people around Dorian so ready to believe that someone so beautiful must be good?
Society keeps receiving him long after the rumours begin.
Keep the conversation going
- Is Dorian’s beauty a gift, a mask, or a burden?
- How much of his downfall is made possible by the world that admires him?
What is the portrait, really — Dorian’s conscience, his soul, or something else?
It records what he does, yet only he can see it change.
Keep the conversation going
- Why do you think Dorian keeps returning to look at it rather than destroying it sooner?
- Would he have behaved differently if the painting had never changed?
Did Dorian ever love Sibyl Vane, or only the parts she played?
He falls for her on the stage and turns on her the night her acting fails.
Keep the conversation going
- What does his cruelty to her reveal about how he sees other people?
- How did you feel about Lord Henry’s response to her death?
The preface says there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Does the novel itself agree?
Wilde opens with a set of aphorisms on art, and then tells a story with very real consequences.
Keep the conversation going
- What role does the yellow book Lord Henry gives Dorian play in his life?
- Can a work of art be blamed for what someone does after reading it?
When Dorian stabs the portrait, is he trying to free himself, to destroy the evidence, or something else entirely?
In the final scene the servants find the painting restored and their master unrecognisable.
Keep the conversation going
- Did the ending feel like justice, tragedy, or both?
- Why do you think Wilde chose to end the story through the eyes of the servants?
What do you think the novel is ultimately warning against — or is it warning against anything at all?
Readers in Wilde’s time found it shocking; readers since have found many different books in it.
Keep the conversation going
- Which idea or moment from the book has stayed with you most?
- If the story were set today, what would Dorian’s portrait be?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.