The Significance Of Locations In The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Wilde’s novel of 1891, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, explores Wilde’s character and moral conscience. Wilde also uses location and setting to show the divisions in Victorian society. Wilde compares Mayfair’s rich homes to the East End’s poorest areas. While Dorian Gray is ambivalent about his own identity, the geographical distances between the two places raises questions about the hypocrisy of the nineteenth-century aristocratic lifestyle.

London is the setting for most of the novel and it is described as monstrous throughout. The East End is the most explicit, with descriptions where “this grey and monstrous London,” which stretches out “like an endless web of spiders”, is visible. However, the “dim roar” can be heard from Basil Hallward’s studio. It seems to symbolise innocence. This was perhaps intended to demonstrate how inexorable the city’s nature is. Victorian society was very concerned about London’s growing size and the danger it presented to the rich and famous. The Gothic tradition often suggests that old buildings or castles could have personalities or be mindful to inflict harm. The story of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” breaks with convention, taking place in the middle of a large metropolis. Wilde might have responded to his audience’s shifting fears, which are now not afraid of isolation anymore but of people. Dorian presents more remote and rural locations as a way of redemption, and even escape. Dorian is freed from the threat and can kill James Vane there. Dorian makes the decision to “alter” his surroundings and then begins his “reformation.” The novel reverses traditional Gothic notions of danger and safety to bring fear closer into the lives of its readers.

Dorian’s descent from grace is also shown in the novel through the use of location. In Basil Hallward’s garden and studio, he is “untouched” when he first encounters him. His sins increase and he is eventually taken to Whitechapel or the docks. This is the “sordid shame” of this city. This descent into temptation echoes Lucifer’s fall. Basil’s Garden is, in this view, a representation heaven. This can be seen in the beauty and abundance that surrounds it. The description is sensory and focuses mainly on the senses. This creates a sweetness that is almost overwhelming. Later, it becomes apparent in the “heavy-odour of heroin” which fills Whitechapel’s air. The scent of opium, while sweet and floral in nature, is more indicative of corruption than the blossom-like connotations. Dorian might be trying unsuccessfully, it seems, to recreate his idyllic youth. However, the colours of these two places are quite different. Basil’s garden features brightly-colored plants, including “pink flowering” and “honey-coloured”, as well the “blue thread” of a Dragonfly. Whitechapel is filled with “greyflannel fog” that is broken up by “orange fan-like tongues and flame”. These create a hellish appearance, more of darkness and fire than light and growth. You might consider this a place that is dead, and Basil’s garden a home of life.

The heaven/hell divide between the different locations is also demonstrated by the people. Dorian is the central figure of the opening Eden. He is classical beauty’s image with his “passionate purity”. Contrary to what you might expect, East Enders are often dehumanized in how they present themselves. This nightmare vision gives the East End, its people, and their “fantastic darks”, an unrealistic appearance that makes it more a mythological underworld than a place of law and class. This transformation, from the beginning being pure and perfect to the end of the novel is a visual reminder of Dorian’s metamorphosis from angelic or demonic.

It could also be argued that the novel’s settings are an exploration of Victorian society’s duality. Dorian can live a double life by shifting between East London and West London, allowing him to have two identities. This could be seen as high society’s hypocrisy, criticizing the insanity and criminality of those living in poorer communities but making the most out of the freedoms that they offer. This demonstrates the gap between the classes. People of lower class are thought to be savages and not human while those of higher status live in a more sophisticated environment. This contrast is accentuated by the close proximity between these worlds, which are separated geographically by only a few miles. It suggests that the gentry denies the existence of the world beyond their window. The text shows their closeness in a similar way. Chapter XVI, for example, shows Dorian at an opium mine near the docks. The chapters before and after show Mayfair homes as well as drawing rooms. This could be considered a representation of the duality of society. Dorian’s ability to easily move between one and the other can be seen. This closeness highlights the fear of many Victorian aristocrats about the working-class as a threat to their way and life.

Dorian is corrupted only because of this. These words, while containing “strange rumours and whispered scandals” about Dorian, are merely speculation. These stories were never believed by anyone, as “something in his face was pure enough to discredit them”. This purity appears to have little effect on the East Enders, who insult him openly and call him “the Devil’s deal”. It could be that people living in the darker, lower parts of London are more able to see the truth and therefore can relate to it better. You can see this again in their almost daily exterior portrayals. They are people who live on the streets and not in indoor rooms. They are experiencing the outside world instead of shutting out it. The West End’s novel focuses almost entirely on the indoors. There are parlors for drawing and parlors for ballrooms. All things are ensconced in a layer etiquette or gentility. This could be interpreted as a statement that the upper class is detached from real life, while the lower ranks are not. Dorian’s beauty is similar to that of Victorian Society, with its charm and beauty hiding his corruption.

The novel’s locations, notably London, are meant to be a visual representation of Victorian society in that time. It seems that the city is alive, allowing sinful and dangerous people to invade their lives, particularly the upper classes. The East End and all the unpleasantness and corruption that it brings becomes more evident towards the end. Wilde exploits the fears of his audience to make the Gothic presentable in the modern age.