Underneath all the glitz and glamour of the upper class Wilde shows what it is really like in the lower class that Dorian Gray tries not to live in. When Dorian goes to the opium den Wilde shows us what it is really like. The majority of society is living in the squalor of the working class in a dark nasty and violent world. As Wilde describes the trip to the opium den he uses nasty adjectives and similes. This helps us to see what it was like. He uses the weather to also describe the contrast. In the upper class world the weather is always pleasant but when Wilde is describing the life in the lower class it is always dark and cold and foggy.
“The slimy pavement looked like a wet mackintosh”
The opium den is described with unpleasant seedy adjectives and it makes you feel like it is a horrible place to live.
“Greasy reflectors” “…stained with dark rings of spilt liquor.” This makes you feel like it is a ghastly place to live in but is the squalor that the majority of England lived in.
In contrast to this horrible and hideous mage that Wilde portrays to us about the lower classes of Victorian society, we also see what it is like in the upper class where Dorian Gray lives.
The aristocrats in Victorian society lead very indolent lives where they frown upon any means of work. As they therefore spend a lot of time doing nothing, they amuse themselves with scandal and gossip amongst their friends. This is why scandal is very important and not frowned upon in the upper class, as they love to know anyone involved in crime and they regard it mainly as “exciting”.
“I should like to know someone who had committed a real murder.” (Lord Henry.)
The aristocrats of the Victorian age have a very relaxed and sedentary life style. They do not do much except for going out to dinner and socialising.
“As I lounged in the Park, or strolled down Piccadilly.”
One of the main things that we learn about Victorian society is that some people take a very aesthetic point of view. They think that beauty is better than being good and as long as you have a good reputation in the Victorian society then you are look upon in a good way.
“Oh, she is better than good – she is beautiful.”
Dorian Gray is a prime example of Victorian Society, he is very good looking on the outside and so he portrays a wonderful person with a happy lifestyle. He has a reasonably good reputation and is liked by many people, mainly because of his good looks. Yet, inside Dorian is a murderer, a blackmailer and a genuinely awful person. Dorian had the veneer of respectability. Your veneer was considered to be very important, as long as you look good on the outside you are accepted, it doesn’t matter what’s on the inside.
In Victorian society ugliness was morally important, and it was a good thing to care about your looks and almost nothing else. In the aristocracy world it was a society where fashion is of primary importance – people are attracted by beauty.
Lord Henry thinks selfishness is a good thing. Lord Henry is a prime example of the aristocratic world he lives in and so from the book we should take his views quite seriously.
“They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty one owes to one’s self.”
This shows that Lord Henry thinks we should put ourselves before others.
Basil Hallward, however, has views opposite of the Victorian age. He thinks that it is in what is inside is right.
“You never say a moral thing and you never do a wrong thing.”
There were very few people of that time in the aristocratic world that took that view. Whenever Basil said what he thought in that respect he was always laughed at, ignored or argued.
The Victorian society was not a very nice place to be in, everyone wanted to live in the aristocratic world, which was not actually a good place. It was full of corruption, lies and scandal. Everyone else was leading very poor lives where they were frowned upon for working.
