The story is narrated in third person. The narrator is rather omniscient, as he manages to convey both the objective, external side and the subjective, internal thoughts and feelings of the characters. So, the narration is really thorough and complete. Besides, we can observe a great number of masterly done descriptions in this small extract, such as the description of the interior and atmosphere in Basil’s studio (“In the slanting beams that streamed through the open doorway the dust danced and was golden. The heavy scent of the roses seemed to brood over everything.” \ “…he walked over to the deal painting-table that was set beneath the high curtained window…”); or the description of Dorian’s appearance and his reaction to the portrait (“…his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure… a look of joy came into his eyes… he stood there motionless and in wonder…”\ “His eyes deepened into amethyst, and across them came a mist of tears” \ “…his golden head…pallid face and tear-stained eyes…”). In his deep and vivid descriptions, Wilde is really generous in using bright epithets (“…charming exaggeration of friendship” \ “ivory Hermes…silver Faun”) and even personification (“the dust danced” / “The scarlet would pass away from his lips and the gold steal from his hair”). The choice of words is also worth mentioning (panegyric, vermilion, pallid). With the help of these Wilde, on the one hand, represents the inner state of the characters, and on the other – creates a poetic, lyrical and a slightly dramatic tone.
The dialogues in the extract represent an indirect way of character drawing. The characters are presented through their speech. These are bright, witty and ironical remarks of Lord Henry, earnest and straightforward speech of Basil (“This is your doing, Harry,” said the painter bitterly. Lord Henry shrugged his shoulders. “It is the real Dorian Gray -- that is all.”), and highly emotional, dramatic monologues of Dorian, who is becoming more and more envious of the portrait. To show Dorian’s intensity of emotions, Wilde turns to the usage of different lexical and syntactical stylistic devices. For example, lexical repetition of the words “jealous” (“I am jealous of everything”… “I am jealous of the portrait”), “mock” (“It will mock me some day -- mock me horribly!"), “young”, “old” or phrases like “How sad it is!” conveys Dorian’s enormous concern about getting old and horrible, while the portrait will remain young and beautiful. The wide usage of exclamations and parallel constructions, emphatic conjunction “if” (“If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young…”/ “…if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now!”), and rhetorical questions (“Why should it keep what I must lose?”/ “How long will you like me?”) only accentuates Dorian’s strong feelings of jealousy and desperation.
In general, the given extract is very important in the novel, as it uncovers its major motifs and themes: the relationships between youth and mortality, good and evil, beauty and morality, influence and corruption.
