Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, who espouses a new hedonism, dedicated to the pursuit of beauty and all pleasures of the senses.

The novel begins on a beautiful summer day with Lord Henry Wotton, a strongly-opinionated man, observing the sensitive artist Basil Hallward painting the portrait of a handsome young man named Dorian Gray, who is Basil's ultimate muse.

After hearing Lord Henry's world view, Dorian begins to think beauty is the only worthwhile aspect of life.

Under the influence of Lord Henry ( who relishes the hedonic lifestyle and is a major exponent thereof ), Dorian begins to explore his senses.

Dorian invites Basil and Lord Henry to see Sibyl perform in Romeo and Juliet.

After returning to London, Dorian tells Lord Henry that he will be good from now on, and has started by not breaking the heart of his latest innocent conquest named Hetty Merton.

Basil and Lord Henry survey the portrait of Dorian.

In a letter, Wilde said the main characters were reflections of himself: " Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks me: Dorian is what I would like to be — in other ages, perhaps ".

* Dorian Gray – a handsome and narcissistic young man who becomes enthralled with Lord Henry's idea of a new hedonism.

* Lord Fermor – Lord Henry's uncle, who informs his nephew about Dorian Gray's lineage.

Although Dorian is hedonistic, when Basil accuses him of making Lord Henry's sister's name a " by-word ," Dorian replies " Take care, Basil.

However, Lord Henry's cynical outlook on life, and hedonistic nature seems to be in keeping with the idea of the devil's role, that of the temptation of the pure and innocent qualities which Dorian exemplifies at the beginning of the book.

Although Lord Henry takes an interest in Dorian, it does not seem that he is aware of the effect of his actions.

However, Lord Henry advises Dorian that " the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing "; in this sense, Lord Henry can be seen to represent the Devil, " leading Dorian into an unholy pact by manipulating his innocence and insecurity.

When Dorian is telling Lord Henry Wotton about his new ' love ', Sibyl Vane, he refers to all of the Shakespearean plays she has been in, referring to her as the heroine of each play.

In chapter 4 of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian leafs through a copy of Manon Lescaut while waiting for Lord Henry.

In Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wooton turns praise of folly into a philosophy which mocks " slow Silenus " for being sober.

In keeping with the theme of unity between classical art and pop culture, the " sexual personae " of her title include the female vampire ( Medusa, Lauren Bacall ); the pythoness ( the Delphic Oracle, Gracie Allen ); the beautiful boy ( Hadrian's Antinous, Dorian Gray ); the epicene man of beauty ( Lord Byron, Elvis Presley ); and the male heroine ( Baudelaire, Woody Allen ).

Among other works of art and literature to which Paglia applies her analysis of the Western canon are: the Venus of Willendorf, the Bust of Nefertiti, Ancient Greek sculpture, Donatello's David, Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Michelangelo, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, William Shakespeare's As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Marquis de Sade, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Lord Byron's Don Juan, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Honoré de Balzac, Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Henry James, The Pre-Raphaelites, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Emily Dickinson.

An example of this is the longrunning rivalry between Victoria Lord Banks and stepmother Dorian Lord on the American soap opera One Life to Live.

Classic works of this Urban Gothic include Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ( 1886 ), Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray ( 1891 ), George du Maurier's Trilby ( 1894 ), Richard Marsh's The Beetle: A Mystery ( 1897 ), Henry James ' The Turn of the Screw ( 1898 ), and the stories of Arthur Machen.

In the 1890 edition, Basil tells Henry how he " worships " Dorian, and begs him not to " take away the one person that makes my life absolutely lovely to me.

Most significantly this included: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ; The Crucible by Arthur Miller ; The Cask of Amontillado, The Premature Burial, The Pit and the Pendulum & The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe ; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ; The Turn of the Screw by Henry James ; Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens ; The Monkey's Paw by Guy de Maupaussant ; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde ; The Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft ; Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier ; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson ; The Lottery by Shirley Jackson ; Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

Moreover, in Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray ( 1891 ), a major corrupting influence on Dorian is " the yellow book " which Lord Henry sends over to amuse him after the suicide of his first love.

The book sent by Lord Henry to Dorian Gray in Wilde's novel, which contributes considerably to his descent into corruption, is also described as being

In Chapter 18 of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde ( 1854 – 1900 ), the character Lord Henry Wotton says to a young Dorian Gray: " The only horrible thing in the world is ennui, Dorian.

Sanders played Lord Henry Wotton in the 1945 film version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

as Lord Henry Wotton in the trailer for The Picture of Dorian Gray ( 1945 film ) | The Picture of Dorian Gray ( 1945 )

* Lord Henry Wotton, a character in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

* Alan Campbell – a chemist and one-time friend of Dorian ; he ended their friendship when Dorian's reputation began to come into question.

* ( Basil to Dorian ) It is quite true that I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man usually gives to a friend.

Edmond de Goncourt modeled his acrobat-mimes in his The Zemganno Brothers ( 1879 ) upon them ; J .- K. Huysmans ( whose Against Nature would become Dorian Gray's bible ) and his friend Léon Hennique wrote their pantomime Skeptical Pierrot ( 1881 ) after seeing them perform at the Folies Bergère.

Around this time, Clarke also produced " The Face of Dorian Gray " for his friend, singer Robert Marlow.

During 1983 and further on in 1984, he produced four singles " The Face of Dorian Gray " " I Just Want to Dance ", " Claudette " and " Calling All Destroyers " for his friend Robert Marlow, which were released on this label.

Coco Chanel, Suzy's great friend, told Dorian that she was " throwing her life away on an idiot.

* Thoran ( host name unknown, played by Dorian Harewood ) is a loyal member of the Tok ' ra resistance movement and a close friend of the Tok ' ra Kanan.

Among Hatfield's many other television credits are three guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote opposite his Picture of Dorian Gray costar, Angela Lansbury, who had become a lifelong friend, and who also had a home in County Cork.

Dorian helps Hallward realize his artistic potential, as Basil's portrait of Dorian proves to be his finest work.

Dorian blackmails him into disposing of Basil's body ; Campbell later commits suicide.

( This passage turns up in Basil's speech to Dorian in the 1891 version.