25 Discussion Questions for The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (With Analysis) | Chapterly Blog
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel that seduces you with its surface beauty before revealing the rot underneath, and The Picture of Dorian Gray discussion questions force readers to engage with that same duality. The novel asks hard questions about whether art has a moral responsibility, whether beauty can be separated from goodness, and what happens to a person who never faces consequences. Whether you are in a college literature course, leading a book club, or preparing for an exam, these questions will generate genuine debate. Published in 1890, the novel tells the story of a young man, Dorian Gray, whose portrait ages and decays while he remains beautiful. Under the influence of the charismatic Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian pursues a life of pure sensation and moral indifference, leaving a trail of destroyed lives behind him. Wilde wrote the novel during a period when aestheticism — the idea that art exists for beauty alone — was at its height, and the book both celebrates and condemns that philosophy. These 25 questions are organized by theme. The Picture of Dorian Gray Discussion Questions: Beauty, Youth, and Vanity Wilde constructs Dorian's story as a thought experiment about what...