DECONSTRUCTIVE INTERPRETATION OF OSCAR WILDE’S THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1891)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore, analyze and examine Oscar Wilde’s (1854-1900) The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and the theory of Aestheticism while keeping in view critic and philosopher Jacques Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction. This is a qualitative Research, and its major focus is on the characters and the setting of the said novel. Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray presents the characters of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton and Basil Hallward who embodies different aspects of theory of Aestheticism and also reveal the process how they fail to understand the limits of human expressions and the drawbacks of these characters’ incongruous ideologies. The story of this novel revolves around the young lad Dorian Gray who after looking at his beautiful portrait wishes to be young and handsome forever and, in this process, he loses his moral, spiritual and ethical aspects of his personality. This is a qualitative Research and involves the theory of Deconstruction to examine the various thematic structures offered by Wilde. This research will be helpful for the reader to understand some interconnected components between Aestheticism and Wilde’s novel while keeping in view Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction.