Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Opium Dens
The opium dens, located in a remote and derelict section
of London, represent the sordid state of Dorian’s mind. He flees
to them at a crucial moment. After killing Basil, Dorian seeks to
forget the awfulness of his crimes by losing consciousness in a
drug-induced stupor. Although he has a canister of opium in his
home, he leaves the safety of his neat and proper parlor to travel
to the dark dens that reflect the degradation of his soul.
James Vane
James Vane is less a believable character than an embodiment
of Dorian’s tortured conscience. As Sibyl’s brother, he is a rather
flat caricature of the avenging relative. Still, Wilde saw him as
essential to the story, adding his character during his revision
of 1891. Appearing at the dock and later
at Dorian’s country estate, James has an almost spectral quality.
Like the ghost of Jacob Marley in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas
Carol, who warns Scrooge of the sins he will have to face,
James appears with his face “like a white handkerchief” to goad
Dorian into accepting responsibility for the crimes he has committed.
The Yellow Book
Lord Henry gives Dorian a copy of the yellow book as a
gift. Although he never gives the title, Wilde describes the book
as a French novel that charts the outrageous experiences of its
pleasure-seeking protagonist (we can fairly assume that the book
in question is Joris-Karl Huysman’s decadent nineteenth-century
novel À Rebours, translated as “Against the Grain”
or “Against Nature”). The book becomes like holy scripture to Dorian,
who buys nearly a dozen copies and bases his life and actions on
it. The book represents the profound and damaging influence that
art can have over an individual and serves as a warning to those
who would surrender themselves so completely to such an influence.
