Venice

Venice holds a distinctive place in The Picture of Dorian Gray as a city of aesthetic memory, romantic background, and artistic inspiration. It is not a setting for any major plot event, but rather a place that Dorian Gray recalls with longing and that the narrative associates with the kind of beauty that exists outside the moral decay of modern life. The city functions as a symbol of the harmonious union of art and life that Dorian once glimpsed but ultimately lost.

Venice as Aesthetic Memory and Romantic Background

Dorian Gray remembers Venice with particular vividness while reading Gautier's Émaux et Camées in his library after the murder of Basil Hallward. As he turns over the pages, his eye falls on the poem about Venice, and he repeats to himself the lines "Devant une facade rose, / Sur le marbre d'un escalier" . The whole of Venice, he feels, is contained in those two lines . He recalls the autumn he passed there and "a wonderful love that had stirred him to delightful fantastic follies" . The narrative explicitly states that "Venice, like Oxford, had kept the background for romance, and background was everything, or almost everything" . This recollection occurs immediately after Dorian has thought of Basil Hallward's death, and the contrast between the beautiful memory and the horrific reality underscores the gulf between the aesthetic ideal and the moral ruin of his life.

Venice and the Aesthetic Ideal

The city's role as a repository of beauty and romance aligns with the novel's broader exploration of art as a refuge from the sordidness of life. Dorian's memory of Venice is a memory of a time when he was still capable of experiencing love and beauty without the taint of corruption. The "wonderful love" he recalls is left unspecified, but its association with Venice suggests that it was a passion that partook of the city's own blend of art, history, and sensuality. The fact that Basil Hallward was with Dorian for part of that time in Venice, and "had gone wild over Tintoret" , further links the city to the artistic friendship that was once the foundation of Dorian's life. Venice, in this light, represents the possibility of a life lived in devotion to beauty, a possibility that Dorian has squandered.

Venice as Contrast to Moral Decay

The placement of the Venice memory within the narrative is significant. Dorian recalls the city immediately after he has murdered Basil Hallward and is trying to distract himself with poetry. The beauty of the Venetian lines stands in stark contrast to the ugliness of his crime. The narrative notes that "the mere lines looked to him like those straight lines of turquoise-blue that follow one as one pushes out to the Lido" and that "the sudden flashes of color reminded him of the gleam of the opal-and-iris-throated birds that flutter round the tall honey-combed Campanile" . This sensory richness is a world away from the locked room where Basil's body lies. Venice, therefore, functions as a kind of aesthetic conscience, a reminder of the beauty that Dorian has betrayed. The city's permanence and its association with art that endures contrast with the transient nature of Dorian's own youth and the decay of his soul, which is hidden away in a locked room, unseen by the world.