What is a symbol? In the broadest sense of the word, a symbol can be anything that signifies something else (Peepre: 58). Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure's dyadic theory of signs can well be applied when talking of literary symbols; after all, symbols are signs and vice versa. Central concepts in Saussure's theory are signifier and signified, which together constitute the sign itself. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde is playing with these two concepts - signifier and signified - which acquire quite unexpected roles.

While it is not the only symbolic element in the novel, the portrait of Dorian Gray is by far the most obvious and central symbol, the theme, around which the story revolves. It is perhaps the symbol most suitable for closer analysis, although this means having to give other potentially interesting symbols somewhat less attention. Especially interesting of these would be a closer look at Basil Hallward, Lord Henry and Dorian Gray as three different symbolic representations of Wilde's personality - what he though he was, what the world thought he was, and what he would have wanted to be, respectively, as Terence Dawson suggests in his essay on

At the end of the novel, when Dorian is trying to free himself from the wretched life the painting has made him succumb to, the signifier - signified contrast appears again. Dorian realized, or thought he realized, that by destroying the portrait he would be free, free from the conscience that the portrait had held hidden for so many years. The same knife that had killed the creator of the portrait, "... would kill the painter's work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free. It would kill the monstrous soul-life, and, without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace."

Although not exactly a symbol, homosexual narcissism plays a great part in The Picture of Dorian Gray. As a Narcissus par excellence, Dorian is described kissing his own portrait, in "...boyish mockery of Narcissus." If, and when, the reader is aware of Wilde's personal sexual preferences, the relationship between Basil Hallward, Lord Henry and Dorian Gray gains a new perspective. Can their relationship in the novel be described as a mere undercurrent of homosexuality, or is there more to it that meets the eye? The ideal of Basil Hallward, the ideal that he immortalized on the canvas, even himself admires the product - he is quite stunned by its beauty - but does he love the painting, or the object the painting depicts? There can hardly be a more clear parallel to the Greek myth about Narcissus, and in that case, to self-centered homosexuality.

Dawson, Terence: Basil, Lord Henry, and Wilde: A Jungian Approach to The Picture of Dorian Gray,

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Approximate Word count = 1264
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)