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‘’Sinister’’ Science - Dorian’s haunting over beauty is reflected in the supernatural transformation of his portrait as a mean for slipping away aging. This can be seen as a sinister science involved in the transformation of it. The purpose of art is to remain beautiful and to be admired by the others.
‘’Hoy sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June…If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that – for – that – I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!’’ The picture of Dorian Gray Chapter II.
Lucas Acosta

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The portrait works in the novel as a gothic mirror, a magic one that reflects Dorian’s internal and external reality.
‘It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.’’ The picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter XI.
Lucas Acosta

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Haunting - Dorian’s obsession with beauty begins to grow when Henry warns him that beauty and youth will fade and he seeks for the eternal beauty by being portrayed by Basil. The portrait illustrates the process of degradation of the Dorian and withering of his soul whereas Dorian enjoys his youth and beauty that seems to be eternal. This love of surfaces can be seen as a society’s foundation.
‘’But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face.’’ The picture of Dorian Gray Chapter I.
‘’My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.’’ The picture of Dorian Gray Chapter IV.
Lucas Acosta

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"...Horror and violence break out suddenly and completely unexpected: When Dorian shows Basil Hallward the altered painting, Dorian feels a sudden wave of hatred for Basil ."The mad passion of a hunted animal stirred within him, and he loathed the man [...] more than in his whole life he had ever loathed anything" (Wilde 235). the process of Dorian stabbling the painter is described in detal "Something began to trickle on the floor" (Wide 235)and the sick and mysterious lack of feelings in Dorian while murdering the man is actually frightening..." (Elements of a Gothic novel in The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde,February 2008).

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The Doppelgänger motif: The term doppelgänger is used to describe the double of a character. Dorian has a double life since he is so unjust with Sybil, from that moment on his portrait starts changing. He decides to hide the picture on his schoolroom. There nobody else could see it but him. “… Dorian locked the door , and put the key in his pocket. He felt safe now. No one would ever look upon the horrible thing. No eye but his would see his shame.” (Wilde, 1891: 99) The picture shows the corruption of his soul, it is his evil side. On the other hand, he shows up in public with his beauty that amazed everyone. He does not grow old but the picture does so. The portrait is his wricked side. In chapter 13 Dorian tells Basil: “Each of us have Heaven and Hell in him…” Basil invites him to pray together to change the situation as all started with a pride pray of Dorian. But Dorian says that it is too late. This double life ends up in tragedy as Dorian wants to free himself of the picture that reminds him of his past sins. Ingrid Micale

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The Doppelgänger motif: The term doppelgänger is used to describe the double of a character. Dorian has a double life since he is so unjust with Sybil, from that moment on his portrait starts changing. He decides to hide the picture on his schoolroom. There nobody else could see it but him. “… Dorian locked the door , and put the key in his pocket. He felt safe now. No one would ever look upon the horrible thing. No eye but his would see his shame.” (Wilde, 1891: 99) The picture shows the corruption of his soul, it is his evil side. On the other hand, he shows up in public with his beauty that amazed everyone. He does not grow old but the picture does so. The portrait is his wricked side. In chapter 13 Dorian tells Basil: “Each of us have Heaven and Hell in him…” Basil invites him to pray together to change the situation as all started with a pride pray of Dorian. But Dorian says that it is too late. This double life ends up in tragedy as Dorian wants to free himself of the picture that reminds him of his past sins. Ingrid Micale

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Abjection: The portrait is a clear example of abjection as it breaks down the barrier between object and subject. The picture turns to be a subject and not an object anymore. Dorian even becomes jealous of the picture. But when Basil tries to destroy the portrait, Dorian stops him by saying: “… It would be murder!” ( Wilde, 1891: 25) Dorian personifies his portrait. But he is not the only one, Basil and Henry do the same while they are arguing:” “You really must not say things like that before Dorian, Harry” “Before which Dorian? The one who is pouring out tea for us, or the one in the picture?” “ Before either” (Wilde, 1891: 26)At this moment Henry gives life to the picture too. Then Harry and Dorian decide to go to the theatre but Basil prefers staying with the real Dorian, the portrait. Later on in the novel, after the death of Sybil, the portrait changes. Definitely the picture is not an object as objects remain in the same way, they do not change. But this portrait is modified, it breaks the barrier and turns into a subject. “... the face appeared to him to be a little changed”. (Wilde, 1891: 73)Ingrid Micale

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Abjection: The portrait is a clear example of abjection as it breaks down the barrier between object and subject. The picture turns to be a subject and not an object anymore. Dorian even becomes jealous of the picture. But when Basil tries to destroy the portrait, Dorian stops him by saying: “… It would be murder!” ( Wilde, 1891: 25) Dorian personifies his portrait. But he is not the only one, Basil and Henry do the same while they are arguing:” “You really must not say things like that before Dorian, Harry” “Before which Dorian? The one who is pouring out tea for us, or the one in the picture?” “ Before either” (Wilde, 1891: 26)At this moment Henry gives life to the picture too. Then Harry and Dorian decide to go to the theatre but Basil prefers staying with the real Dorian, the portrait. Later on in the novel, after the death of Sybil, the portrait changes. Definitely the picture is not an object as objects remain in the same way, they do not change. But this portrait is modified, it breaks the barrier and turns into a subject. “... the face appeared to him to be a little changed”. (Wilde, 1891: 73)Ingrid Micale

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The Scary atmosphere
In the first cited quotations below, Henry firmly warns Dorian about beauty and the fact that life is pointless or not worth living once he loses his youth. With the passing of the years, wrinkles will appear on his forehead inevitably, and with it, age and all the consequences it will involve, unfortunately. In this sense, Herny's views will contribute to create a scary atmosphere: when Dorian will first see the altered painting, and also, when he will confront Basil later on. In the following quotations we can notice how Dorian, although immortal in the portrait at first, starts to feel the destruction of his mortality little by little, until finally, he unveils the portrait and Basil stares at it in shock. Dorian, overwhelmed by the changing of the painting, grabs a knife and stabs Basil on the spur of the moment. Dorian cannot bear his growing old in the portrait to such an extent that he decides to put an end to Basil’s life. This disturbed state of mind is clearly a reaction to Lord Henry's influence after he sets forth his views on youth. Some quotations are included to better illustrate the detrimental effect - a scary one - the changing of the portrait had on both Dorian and Basil when confronting with such reality head-on.

"Some day, when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it, you will feel it terribly. Now, wherever you go, you charm the world. Will it always be so? . . . You have a wonderfully beautiful face, Mr. Gray. Don't frown. You have. And beauty is a form of genius […] To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. […] You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. […] You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly.... Ah! realize your youth while you have it." Chapter 2; pp. 21]

"His eye fell upon the portrait Basil Hallward had painted of him. He started back as if in surprise. Then he went on into his own room, looking somewhat puzzled. [...] Finally he came back, went over to the picture, and examined it. [...] the face appeared to him to be a little changed. The expression looked different. One would have said that there was a touch of cruelty in the mouth. It was certainly strange. [...]  He rubbed his eyes, and came close to the picture, and examined it again. There were no signs of any change when he looked into the actual painting, and yet there was no doubt that the whole expression had altered. It was not a mere fancy of his own. The thing was horribly apparent. [...]  He had uttered a mad wish that he himself might remain young, and the portrait grow old; that his own beauty might be untarnished, and the face on the canvas bear the burden of his passions and his sins." [Chapter 8; pp. 73]
"A sense of infinite pity, not for himself, but for the painted image of himself, came over him. It had altered already, and would alter more. Its gold would wither into grey. Its red and white roses would die." [Chapter 8; pp. 74]

Here, Henry firmly warns Dorian about beauty and the fact that life is pointless or not worth living once he loses his youth. With the passing of the years, wrinkles will appear on his forehead inevitably and with it, age and all the consequences it involves, unfortunately. In this sense, Herny's views will contribute to create a scary atmosphere later, when Dorian will first see the altered painting, and also, when he will confront Basil later on. In the following quotation we can notice how Dorian, although immortal in the portrait at first, starts to feel the destruction of his mortality little by little, until finally, he unveils the portrait and Basil stares at it in shock. Dorian, overwhelmed by the changing of the painting, grabs a knife and stabs Basil on the spur of the moment. Dorian cannot bear his growing old in the portrait to such an extent that he decides to put an end to Basil’s life. This disturbed state of mind is clearly a reaction to Lord Henry's influence on youth.

"So you think that it is only God who sees the soul, Basil? Draw that curtain back, and you will see mine." […] he tore the curtain from its rod, and flung it on the ground.
An exclamation of horror broke from the painter's lips as he saw in the dim light the hideous face on the canvas grinning at him. There was something in its expression that filled him with disgust and loathing. […] It was Dorian himself. But who had done it? […]Still, it was his own picture. He knew it, and he felt as if his blood had changed in a moment from fire to sluggish ice. His own picture! What did it mean? Why had it altered? He turned, and looked at Dorian Gray with the eyes of a sick man. […] One day you introduced me to a friend of yours, who explained to me the wonder of youth, and you finished the portrait of me that revealed to me the wonder of beauty.

[…] Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him,[…] It was a knife that he had brought up, some days before, to cut a piece of cord, and had forgotten to take away with him. He moved slowly towards it, passing Hallward as he did so. As soon as he got behind him, he seized it, and turned round. Hallward stirred in his chair as if he was going to rise. He rushed at him, and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man's head down on the table, and stabbing again and again.
There was a stifled groan, and the horrible sound of someone choking with blood.

[Chapter 13; pp. 125 and 126]

- DAIANA KIFER -

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The book could be described as a horror story.  The dictionary definition of horror is  "an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear."  At the time of its publication, Dorian Gray was definitely shocking, and possibly revolting to the Victorian morals of the time.  The underlying homoeroticism and blatant hedonism was an affront on the values of society. However, even today we can see that the tone of the novel is to shock its reader. Indeed, while there is humor in the book, the underlying tone is one of menace, terror, and despair. An example of the scary atmosphere is showed when Dorian feels its mortality growing in the picture. His fear of age and death is evident in the following quote.
"Hour by hour, and week by week, the thing upon the canvas was growing old. It might escape the hideousness of sin, but the hideousness of age was in store for it. The cheeks would become hollow or flaccid. Yellow crow's feet would creep round the fading eyes and make them horrible. The hair would lose its brightness, the mouth would gape or droop, would be foolish or gross, as the mouths of old men are. There would be the wrinkled throat, the cold, blue-veined hands, the twisted body, that he remembered in the grandfather who had been so stern to him in his boyhood. The picture had to be concealed. There was no help for it." (Wilde , chapter 10)

Gabriela Aleman

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..."And why was the red stain larger than it had been? It seemed to have crept like a horrible disease over the wrinkled fingers. There was blood on the painted feet,as though the thing had dripeed - blood even on the hand that had not held the knife"... (Wilde,1987,P.176)

Acosta Greta

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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

The most magical of mirrors,” shows Dorian the physical burdens of age and sin from which he has been spared. For a time, Dorian sets his conscience aside and lives his life according to a single goal: achieving pleasure. His painted image, however, asserts itself as his conscience and hounds him with the knowledge of his crimes: there he sees the cruelty he showed to Sibyl Vane and the blood he spilled killing Basil Hallward.

Reference: www.sparknotes.com
Fernanda Garcia

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There are brief mentions to science in the novel. It only becomes relevant almost at the end of the story, when Dorian wants to dispose of Basil’s body. He then calls a former friend of his, Alan Campbell, who is a Biologist. When the protagonist tries to convince Campbell to help him, he puts the request forward as a mere scientific experiment: “All I ask of you is to perform a certain scientific experiment. You go to hospitals and dead-houses, and the horrors that you do there don’t affect you. If in some hideous dissecting-room or fetid laboratory you found this man lying on a leaden table with red gutters scooped out

in it, you would simply look upon him as an admirable subject.” (Wilde, 1890: 224) After being blackmailed, Alan accepts to do Dorian’s bidding; then the scientist asks for some supply from his laboratory and if the room has a fire. The procedure is not told in the novel, but when Dorian returned home the only trace of anything going wrong in the room was only a potent odour of chemicals.

Maira Pérez.

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On traditional Gothic pieces of work is very common to find "Magical Objects": supernatural elements that contribute with the misterious plot. For example, in Wilde´s work it can be said that "the yellow book" is a kind of magical object. Lord Henry gives to Dorian a yellow book written by a French author and it will be a kind of holy book for him. This book represents the bad influence that Dorian received and also it can be said that the book is one step forward in his transformation into a murderer with no remorse. The effect of this book over Dorian Gray can be seen through this quotation: "After a few minutes, he became absorbed. It was
the strangest book he had ever read. It seemed to him that in exquisite raiment, and to the delicate sound of flutes,
the sins of the world were passing in dumb show before
him." ( Wilde, 1891: 154)

Wilde, O ( 1891) The picture of Dorian Gray, Ireland: Planet Pdf

Acevedo Julian

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Entrapment is a device of the Gothic. The concept means to be confined or trapped in a way that there is no way out. This concept can be seen in "The picture of Dorian Gray" throughout the following quotation. "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" ( Wilde, 1891: 29). It is shown here how Lord Henry is, in a way, predicting to Dorian Gray what will happen to him in the development of the story. Throughout the story it can be seen how Dorian´s soul gets corrupted and also how he surrenders to the temptation.

Wilde, O ( 1891) The picture of Dorian Gray, Ireland: Planet Pdf

Acevedo Julian

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Haunting: The protagonist cannot escape from the past. He don’t see it, but feel it.

Dorian is haunted everytime by his past when he looks at his portrait. We can observe this with his obsession to stare at it and remember everything he have done, even though he refuses to see the true of his nature. This also happened when he sees the knife and remembered the night in which he killed Basil, and also when he decided to use the same weapon to destroy the paint:

‘He went in quietly, looking the door behind him. Walking straight over to the portrait, he took off the purple curtain that was covering it. An angry cry of pain came from him. He could see no change. The thing was still hateful - more hateful, even than before. The red mark on the hand seemed brighter and more like new blood’ (...) ‘what did all means?’ (Wilde, 1994: Page 62)

‘Was this murder to follow him all his life?’ (Wilde, 1994: Page 63)

‘He looked around and saw the knife that had killed Basil Hallward. He had cleaned it many times until there was no mark left on it. It was bright, and it shone. It had killed the painter. Now it would kill the painter’s work, and all that it meant. It would kill the past. When that was dead he would be free. He picked up the knife and pushed it into the picture’ (Wilde, 1994: Page 63)

Wilde. O (1994), The picture of Dorian Grey. China: Pearson English Readers
By Micaela Barrios

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“The supernatural” is an essential component of Gothic Literature, writers use this element to provide the reader with special effects that contribute with the plot. For example, in Oscar Wilde´s story: “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, the fact that the painting ages and changes has no logical explanation: “Was it all true? Had the portrait really changed? Or had it been simply his own imagination that had made him see a look of evil where there had been a look of joy? Surely a painted canvas could not alter? The thing was absurd. It

would serve as a tale to tell Basil some day. It would make him smile” (Wilde, 1891: 105) Not even the selfsame Dorian could believe what his eyes were seeing, the picture, as a reflection of his soul, was rotting and getting older.

Wilde, O (1891) The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ireland: Planet Pdf

María Belén Farías.

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               The Bargain with the devil

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               The Bargain with the devil

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“A bargain with the devil” idea took a large popularity in the twentieth century´s popular Culture. According to traditional Christian belief about witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or a lesser demon. The person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favours. Those favours vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, fame, and/or power.(2016) In Oscar Wilde´s work: the Picture of Dorian Grey, the Devil does not appear, but Dorian Gray vocally offers his soul in exchange for eternal youth so that a painting will age for him: "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June… . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!” (Wilde, 1891: 42)

Era community (2016) [Graal Era a pact with the Devil? Story of a cult.] Extracted from: https://www.era-go.com/forum/showthread.php?42608-Graal-Era-a-pact-with-the-Devil-Story-of-a-cult&p=436635

Wilde, O (1891) The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ireland: Planet Pdf
María Belén Farías.

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For example, we can find the presence of:

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For example, we can find the presence of:

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The scary atmosphere

The Crossing of the Threshold

The bargain with the devil

The Supernatural

The Uncanny

The feeling of entrapment

Haunting

Abjection

The Doppelgänger motif

The sudden break-out of violence

“Sinister” science

Magical objects

Take two elements each, explain and provide examples, quoting from the text whenever it is appropriate. (Don't repeat items!)