honestly, my favourite way of seeing the picture of dorian gray is a sick love triangle.
- basil loves dorian with all of his soul and he lets it devour him. henry loves basil in a sick “you’re my only equal” type of way, and dorian is completely submissive to lord henry.
basil’s love for dorian is the emotional centre of the picture of dorian gray - he’s completely consumed and lost in the tragedy of unrequited love and he feels it so much - that same love ends up killing him. the entire time with basil, his love is prominent. no, it isn’t just adoration and obsession. he worships him, but also loves him. he is constantly warning dorian and he never pushed him to do anything, he always looked out for dorian and wanted him to be happy, leading to his death. he was devoured by him. completely. he couldn’t paint without him, he couldn’t look at dorian without trembling. basil’s emotional character believed loving dorian was worth the pain. and that ends up murdering him.
henry’s love for basil is the most interesting to me. lord henry seems to crave influence over others around him, and all are influenced by him, all but basil. basil argues, disagrees, and even when henry mocks him, he still listens. he still cares for basil even through a twisted way. he cares for him because basil is the only person who wasn’t influenced. his only equal. the only one he can rely on arguing back and standing against him. basil is a long-term friend and unlike most of henry’s phases with friendships, they seem to still be close and constantly close. as soon as basil starts describing dorian and his obsession with him, henry doesn’t seem pleased and is eager to change dorian. and he does just that. he pushes basil’s buttons constantly because he knows basil cares and will react with emotion, unlike dorian who becomes increasingly detached. henry wants emotion because he lacks it. he needs someone who is devoured and powered by emotion because he cannot feel emotions anymore. he needs someone to contrast him. he enjoys seeing the emotional reaction over dorian’s. if he was ever able to be emotionally honest and vulnerable, he would do it with the one man he knows will be honest and emotional with him. he enjoys basil because basil is the reality. he’s there, he thinks what he thinks and he won’t be shaped by henry. dorian is the muse. easily shaped and formed. the tragedy is that he unfortunately prefers control - not connection. that’s why he picks dorian. he knows he’s better with control and he prefers the control because of it. basil forces a connection, he doesn’t like being controlled and won’t let henry control him.
dorian is young, naïve and doesn’t think for himself. henry steps into his life, and he immediately changes - when henry didn’t actually need to do much. dorian seems to submit to henry easily and very quickly. he was seduced and deeply influenced. he quotes henry constantly, he acts independent while also submitting to henry and obeying him. henry’s voice is constantly leading him - even when henry is spewing a thousand lies that even he doesn’t believe.
this makes the triangle so beautiful. none of the love is balanced. no one is giving back what they’re given. it’s unbalanced, it’s bound to fall apart and it’s dangerous. dorian kills the one man who loved him, dorian falls for lies, henry forgets about the one person who cared, henry gets lost in control when he could’ve had vulnerability, basil is killed by the person he adored with all of his soul and that same person he loved was influenced by one of the people basil cared about the most. tragic, but oscar wilde knows how to write a brilliant dynamic.
