What do the flowers symbolize in the novel “the picture of Dorian Gary?”
– Study on garden scene in chapter 1–2
The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn (Wilde 1).
Since the beginning of the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” it starts with flowers. Readers can easily imagine a rose, lilac, and thorn in Basil’s garden, thanks to Wilde’s delicate description. Especially in chapter 1 and 2, Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian talk in the garden. There is a pattern in both chapters that the narrator describes the flowers and detailing mood, and then characters start to talk. Also, there are at least 10 different flowers that appeared in those chapters — rose, lilac, thorn, laburnum, narcissus, daisy, ivy, lilac, lily, clematis, and Tyrian convolvulus. Then, there must be a reason for the flowers’ existence. There are two reasons: the flowers written with the character in the same sentences are used to give details of characters and clue of future issues. Victorian era, when this book was written is when floriography, the language of flowers, was popularized. The language of flowers “is spoken by selecting specific flower types with associated meanings to communicate feelings or wishes” (“The Secret Language of Victorian Florals”). In this novel, the four flowers should be interpreted with the language of flowers: laburnum, daisy, lilac, and rose.
If the character is a flower, Lord Henry is a laburnum. It appears first with Henry on the first page. “Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum (1)”. This flower symbolizes forsaken, pensive beauty, and pensive thought. And it is an important flower in that it helps to understand the character better, because of its poison. As Laburnum has poison in it, Lord Henry is poisonous for Dorian. He pushed Dorian to get the desire of youth and beauty, drove him to live an immoral life. He is the one who made Dorian sign a pact with the Devil to throw away his soul and get the soul-appearance reversed painting. Besides, it was predicted Dorian began to go astray with an influence of Lord Henry. In chapter 1, when Basil gives details of Dorian to Henry before they actually met, there are tremulous white daisies (4). As he listens to Dorian, his reaction to the flower changes. He “plucked a pink-petalled daisy (4)”, and then pulled “the daisy to bits with his long nervous fingers (5)” and finally plucked another daisy again. White daisy is a symbol of innocence and purity. And pink Daisy is a symbol of love and romance. Lord Henry is a character designed to destroy Dorian’s innocence and love. Like he pulled the daisy to bits, he tore Dorian’s soul apart.
Dorian Gray is look-alike lilac at first, which symbolizes the joy of youth. White lilac is a symbol of youthful innocence while purple is the first emotion of love. When Lord Henry praises the supremacy of youth and beauty, Dorian ran to the garden to bury “his face in the great cool lilac-blossoms (13)”. For the first time Dorian got poisoned by Henry, he ran away and smelled his youthful innocence. The next scene shows that his purity was affected somehow. Like, lilac “had tossed his [Dorian’s] rebellious curls and tangled all their gilded threads (13)”. And finally, Dorian dropped the spray of lilac from his hand upon the gravel (22) after he listened to Lord Henry’s speech that admires beauty and youth.
A rose is a symbol of love, passion, and desire. Someone can believe a rose means Basil’s love for Dorian. But rose can be interpreted as many things. Dorian Gray is mentioned with roses by Lord Henry most of the time. Before Lord Henry met Dorian, he called Dorian as “young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose-leaves (6)”. Ivory is not a flower though; it is a symbol of purity. Dorian was a beautiful young man with innocence and love before he runs into Lord Henry. In this part, rose-leaves are a symbolism of Dorian’s capability to love. But Dorian eventually met Lord Henry regardless of Basil’s will. And Henry told Dorian that “Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses (62)”. As lily symbolizes beauty, this can be interpreted as Dorian has to fight with time to protect his beauty[lily] and ability to love[rose]. Also, rose is mentioned at the end of chapter 2, after Dorian and Lord Henry entered to studio from the garden. “The heavy scent of the roses seemed to brood over everything. (64)”. In this part, the heavy scent of the roses is the desire of three men’s. A desire of Lord Henry’s desire to manipulate Dorian, Dorian’s to be forever young and beautiful, and Basil’s to be loved by Dorian.
After finding the language of flowers, readers can realize the hidden meaning of the first sentence in this novel. “The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses –desires–, which contain “the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn”- pain and pleasure. “Light summer wind — challenge, change- stirred amidst the trees of the garden” of Basil, “there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac-Dorian-.” Dorian’s youthful innocence attracted Basil. And through Basil, Dorian met Lord Henry, the key figure of challenge and change. With the language of flowers, many underlying meanings can be revealed, and there is the hidden beauty of this novel.
Works cited
Catherine Boeckmann. “FLOWER MEANINGS: THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS — WHAT DOES EACH FLOWER SYMBOLIZE?” March 2, 2020, https://www.almanac.com/content/flower-meanings-language-flowers
Allison Meier. “Hyperallergic: The Secret Victorian Language of Flowers.” May 30, 2014,https://hyperallergic.com/129541/the-secret-victorian-language-of-flowers/
Rachel Pearson. “The petals of Dorian Gray.” Boston University, December 4, 2011, https://bu.digication.com/rpfin-de-Siecle/The_Petals_of_Dorian_Gray
“Use of Floral Imagery and Symbolism in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.” https://savedelicious.com/use-of-floral-imagery-and-symbolism-in-oscar-wildes-the-picture-of-dorian-gray/
Invaluable. “Floriography: The Secret Language of Victorian Florals.” Invaluable, November 12, 2019, https://www.invaluable.com/blog/floriography/
Kit Whitfield. “First sentences: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.” March 01, 2012, http://kitwhitfield.blogspot.com/2012/03/first-sentences-picture-of-dorian-gray.html
