Application
Character: Dorian Gray
Series/Fandom: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Deviance: 2+
In chapter 13 where Dorian kills Basil (spoiler), Dorian instead decides to take Basil's offer. He is reforming and repenting. Though the portrait does not change to reflect his new goals, he is more at peace with its existence and won't go crazy if someone mentions it. His personality is much like the period after Sibyl's death rather than the scandalous personality he has in the latter half of the book. It's been a year since Basil saw the portrait.
Age: 39, appears to be in his late teens/early twenties
Gender: Male
Species: Human, but immortal
Canon Used:
Despite the fact that Fine as Hell Bin Bons is portraying him, Dorian is only from the original novel. There may be some little details taken from some other appearances, but nothing out of the ordinary for the novel, and it'll be noted.
Appearance:
Fine as Hell. But seriously, the description of Dorian given in the book is as follows:
"Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world."
All of this still applies for Dorian, save for his hair color. Instead of blonde, Dorian has dark hair. But the dark hair is roughly to his shoulders, and cleanly kept. He, of course, dresses in the height of Victorian fashion for a very well off young man. His "PB" is Ben Barnes, who is actually playing Dorian in a film version of the novel shortly, which is pretty much what inspired this. Oops.
Ben Barnes does him well
Psychology:
Many points of Dorian's personality stem directly from his time period, and were pretty common of all men of the time. His etiquette is distinctly that of an aristocratic Victorian man, and that's why it only gets like a paragraph. Dorian is polite and eloquent, and always the gentleman. At least, outwardly. Like many aristocrats in general, Dorian may be polite on the outside, but very cruel and cold on the inside, especially to those of a lesser class. In fact, those of a lesser class are less likely to get the mask at all, and he'll just be a douche. Luckily, on the Plane, it'll be hard to tell because no one wears cravats and other stuff like that anymore.
But, to break that shield of etiquette, it only takes a mention of his infamous portrait. Because of his deviance, he at least won't freak out and try to kill the person that mentions it, but it's still touchy. After all, it is his weakness and the physical evidence of his crimes more than anything else. Dorian is both attached to it and repulsed by it, which is understandable.
His portrait is the physical reminder of the side of Dorian that he tries to keep hidden. The Dark Side. Oh, wait, this isn't Star Wars, my bad. Despite his ever polite outer face, Dorian is a man that goes against Victorian society rather in secret. He takes pleasure in the immoral things in life, like drugs, and the most remembered facet of the novel, his "manipulations" of young men. Without a doubt, this is referring to homosexuality. So yes, Dorian likes boys kissing boys, not kissing you.
The bad side of his personality isn't exactly up front, but can appear at times. His beauty makes him vain, his aristocracy makes him haughty, and the portrait and his own self is cruel, distant, and cold all at once. These are the notable bad traits of Dorian's character, but the first two appear to most. The last three are the very darkest sides of Dorian, and ones that won't be revealed often, if at all, especially with his deviance.
Interestingly, there's a bit of duality in manipulation and Dorian. He's quite the manipulator himself, and has brought many young men to ruin, but he's just as easily manipulated by Henry. Dorian isn't naive anymore, but he can be overcome by passion and desire, which is how Henry manipulates him. In fact, Dorian's personality is almost exclusively Henry's fault, as Basil notes. Henry shaped Dorian's odd desires, ranging from the scandalous ones to more innocent, though obsessive ones, like his love of collecting things. This shows that Dorian has a pretty obsessive personality, though he's quick to discard one passion for the next. When he's seized by a fancy, it will become his life for a few months before he gets bored and moves onto something else.
But this is the best display of Dorian's passion, as varied as it may be throughout the novel. He's very passionate in his life, from his collections to his love life. His first love for Sibyl was very passionate, after all! However, his passion is for a deeper level of beauty, which would be that for true art. He loved Sibyl for her performances, her art, not for her physical beauty. It also ties in with his attraction to art especially, since it stimulates him in some different way. And, as shown with Sibyl, once that art is gone, Dorian has no more interest in that thing.
However, with the deviance, Dorian isn't as...extreme in his fancies. Because he decided to take Basil's offer and repent for his crimes, Dorian is more relaxed not only about the existence of his portrait, but also with his self-destructive (and socially destructive, but) tendencies. He's not going to be trying to charm every handsome young man he meets, nor be as erratic with his passion. He's still a bastard, don't get me wrong, but he's not going to tell a girl to "kill yourself lol".
This is really a good thing, because Dorian's fabulosity makes him appealing to both men and women. As Henry says, there are two draws to Dorian. For one, his extraordinary beauty, and two, his eloquence and intelligence. Dorian is an intelligent young man, but he's also curious. He reads often, and on a variety of subjects, which makes him the ideal 19th century conversationalist. He's witty and well-mannered, but never boring.
Other Skills/Abilities:
Dorian is immortal. Now, the extent to which he is immortal is not given, so I'll be going with "complete" immortality. Dorian remains eternally young and beautiful, and cannot be killed except by what's described below.
Other Weaknesses:
His portrait is his weakness. It will never come to the Plane with him, but it is available if you're lucky enough to get a merger with his home. If the portrait is harmed, then Dorian himself will be harmed, or at the worst, killed. If this happens, Dorian takes on the ugly appearance "true" to himself and the portrait will once again become beautiful.
History:
Dorian is the grandson of Lord Kelso, an (apparently) very well known aristocrat, and the son of Lady Margaret Devereaux and a nameless father, because he was penniless. Dorian's father was killed a few months after the marriage in a duel, which was rumored to have been staged by Lord Kelso to get rid of her husband. Heartbroken, Dorian's mother died within a year, but not before she gave birth to Dorian. Dorian himself grew up with the old Lord Kelso, but when his grandfather died, Dorian was not of age to receive not only his grandfather's fortune, but also his mother's. As such, he was left well off, but by the time the story begins, he is not truly wealthy, nor a Lord, because of his father.
The novel begins with an artist, Basil Hallward, painting a portrait of a handsome young man named Dorian Gray. One of Basil's friends, Lord Henry Wotton, was observing, and expressed a desire to meet Dorian. At first Basil objected, knowing Harry's ways, but Dorian happened to show up for a sitting. Henry speaks at length to Dorian about his world views, and the young and impressionable Dorian is deeply affected, and proclaims that he wishes that the portrait that Basil was painting would grow old, and not him. It's dismissed easily, until Dorian meets Sibyl Vane.
Dorian was so affected by Henry's speech on the pleasures in life that he decided to take a chance by visiting a dingy theatre performing Shakespeare, but was surprised to learn the lead actress was not only phenomenal, but beautiful. Dorian falls in love and within a week, proposes to marry her. In his joy, Dorian asks Basil and Lord Henry to come see Sibyl perform. They comply, but all three are quite surprised when Sibyl is a terrible actress, overcome with her love for Dorian. After the show, Dorian approached her to reject her because she had lost her art.
He returns home, and notices that the portrait has subtly changed to an expression of cruelty, and realizes that his casual wish had come true. Seeing this, Dorian hides the portrait away in an old storehouse, never to move again. To repent for the change in the portrait, Dorian resolves to apologize to Sibyl the next morning, since it was so late, but Lord Henry comes in the morning to tell Dorian that Sibyl had killed herself. Dorian is, at first, horrified to learn it, but is eventually persuaded by Lord Henry that it did not matter, and he discarded his feelings for Sibyl.
Lord Henry gives Dorian a novel which influenced Dorian for the rest of his life. Dorian himself called it "poisonous". But Dorian did little to resist such a poison, and for the next eighteen years of his life, he indulged in every pleasure there was, both moral and immoral. The portrait continued to become more and more hideous to reflect Dorian's darkening soul, but Dorian himself remained ever young and beautiful. Dorian became known for scandal that no one could prove, and "ruined many young men". Take that as you will.
Worried about these rumors, Basil comes to speak with Dorian before he departs on a trip for Paris. Dorian does not deny it to Basil, and instead shows him the portrait. Dorian is furious at Basil, at first, for creating the portrait at all, but Basil manages to reason with Dorian, and Dorian vows to repent for his sins and live a less lustful life.
It's been a year since, and while Dorian has been doing much better at staying away from his passions and immoral practices, the portrait does not change either for the better or worse.
Canon Point:
Technically, post-canon. Because of the deviance, the last couple of chapters of the book are moot, but whatever.
Reality Description:
Dorian lives in London, England in the Victorian era, though an unspecified time. The poisonous novel that Dorian likely became infatuated with, however, was published in 1884, but because of the height of Aesthetic Movement, I'll just say that the year Dorian lives in is 1884 instead. London is dingy and not all that great, but Dorian lives in the exclusive Mayfair district of London, which is where the rich people lived in London. Dorian also travels to the countryside on occasion to his summer home, sort of, but is never there long for fear of leaving his portrait.
Dorian lives in a very fancy home in Mayfair, since he's quite the rich aristocrat, and even has the luxury of storage rooms. His home is decorated with art, jewels, and every other finery you could image, since they are all things he's collected by fancy. However, most of his collections have been sold, thus making him even richer. Sigh. The portrait itself sits in a dingy and unkept room and is always covered by a screen.