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I think all three characters represent aspects of Wilde. Lord Henry is the observer/epigrammist, Basil is the artist/creator, and Dorian is sensuality/experience. On the other hand, it can certainly be argued that Lord Henry is creator, in the evil Svengali sense, of Dorian, but the dichotomy works for me, also, seeing the creator as manichean. Interestingly to me, I checked the date on Trilby and the novel was published a few years after Dorian Gray and I wonder if du Maurier's Svengali owes some inspiration to Wilde.
I don't really care for criticism that includes the author's life but it's irresistible in this case. Dorian Gray seems eerily prescient to me. I didn't pick it up on my reading, but I assume Lord Henry is a marquis's younger son and not a duke's. Impossible not to think of Lord Alfred Douglas, also a marquis's younger son, who would be both beautiful love object and agent of destruction to Wilde. I understand that it was Dorian Gray that first attracted Lord Alfred to Wilde. Art imitating life, I suppose, and the unwitting start of a tragic trajectory for Wilde.
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