One can't help being struck by Dorian's fabulous wealth. He inherited from his uncle, presumably his mother's brother since Dorian didn't inherit the title also. We can assume that his uncle was the end of his noble line, both because estates were entailed to the succeeding peer in those days and because his uncle hated him and presumably only left him his money and property in the absence of other possible heirs. So was Wilde implying an essential sterility to Dorian also, and that his expenditure of his essence and goodness as well as his material wealth was in default of offspring in whom it would naturally be invested?
This is probably a stretch, but I'm reminded of Shakespeare's Sonnet CXXIX, which I'll quote:
Quote:
Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight,
Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
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