The Picture of Dorian Gray is grounded in the imperial Gothic, which is revealed through the antagonistic function of the Orient within the novel. After an investigation into how the novel employs conventions, and background on the function and uses of the genre in Victorian literature, I point the reader to the anxiety that permeated fin de siècle Britain: The arrival of the colonies in the London metropolis, and the advent of opium dens, subjecting the Englishman to a complete degeneration.