Dorian Faustus

I keep seeing The Picture of Dorian Gray being referred to as a Faustian novel, and it's starting to irritate. While not very familiar with the legends of and literature about Faustus, I understand the basic premise, and I also understand that "Faustian" as an adjective is an easy way to explain the plot of Dorian Gray: it involves an exchange of the soul. But a key part of Faust's story is that he willingly makes a pact with the Devil, while Dorian Gray does no such thing. He utters a wish without any belief that it will come true, and without any knowledge of the consequences. He is offered no choice, and he makes no bargain. Isn't it interesting that Wilde wrote it this way? Dorian really has no idea what it means to give away his soul. And to whom does he give it, anyway? There is no devil in this story, with the possible exception of Lord Henry (he spends the time just before Dorian sees his portrait telling him the value and importance of youth and beauty: "Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!").

The actual wish, however, is all Dorian:

"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

His friends immediately make light of it:

"You would hardly care for such an arrangement, Basil," cried Lord Henry, laughing. "It would be rather hard lines on your work."

"I should object very strongly, Harry," said Hallward.

And the adage "be careful what you wish for" is proven true once again. Faust's bargain is his soul for knowledge, while Dorian's is almost the opposite of that: he wants to remain young and beautiful, innocent and, it might follow, ignorant (although he does have his own thirst for knowledge and experience, prompted by Lord Henry). But no exchange ever actually takes place, and no one makes it official, although dialogue in the rest of the scene hints at it (Lord Henry tells Basil that he has now seen "the real Dorian Gray"; Basil wants to destroy the portrait and Dorian cries, "It would be murder!"; Basil refers to it as "the real Dorian", etc). The fact that the exchange Dorian wished for has taken place is given no divine or supernatural attribution; there's no sense that Dorian's wish was diabolical. It's just not that Faustian.

Nonetheless, the novel is advocating some sort of morality, and certainly seems to say in the end that Dorian profits nothing by losing his soul. But in this soul-exchange-that-is-not-a-pact, does Dorian regain his soul with his death and the portrait's return to its pristine condition? Answers on a postcard.