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Essay on the picture of dorian gray
Essay on the picture of dorian gray
Literature essay of the picture of dorian gray
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Henry’s influence, which Basil had foreshadowed, altered the purities of Dorian into an egotistical monster. Dorian Gray’s story is a “conventionally moralistic one, preaching for the power of conscience and against vanity” (Ruddick). The vanity sparked in Dorian Gray aspires Lord Henry’s personal psychological curiosities, and he encourages Gray to follow Henry’s lead without realizing how infamously his experiment had developed. Initially, when Basil had known Dorian Gray the innocent, Basil knew the effects Lord Henry could potentially have on his artistic idol; the artwork of Gray foreshadowed the monster in Gray after Lord Henry’s speech including “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist is, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful” alongside how beauty surpasses any other value in life-- the combination of these two speeches acts as the seed implanted to create the monstrous Dorian Gray (Wilde 13-14).
Take ownership of your actions and man up and deal with the consequences. Lord Henry was partially responsible for Dorian’s corruption but Dorian cannot lay all the blame on him. Dorian’s the one who confused love with lust; lead a girl on, then broke her heart. He was the cause of her suicide and he was delusional to think that her life was just a fiction of his imagination. He never knew what love was because the only thing he ever knew was art.
Henry’s hedonistic views largely impacted Dorian, and we can see this through Dorian’s character development throughout the novel. Dorian began as a kind young man but after meeting Henry, Dorian did bad things that led him to be responsible for two deaths. When Dorian kills Basil, he didn’t tell anybody about it; proving he lived a second life in
He was incredibly cruel towards Sibyl Vane and caused her to commit suicide. Due to Lord Henry’s influence he does not blame himself, yet he blames Sibyl for acting poorly. As the cruel actions continue Dorian gets deeper and deeper into the lifestyle of Lord Henry, to the point where he shrugs off a loved one's death as it is nothing. Sibyl’s purely innocent personality contrasted with Dorian’s cruel and hedonistic life which shows just how Dorian is developing as a
While The Picture of Dorian Gray has no devil figure, Lord Henry is a similar character in the way that he introduces Dorian into his new lifestyle. Lord Henry is also the one who implanted the idea of Dorian’s beauty not lasting forever, so he tempted Dorian Gray into his lifestyle, similar to how Mephistopheles tempted Faust into their adventures. Some other characters that fill similar roles include the love interests for Faust and Dorian, Gretchen and Sibyl. Both Gretchen and Sibyl also have brothers who do not approve of their involvement with the main
The researcher decides Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned to be the objects of the study on inferiority and superiority complex causing hedonistic lifestyle in main character. The first reason, both of literary works cover the changing of each life of the main character, society and ultimately the individual. Second, they both share the same social background of the main character in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian, displays a well-respected young man. He doesn’t recognize his own beauty until he sees it reflected in Basil’s portrait, and, once he does, it’s all too late. While Anthony in The Beautiful and Damned is illustrates reaching pleasure as the lifestyle and it becomes a habit.
Dorian is a young man who is not yet fully formed in his thinking and has a very handsome appearance. Basil is instantly taken with him and finds that he wants Dorian all to himself. The way Basil influences Dorian isn 't through words but rather through his actions. He idolizes him.
Dorian Gray is a handsome, narcissistic young man enthralled by Lord Henry 's new enjoyment. He satisfies in every pleasure of moral and immoral life ultimately heads to death. Henry tells
As soon as Dorian enters in Chapter 2 of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wildes’ one and only novel, its is evident that there will be a battle between who will have the most influence on his pure, untouched soul. Basil Hallward, a painter and worshipper of art is an optimist and sees only the good in even the wickedest of people, such as Lord Henry. Lord Henry is a charming, self-indulgent aristocrat that shapes and molds Dorian to lead a life devoted to pleasure. Both Basil and Lord Henry represent two important opposing forces in the novel, good and evil. The greatest struggle in The Picture of Dorian Gray is inside Dorian; he himself embodies both pure good and pure evil.
Lord Henry’s painting showed Dorian the reality of life and all the sins he had committed. With the picture, Dorian destroyed it plus his own life because he could not bear the fact that his beauty was going to fade. In addition, Henry influences Dorian by manipulating him because; he carries on with his idea of remaining youthful. This is evident when he says, "To get back to my youth, I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable" (Liebman 300). Lord Henry had everything to do with Dorian’s obsession of wanting to remain young especially with the picture and his philosophy.
Another theme illustrated through Wilde’s use of motifs and symbols is the theme of superficiality. The theme of superficiality can be understood as a sense of the superficial view of outer beauty that is shown in the work. It relates to the concept of remaining young, which is an important factor of what is shown in the novel. This is an important part of the novel because outer beauty plays a bigger role for Dorian, than inner beauty does. In the beginning of the novel, Lord Henry and Dorian have a conversation that focuses on the topic of youth and Dorian 's outer beauty – Lord Henry mentions the fact that Dorian has a beautiful face, and later during this conversation, Lord Henry states that: “youth is the only thing worth having…”
In the story The Picture Dorian Gray he slowly destroys himself with his narcissistic tendencies. With the encouragement from Lord Henry, Dorians narcissism only grows. While Dorian 's
Wilde writes about it being “perfectly charming”. The chapter then is corrupted by Lord Henry's influence on page 17. This structure of chapter continues through the first 10 chapters and then shifts to fill a more gothic idea. The setting becomes more ominous with the environment having blinding “fog” (Wilde 147) and the “cold rain”(Wilde 184). As corruption is about to take over Dorian's life he becomes blinded by the “lovely night” and environment again.
As years pass the picture ages like a real person would age, but it not only grows older, but uglier because of his actions. The picture is the mirror of Dorian 's soul, as he commits terrible actions the picture becomes
As the portrait significantly becomes more hideous, Dorian gradually loses his mind. The reader understands that what eventually leads Dorian to kill Basil Hallward, the only true friend he has, is the constant reminder of the evil found at the heart of Dorian’s nature, as represented by the portrait. In Dorian doing so, the reader realises that not only does Dorian kill Basil, he also kills his only chance of redemption of his soul. The reader realises that the statement that Dorian had expressed earlier in the story was the truth: “Yes, Basil could have saved him. But it was too late now.”
