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Wildes use of symbolism in the picture of dorian grey
Wildes use of symbolism in the picture of dorian grey
Wildes use of symbolism in the picture of dorian grey
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When naïve Dorian consumes Lord Henry’s philosophies of New Hedonism, Dorian too is “suddenly awakened” (24). In both The Picture of Dorian Gray and the Bible, everything is altered from just one moment in garden. These
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.
Contextualizing Dorian Gray The social climate and criminalization of homosexuality in 19th century England give insight on the intent of Oscar Wilde, a gay man himself, to aestheticize intimate relationships between men in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The laws which made sodomy illegal in England primarily “sought to preserve the face of British youth”, and the idea of the “gross indecency” which they condemned was an elaboration on a 1857 act that condemned “obscenity… [and its] ‘filthy’ and ‘corrupt’ nature” (Bristow). The idea of corruption and saving face is pervasive in Dorian Gray, displayed when Dorian himself claims that “Youth is the only thing worth having” and wishes for his portrait to bear his own aging and corruption (Wilde 29). The fixation on reputation present in both the novel and in legislation that predated its publication by only a few decades indicates a strong correlation between the two, further highlighting
He has a lot of different ideas on life and how to live it. He is a friend of Basil and is visiting with him when Dorian comes to sit for the painting. Henry stays and talks to
1. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” displays the Victorian Period by having a prevalent terminology of a proper naming system, indicating the social class of certain important figures. Another theme that is hidden throughout the story is the homosexuality of Basil, and the disapproval it would have generated in Victorian society. The events that take place in the story also describe a setting that was proper and exquisite. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” also intermixes works of art into the landscape while keeping social norms in the spotlight (Wilde 17, 41).
The genre of the novel is a terror, drama, psychology, humanitarianisms, romance and paranormal components. The Picture of Dorian Gray begins on a beautiful season day in Victorian-era England where Lord Henry Wotton, a determined man, is observing the sensitive artist Basil Hallward painting the painting of Dorian Gray, a handsome young man who is Basil 's ultimate inspiration. Though sitting for the painting, Dorian listens to Lord Henry adopting his hedonistic worldview and begins to think that beauty is the only aspect of life worth trying. This encourages Dorian to wish that the painted image of himself would age in his stead.
Influence in The Picture of Dorian Gray And The Book of Job The Picture of Dorian gray is a book written by Oscar Wilde and it was published in 1880. The book was later revised by addition of more chapters and reprinted in April 1891. Dorian Gray is the main character in this book that is described as a beautiful and unspoiled male who changes his life completely by sinning and pleasure after meeting Lord Henry. Basil Hallward who is a painter develops obsession for Dorian because of his beauty whereas Lord Henry Wotton Basil’s friend influences Dorian with his theories about life, pleasure and women even though he had no intention of changing Dorian’s personality. Lord Henry’s influence in Dorian leads to his downfall.
From the beginning of the novel we get to see a model of poor and unconventional morality, Lord Henry Wotton, a man who is moved by an ethic current called “New Hedonism” which taking into account society’s ethics (specially the ones from the Victorian Era) is quite immoral. The New Hedonism basically consists in looking for the individual’s best comfort, pleasure and happiness (based on beauty), leaving aside the other’s comfort and what should be morally done. This character with poor morality is who guides the book’s main character Dorian Gray along his adventure. However, it is vital to take into account the fact that Dorian Gray is never forced to follow New Hedonism and that Wilde never influences or invites the reader to follow New Hedonist
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…”
As a writer one is greatly influenced by their personal experiences with social, historical, and cultural context within their specific time period. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was shaped by the aspects of the world around him. The themes of the text are are influenced by morality in the Victorian Era. Throughout the Victorian Era a deeper movement was also prominent in London called Aestheticism. Aestheticism is the worship of beauty and self-fulfillment.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of Oscar Wilde’s masterpieces, portrays one of the most important values and principles for him: aestheticism. As a criticism to the life lived during the Victorian era in England, Wilde exposed a world of beauty a freedom in contradiction to the lack of tolerance a limitation of that era; of course inspired due to Wilde’s personal life. All the restrictions of the Victorian England lead him to a sort of anarchism against what he found to be incoherent rules, and he expressed all this to his art. His literature is a strong, political and social criticism. He gave a different point of view to controversial topics such as life, morality, values, art, sexuality, marriage, and many others, and epigrams, for what he is very well known, where the main source to the exposure of his interpretations of this topic.
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.
The Paper of Dorian Gray Throughout Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, we view the horrible actions of the main character, Dorian Gray. These actions, however, never seem to affect Dorian. We soon come to realize that this self-portrait reflects Dorian’s actions and aging process instead of Dorian and allow him to live a secret life of horrible acts. In the novel, Dorian takes full advantage of the portraits power, calling the portrait a reflection of his soul, and makes no effort to preserve his soul due to the poisonous influence from Lord Henry and his own selfishness.
In the early 18th century a new genre of fiction prose, named "Gothic Novel" was introduced. The term ”Gothic” used to refer to the German tribe of the Goths. The Gothic novel spread over the 19th century and had the popular theme of haunted places such as castles, crypts, gloomy monasteries; supernatural elements having the role to intensify the atmosphere. The characteristic motifs of the gothic genre were the strange places, the supernatural, magic objects, monsters, demons, science used for bad purposes. And many of them appear also in "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
The theme of appearance extends further in Dorian’s life. Dorian’s outer beauty allows him to get away with almost anything, due to the fact that people equals his outer beauty to him being a good person. In reality, Wilde makes it very clear that Dorian Gray is not a good person. The theme of appearance is illustrated through underlying criticism within Wilde’s use of motifs and symbols. A main motif used by Wilde is the painting done by Basil Hallward.