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Analysis Of The Picture Of Dorian Gray Diction

225 Words1 Pages
In his Victorian gothic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, author Oscar Wilde utilizes graphic diction and stream of consciousness to illustrate Dorian’s descent into maddening hedonism. When Dorian travels to an opium den in chapter 16, his desires and what he sees are described with sinister word choice; Dorian experiences “the hideous hunger for opium began to gnaw at him… [shadows] moved like monstrous marionettes… the loathsome den, the crude violence of disordered life,” (Wilde 178) a stark visual contrast with his external beauty. Wilde’s diction conveys the depraved nature of the setting and contributes to a sense of fragmentation which accompanies Dorian’s moral decay. The effect of this diction is supplemented by a stream of consciousness
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