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Essay Comparing Dorian And Faust

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On Faust and Dorian

The German Faust myth has been rewritten and adopted in many formats over the years. It’s theme has been reproduced in many forms from books to television, operas and plays, and even a graphic novel. Oscar Wilde applies the tale in his own way in The Picture of Dorian Gray and puts in parallels to older Faust plays by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Christopher Marlowe in his book. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Goethe’s Faust, and Wilde’s Dorian share many similarities and some great differences.

To start, the most obvious differences are in the main character. In Marlowe and Goethe’s works, Faust is a scholar to match the legend and someone who seeks unlimited knowledge. In Wilde’s version, Dorian is described as not being an intelligent person, his greatest attribute is his appearance, which is why what he seeks is eternal youth and beauty. It’s even said that Dorian is a person who exists to take peoples’ minds off of other things and to refresh them with his looks. …show more content…

The two characters are comparable to Marlowe’s Good and Bad Angels that appear at specific turning points in his play in order to influence Faust the way Basil and Henry influence Dorian. Then, similar to how The Picture of Dorian Gray begins with Basil and Henry discussing Dorian (where Basil also begs Henry not to corrupt Dorian since the young man is so precious to him), Geothe’s play begins with God and the demon Mephistopheles wagering on what would happen to Faust and discussing his fate. Then, later in Marlowe’s version, Faustus is shown the personification of the seven deadly sins, much like how Lord Henry gave Dorian a book about a man who committed every sin. Basil is comparable to the Good Angel or God while Henry is like Mephistopheles or the Bad Angel, meaning Wilde’s version of the Faust myth has both a positive and a negative influencing character the same way the older versions of the tale

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