Essay Comparing Frankenstein 'And The Picture Of Dorian Gray'

The theme that looks can sometimes be deceiving is apparent in both Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. In the book Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s monster is persecuted by everyone he meets, being treated as a monster only because he looks like one, when he actually has a good heart and feelings. In the book The Picture of Dorian Gray, the opposite is true with Dorian getting away with many crimes simply because he looks innocent when he is not. While both books show this theme, Frankenstein portrays the theme more fully. The monster from the book Frankenstein was made in a lab by a scientist named Frankenstein. Trying to figure out the secret of how to make or bestow life, Frankenstein made a monster. Frankenstein’s Monster looked hideous and deformed and was thus treated as monster by everyone who looked at him, including his own creator. In the book, the monster shows that all he actually wants is to be able to love someone who will also care for him. (Shelley 79-80) His good personality is also shown when he is talking with a blind man who, unable to see the monster’s ugliness, treated him with kindness. Despite setting a good impression upon the blind man, the blind man’s family reacted with anger and fear when they

Dorian Gray had a portrait of himself made and, accidently, infused it with a special power. This power caused the painting to take all the damage of age and sin for Dorian Gray, leaving him looking exactly the same as he did when the painting was made. Dorian abused this power and performed and crimes and sins with none of the repercussions falling on him. At one point he was about to be killed in an alley by James Vane, the brother of Sibyl Vane who was lead to suicide by Dorian, but James stopped after seeing Dorian’s face and thinking that he looked too young and to innocent to be the one who “killed” his sister. (Wilde