Fear In The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Seemingly unalike people often share more than what meets the eye. For example, strikingly different people’s most basic fears often unite them. Many regular people, from all walks of life, fear bears, heights, darkness, failure, and much more, but fear of death starkly paints dissimilar people in a similar light as illustrated in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. The novel examines characters whose fears mirror one another. Through Dorian's similarities to Lord Henry, Basil, and Tom Riddle, a fictional character from the "Harry Potter" series, Oscar Wilde exemplifies how fear of mortality often motivates startling behavior, in "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

Wilde masterfully illustrates how fear of mortality drives action through many characters

For example, Tom Riddle of “Harry Potter” fears mortality and lives motivated by that fear. Riddle and Dorian directly mirror each other in their respective pieces of literature: like Dorian, Riddle places his soul into inanimate objects in order to become immortal, kills people and drives others to suicide, and emotionally detaches himself from his wrongdoings, all in an effort to remain immortal. “’If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that –for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!’” (28: ch. 2), describes Dorian’s Faustian pact which basically mangles his soul like Tom Riddle, and “’He felt that the secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation.’” (159: ch. 14) refers to Dorian’s emotional detachment, also like Tom Riddle. Even “He rushed at him and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man’s head down on the table and stabbing him again and again.” (158: ch. 13) becomes easier to comprehend when compared to Tom Riddle, and traced back to both men’s intense fear of mortality. Riddle’s fear of death clarifies Gray and his horrific