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How Does Dorian Gray Good Against Evil

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The Internal Struggle of Good Against Evil In the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being” (Solzhenitsyn 168); however righteousness always triumphs in the battle against villainy. The novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde portrays this struggle within Dorian Gray as he faces the toxic influence of Lord Henry, and goes against his morality and Basil Hallward. The clash between hedonism and altruism in the novel exemplifies the prevalence of good against evil. The first battle between the two forces occurs in the exposition of the novel, before the main character is introduced. In the opening chapter, Basil Hallward, a kind and talented artist, argues with his …show more content…

The murder of his friend forces Dorian to evaluate the severity of his sins and also reconsider his lifestyle. The portrait he once found fascinating now looms over him with a “loathsome red dew” (Wilde 146) on one of the hands. As his sins weigh upon him, Dorian attempts to repent through good deeds, but nonetheless, he finds no change in the portrait. The lack of transformation in the portrait suggests that Dorian still feels influence from evil, and does not truly want to change himself. Lord Henry mocks Dorian’s attempts to “moralize” and tells him that it is no use. Despite Lord Henry’s discouragement, Dorian felt a “wild longing for the unstained purity of his boyhood”(Wilde 183-185), and finally rejects the influence of hedonism over his life. In order to “kill the past” (Wilde 188), Dorian stabs the wretched portrait with the same knife he used to kill Basil. However, when he stabs the painting, all of the deformities from the painting transfer to him and kill him. This event symbolizes the final triumph of good over evil, in that Dorian finally paid for his sins, and refused to live a life of malevolence any

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