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Decadence and deception in the picture of dorian gray
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No matter how hard Dorian tries to act innocent, his sins cannot easily be erased since he acts pure for selfish reasons, such as clearing his conscience. Additionally, Wilde uses mist to symbolize Dorian’s uncertainty about beauty. As Dorian enters the opium den, “the mist thickened, he felt afraid” (205). In Plato’s theory, Dorian does not completely understand the beauty of something, since he glances it from at a surface level and therefore, remains far from the truth and results in confusion and uncertainty, such as the mist. Moreover, Wilde suggests how before Basil’s murder, Dorian did not appear completely innocent but society could still consider him pure and white if he prayed for God’s forgiveness.
Meanwhile, the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the book itself, was written in response to the culture of hiding and acting more respectably. Wilde’s purpose was to criticize the veneer, that “Victorian morality did not radically transform citizens' behavior but merely forced them to camouflage their baser instincts” (Schmitt). He was against the hypocrisy of the time, and so he wrote about a character living in that state who was brought to
The truth one knows is not always certain. Many characters are religious in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Religions around the world rely on what is scripted to be true. Even though many overlap or cancel each other out, billions around the world continue to believe in what is certain for them. Romance is also another thing believed to be certain.
Oscar Wilde is a well known author, playwright, and poet from the late 1800’s. He is well known for his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray as well as multiple plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest. However, he is also known for being a hedonistic homosexual that was imprisoned in Victorian England in 1895. Understanding his background is imperative to being able to uncover all the meaning in his works.
In Oscar Wilde 's The Picture of Dorian Gray, the protagonist, Dorian, becomes a sinner after the intervention of Lord Henry over his life. The character starts living believing in what Lord Henry said to him, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” (28). This premise states how people should follow their impulses in order to live a free life. Dorian commits multiple sins that do not seem to affect him directly, but affect his portrait.
Oscar Wilde’s inspiration to write The Picture of Dorian Gray stemmed from his excellent scholarly upbring and influential friends and lover, Rachilde and John Gray, respectively. Wilde’s scholarly pursuit into literature began at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Ireland (biography.com). It is here where he first fell in love with Greek and Roman studies, which would later influence many of his views on aesthetics and the human body. When he graduated into the highly esteemed Oxford University, Wilde began to experiment with creative writing and in 1878 received the Newdigate Prize for best English verse composition for his poem ‘Ravenna’ (biography.com).
Lord Henry even gave particular offense for female of the species, he said to Dorian Gray that ‘women are a decorative sex, no woman is a genius and women represent the triumph of matter over mind’. But, Dorian ignores Lord Henry’s advice and even invited him and Basil Hallward to watch Sibyl Vane’s act. This part was my favorite because Dorian Gray did not care what other people thought and truly believed himself that Sibyl Vane was a women that suites him and he was confident in his decision. The way of Oscar Wilde wrote this book was interesting because of good plot and twisted ending that made me hard to predict which is great. I loved it when this story touched about beauty and consequences if we did wrong, that was when Dorian Gray tried to kill the portrait, reflected as his soul made him killed himself.
Oscar transcends history with a strange, shadowy presence that stains the being of humankind indefinitely. This piece of writing addresses Wilde’s aesthetics in relation to his ethics. One should think that he favours the first and that he either neglects or devalues the second. Gilbert, using Wilde’s voice, reasons towards the end of a dialogue with
The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray shocked the moral judgments of British book critics. Some of them said Oscar Wilde deserved to be pursuance for breaking the laws guarding the common morality because the uses of homosexuality were in that time banned. This book was for that time unusual because it had a pretty serious criticism on the society from that time. The novel is about a young and extraordinarily beautiful youngster, named Dorian Gray that have promised to his soul in order to live a life of eternal youth, he must try to adapt himself to the bodily decay and dissipation that are shown in his portrait.
Influence in The Picture of Dorian Gray And The Book of Job The Picture of Dorian gray is a book written by Oscar Wilde and it was published in 1880. The book was later revised by addition of more chapters and reprinted in April 1891. Dorian Gray is the main character in this book that is described as a beautiful and unspoiled male who changes his life completely by sinning and pleasure after meeting Lord Henry. Basil Hallward who is a painter develops obsession for Dorian because of his beauty whereas Lord Henry Wotton Basil’s friend influences Dorian with his theories about life, pleasure and women even though he had no intention of changing Dorian’s personality. Lord Henry’s influence in Dorian leads to his downfall.
Wilde is greatly influenced by the societal movements in the Victorian Era, therefore the theme of hedonism is prominent displaying the influence of Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray and further explaining the consequences of selfishness and self-pleasure. The Aestheticism movement shockingly challenged all past standards of love, pleasure, and sexuality. Specifically this Victorian movement “promotes sexual… experimentation. ”(Burdett)
Not one blossom of his loveliness would ever fade. Not one pulse of his life would ever weaken. Like the gods of the Greeks, he would be strong, and fleet, and joyous.” (Wilde 98). Through this scene, Wilde makes it clear to the reader how corrupt Dorian’s world perspective is.
