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The Picture Of Dorian Gray Research Paper

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“All art is quite useless.” In the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde uses the principles of art to convey the essential themes within the preface and the story itself. The concern of the true value of art and the essential motives it has on its audiences, is crucial to the character development within the story. Wilde exercises principles of the aesthetic movement and hedonistic ideals to reveal their dark influences, contingencies, and repercussions on society. In the aesthetic movement, a division between art and life was imposed to prohibit the interference of moral value. Wilde effectively, in contradistinction of polarity, juxtaposes aesthetic beauty ideals and realist’s views concerning morality Embracing aestheticism and imitating its respective principals, Dorian Gray exists as the archetype of youthful vigor and virginal beauty, but ultimately finds that employing such unscrupulous ideals has its consequences. In the beginning of the novel, Dorian Gray is shown as a notably handsome and innocent individual. The other main characters, Basil and Lord Henry, are captivated by his beauty. This exemplifies one of the books central themes, superficialness. Basil is remarkably moved by Dorian’s appearance and decides to paint a portrait of him. Lord Henry see’s Dorian as a pure and untouched individual for which he …show more content…

Throughout the novel, there are various instances where the readers see his virtue shine through the evil. At times, he becomes not only concerned about preserving his outside physicality but also his inner good. He questions whether or not he could be forgiven for his corrupt actions and concluded that atonement was impossible. The only way he could move on was by forgetting what he had done. The ongoing pursuit of pleasures led him to a unyielding and uncivilized state.The ambiguity and perplexity Wilde creates acts to enhance the fatality of Dorian’s

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Once Dorian kills Basil, he adds to the heinous crime by blackmailing his friend, Alan Campbell, into disposing of his body. Conversely, for levity from the terrible horrors he commits and to relive his soul, Dorian buys flowers symbolizing ephemeral beauty and the purity that comes with it, comparative to Dorian’s lasting beauty and ugliness of his soul due to the atrocities he has committed. Moreover, Dorian, the epitome of hedonism and aestheticism, kills Basil, the pinnacle of Victorian ideals and norms, stressing the novel's (and Wilde’s) defiance of standard views and

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Right at the start of the story Basil Hallward, who is somewhat obsessive over the young and beautiful Dorian Gray, decides to paint a portrait in his praise. Unbeknownst to Basil, Dorian had been speaking to Lord

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Lee Ho-Chul’s short story, “The Deputy Mayor Does Not Go to Take Up His Appointment”, depicts Kyu-ho’s conflict with Korea’s authoritarian government in a humorous light. His struggles effectively demonstrate Bergson’s theory of the conflict between one’s body and one’s soul to an extreme. Bergson describes the relationship between body and soul as the soul being “tantalized by the needs of the body” (Bergson 17b). In other words, the soul, or one’s mind or true being, is thought of as pure, perfected, and graceful, however, it is often restricted to the imperfections and clumsiness of the actual physical body. This restriction and incongruity between the soul and body creates a ridiculous and humorous effect.

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The researcher decides Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned to be the objects of the study on inferiority and superiority complex causing hedonistic lifestyle in main character. The first reason, both of literary works cover the changing of each life of the main character, society and ultimately the individual. Second, they both share the same social background of the main character in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian, displays a well-respected young man. He doesn’t recognize his own beauty until he sees it reflected in Basil’s portrait, and, once he does, it’s all too late. While Anthony in The Beautiful and Damned is illustrates reaching pleasure as the lifestyle and it becomes a habit.

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Dorian is a young man who is not yet fully formed in his thinking and has a very handsome appearance. Basil is instantly taken with him and finds that he wants Dorian all to himself. The way Basil influences Dorian isn 't through words but rather through his actions. He idolizes him.

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Dorian Gray is a handsome, narcissistic young man enthralled by Lord Henry 's new enjoyment. He satisfies in every pleasure of moral and immoral life ultimately heads to death. Henry tells

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As soon as Dorian enters in Chapter 2 of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wildes’ one and only novel, its is evident that there will be a battle between who will have the most influence on his pure, untouched soul. Basil Hallward, a painter and worshipper of art is an optimist and sees only the good in even the wickedest of people, such as Lord Henry. Lord Henry is a charming, self-indulgent aristocrat that shapes and molds Dorian to lead a life devoted to pleasure. Both Basil and Lord Henry represent two important opposing forces in the novel, good and evil. The greatest struggle in The Picture of Dorian Gray is inside Dorian; he himself embodies both pure good and pure evil.

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Lord Henry’s painting showed Dorian the reality of life and all the sins he had committed. With the picture, Dorian destroyed it plus his own life because he could not bear the fact that his beauty was going to fade. In addition, Henry influences Dorian by manipulating him because; he carries on with his idea of remaining youthful. This is evident when he says, "To get back to my youth, I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable" (Liebman 300). Lord Henry had everything to do with Dorian’s obsession of wanting to remain young especially with the picture and his philosophy.

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From the beginning of the novel we get to see a model of poor and unconventional morality, Lord Henry Wotton, a man who is moved by an ethic current called “New Hedonism” which taking into account society’s ethics (specially the ones from the Victorian Era) is quite immoral. The New Hedonism basically consists in looking for the individual’s best comfort, pleasure and happiness (based on beauty), leaving aside the other’s comfort and what should be morally done. This character with poor morality is who guides the book’s main character Dorian Gray along his adventure. However, it is vital to take into account the fact that Dorian Gray is never forced to follow New Hedonism and that Wilde never influences or invites the reader to follow New Hedonist

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Another theme illustrated through Wilde’s use of motifs and symbols is the theme of superficiality. The theme of superficiality can be understood as a sense of the superficial view of outer beauty that is shown in the work. It relates to the concept of remaining young, which is an important factor of what is shown in the novel. This is an important part of the novel because outer beauty plays a bigger role for Dorian, than inner beauty does. In the beginning of the novel, Lord Henry and Dorian have a conversation that focuses on the topic of youth and Dorian 's outer beauty – Lord Henry mentions the fact that Dorian has a beautiful face, and later during this conversation, Lord Henry states that: “youth is the only thing worth having…”

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As a writer one is greatly influenced by their personal experiences with social, historical, and cultural context within their specific time period. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was shaped by the aspects of the world around him. The themes of the text are are influenced by morality in the Victorian Era. Throughout the Victorian Era a deeper movement was also prominent in London called Aestheticism. Aestheticism is the worship of beauty and self-fulfillment.

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“” At least you are like it in appearance. But it will never alter,” sighed Hallward. “that is something.”” (Wilde 33) The reader begins to perceive that Dorian is both intrigued and disgusted by the never changing portrait of his innocence.

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Relatively all authors are very fond of creating an underlying message to criticize society. Authors do this through social commentary. The book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is no exception. The author, Oscar Wilde, criticizes the upper class through the consistent underlying idea that people are often deceived by one's beauty and are unable to understand the poison that fills the world is corrupting it. From the beginning of this book, the social commentary towards the upper class begins with the structure of the novel.

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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.

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