More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays of the Picture of Dorian Gray
Critical study of the picture of dorian gray
Essays of the Picture of Dorian Gray
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
According to Esther Rashkin who wrote “Art as Symptom: A Portrait of Child Abuse in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.”, Dorian Gray is the main victim of child abuse. She argues that Lord Henry is not the one that abuses Dorian by influencing him and forcing his ideas on him and that Lord Kelso is actually the person behind Dorian’s mental issues. However, she does think that Lord Henry was a catalyst that “awakened influences already present within Dorian” (Rashkin 69). Esther believes that Lord Henry merely resurfaced his childhood memories which traumatized him greatly and that Lord Kelso made Dorian who he truly is. Because Dorian was mistreated by Kelso, he leaves the portrait in the old schoolroom which he was imprisoned as a child.
If he were to have Dorian’s handsome stature with his own intelligence and kindness, the creation would resemble a positive figure, but that was not the point of Shelley’s and Wilde’s argument. They propose that people should look beyond a pretty face or an ugly one to truly see the man
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic late-Victorian gothic novel by Oscar Wilde about the corruption and downfall of the titular character, Dorian Gray. Dorian begins the novel as a completely innocent soul. Basil Hallward, an artist, is enraptured by Dorian’s purity and sets about painting a portrait of him that captures the young man’s perfection. That is until Dorian meets Hallward’s friend Lord Henry Wotton during a painting session. Wotton is also taken by Dorian’s beauty and espouses his hedonistic life motto, “Live!
The greatest philosophers of our time would have you believe that everything that exists within our world is imperfect. Socrates and Plato believed that this carnet world was one that existed as a representation of a more perfect spiritual world. Boethius saw this perfect spiritual form as the presence or the essence of God (The Consolation of Philosophy). Nothing that exist in our world could ever be more beautiful, more perfect than God right? In The Picture of Dorian Gray, we are not challenged by the idea of what is and what is not beautiful, instead we are presented with a moral dilemma.
In “The picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde Dorian is described to have an attraction to the Roman Catholic ritual. He most admires Catholic Communion and the vibes and emotions he gets from being there. Dorian loved the aspects of the everyday rituals of the catholic church. On Pg.97 line one it states “He loved to kneel down on the cold marble pavement, and watch the priest.” Despite Dorian admiration for the Catholic religion it seems as if, he wanted the benefits of being a part of the catholic church but not the sacrifices that come along with it.
The idealization of youth is reflected into Salinger and Wilde’s respective protagonists. Although this flaming desire connotes differently for the characters, they both have a strong admiration for youth consequently manifesting into a deep fear of losing it, by either becoming phony, as Salinger suggests, or losing the only thing worth having , the beauty of youth, as Lord Henry is made to think. Wilde portrays Dorian as initially clueless of the dimension of his own beauty only awakened by the portrait. For instance: “The sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation (…) Yes, there would be a day his face is wrinkled and wizen, his eyes dim and colorless, the grace of his figure broken and deformed.”
The novel The Picture of Dorian Grey, was a very effective novel due to the fact that its main focus addresses something that our society is very familiar with today. For example, the main focus of this novel is about how some individuals in or world today often become so absorbed with their own well being, that they forget to take into account the feelings of others and the consequences of their actions. For example, in the novel the main character Dorian, becomes so inflautuacted with his appearance and his youth, that he chooses to stay young forever. As a result of Dorian being able to stay young forever, he chooses to do anything and everything his heart desires because his body won’t age as a result of it. This leads Dorian into a dangerous
In a Picture of Dorian Gray the soul is personified to the extent that it becomes more real than Dorian himself to some extent becoming his other self. Dorian ’s relationship with his double, the painting, changes through
The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of America’s well-known literature. It is considered to be a great classic novel that was written by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde first introduced his novel in July of 1890. When I was deciding on which novel to pick for this assignment, I researched different types of classic literature. The picture of Dorian Gray caught my attention right away because of its unique storyline.
When published, The picture of Dorian Gray was criticized and addressed as an immoral book. It was published during the Victorian Era which was a period of time in Britain in which the religion beliefs were strict and morality was a big part of society. Good manners and moral actions were extremely important during this time and people were judgemental when they were not applied. When published, it was judged by critics. Wilde was tagged as an immoral author.
London is a commonly utilized backdrop for novels, plays and films. The monuments make for stunning backgrounds in modern cinematography while the history and character of the city add meaning and symbolism to a number of works and the works, in turn, contribute to the reputation of London. In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian is a beautiful young man with an increasingly corrupted soul as he is seduced by the city. The story of his decay takes place in two famous parts of London - the West End, known for its wealth and opulence and the East End, better known for its poverty and opium. The two sides of the city mirror the two sides of Dorian himself.
It is exactly in the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray, that Wilde, defending himself from the critiques that the book received after its first publication, writes: “Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself” (Wilde VII). The same contradictions and debates mentioned in Shelley’s case, can easily be found regarding Wilde’s work. The professor Nils Clausson states that “Dorian Gray has always provoked contradictory interpretations, but underlying the disagreements about the work 's meaning there has persisted a more fundamental debate about what kind of novel it should be read as” (Clausson 1). The Picture of Dorian Gray is, indeed, a very controversial romance, which has been reinterpreted multiple times.
Dorian's callous rejection and the subsequent tragedy become a turning point in the novel, marking the beginning of Dorian's descent into moral decay and the realization of the consequences of his actions. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" remains relevant today due to its exploration of themes such as the pursuit of pleasure, the consequences of vanity and hedonism, the conflict between appearance and reality, and the corrupting influence of
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.
One of the most significant themes in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is society’s reliance on outward appearances and superficial values. The portrait in which Basil Hallward paints for his dear friend Dorian is the physical representation of vanity, ultimately depicting the consequences of leading a life of excessive egotism and greed. Although the core message behind the painting remains the same throughout the entire novel, its impact in regards to the protagonist’s character as a whole alters several times as his personality continuously transforms. When Dorian’s soul distorts, so does the portrait in response to his progressive moral decline.
