The Picture Of Dorian Gray Research Paper

“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”

Oscar Wilde has only one novel by the title “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. It is the story of a beautiful but shallow young man, Dorian Gray, who’s immensely afraid to lose his beauty. His fear is because the society he lives in judges people very harshly by their looks and Dorian is adamant about retaining his beauty. Hence, the story of a man succumbing to his pride begins. He has two influences in his life: Basil Hallward, the angel and Lord Henry Wotten, the devil. Oscar Wilde’s preface is a philosophical discussion on art, that ends in, “All art is quite useless.” The themes in this novel include the Faustian legend, the duality of man’s nature, innocence, sins and

His love of Dorian was very obvious in each brush stroke. And because of that he captures Dorian soul in the painting too and so when Dorian utters a Faustian proposition and makes the wish that his portrait will age in replacement, the devil was able to take heed. It is also interesting that the events that take place follows what the artist says and it may seem that while it may be Dorian who sold his soul but it was Basil who ultimately cursed

Dorian shows Basil the hideous portrait which reflects Dorian’s sinful nature. Basil, sees the portrait and is alarmed at Dorian’s lewd ways, urges him to change. This once again shows just how important Basil is to this story. It is as though he was writing Dorion's story because had Dorion start to atone to his sins and changed his lifestyle, as Basil begged for him to do, he would have very would have survived. But failing to heed those advice ended up causing Dorian to commit the ultimate sin and kill his friend, Basil. After that Dorian's demise was inevitable. He attempts to destroy the painting and stabs it with the knife he used to kill. But in that attempt he ultimately ends up destroying himself and the picture returns to its original beautiful state. His greatest desire and pride became his ultimate