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The Picture Of Dorian Gray Research Paper

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“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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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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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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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Each new topic of study lets Dorian deeper into the sins he has committed, making him less inclined to change his views on life. This lack of care on Dorian’s part for his actions allow his progression to gear him towards his destruction, specifically the destruction of his

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These three main characters had different personality that made the story more interesting. Dorian Gray was full of himself wishing to remain in youth, in return, he was willing to sacrifice his own soul and unfortunately his wish came true. Thus, this makes Dorian Gray commit all the sins he wants and only the portrait got affected as he become immortal and not aging, not a single wrinkle in his face. Second character is Lord Henry which was Basil’s friend when Dorian Gray first met him. Lord Henry enthralled Dorian Gray with his world view, which was an extreme hedonism form as he assumed that the only worthwhile life of a person spent was by pursuing beauty and satisfaction for the senses.

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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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Basil attempts desperately to lead Dorian to decency, to hold onto the perfect image of Dorian, being the one and only force of goodness in his life. He cannot accept the reality of Dorian’s actions after being influenced by Lord Henry. Basil’s good nature can be seen through the fact that he never loses faith that Dorian can change his ways and become the innocent, naïve boy he once painted and loved unconditionally. This goodness backfires after Dorian kills Basil. He had reached a point in his life in which he had lost his consciences and his corruption was out of control.

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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.

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But, taking into account all of Wilde’s arguments to defend the book, one must understand that this book isn’t looking to have a moral impact, but instead to free art from morality and social punishment, making society understand what aestheticism really is. Therefore, this book is neither moral nor

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At this point, Dorian begins to acquire the indication to switch souls with the painting, in order to Boyett 2 maintain an innocent complex. The beginning of the soul switch did not cause any harm, his minute cruelty led to small lines on his portrait’s face, while not allowing any signs on his own self. Realizing the soul switching was successful,

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The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of Oscar Wilde’s masterpieces, portrays one of the most important values and principles for him: aestheticism. As a criticism to the life lived during the Victorian era in England, Wilde exposed a world of beauty a freedom in contradiction to the lack of tolerance a limitation of that era; of course inspired due to Wilde’s personal life. All the restrictions of the Victorian England lead him to a sort of anarchism against what he found to be incoherent rules, and he expressed all this to his art. His literature is a strong, political and social criticism. He gave a different point of view to controversial topics such as life, morality, values, art, sexuality, marriage, and many others, and epigrams, for what he is very well known, where the main source to the exposure of his interpretations of this topic.

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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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Basil has come to ask Dorian about all the horrible rumors surrounding him, and hopes they turn out false. Basil also asks about the portrait and why Dorian hides it, so Dorian decides to show him his “to see your soul. But only God can do that—you shall see it yourself to-night!”. Dorian then takes Basil to see his picture, which at first cannot be recognized by Basil, but soon he realizes the true horror of the situation, “an exclamation of horror broke out from the painter’s lips as he saw in the dim light the hideous face on the canvas grinning at him” (Wilde 113). Dorians soul has become rotten to the core with selfishness and pleasure, mainly because of Lord Henry’s poisonous words.

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As years pass the picture ages like a real person would age, but it not only grows older, but uglier because of his actions. The picture is the mirror of Dorian 's soul, as he commits terrible actions the picture becomes

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Early in the novel, the reader gets the impression that the painting is pervaded by the longing for the youth that one has lost as well as the frightening deficiency of human life. In chapter eight this painting is described as: “the most magical of mirrors.” (Wilde 98). The portrait works

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