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The Picture Of Dorian Gray Research Paper

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a novel that heavily symbolizes the worship of youth and beauty. Dorian Gray was a young beautiful man who had his portrait painted by artist Basil Hallward, representing that Dorian will only remain youthful only for a short period of time, while the painting is eternally young. Dorian is somewhat unable to accept this, and he pursues a hyper-hedonistic lifestyle, not caring about whether the means to achieve this are moral or immoral. This pursuit leads Dorian down a major slippery slope, where his portrait becomes more grotesque and hideos as his sins grows. Many cultures around the world including the United States idolizes physical beauty on varying degrees. Within America, it is very apparent that the beauty of youth is flaunted on many platforms, from high billboards to television commercials. One case of this in American television is the advertisement of lotion company Avon, claiming that their product will restore skin to a “younger age” and “make you look ten years younger just after 24 hours.” Models in the commercial are composed of not older women who have youthful skin, but young women in their mid to late 20’s with glamorous skin. This is represented in the novel with Dorian who does not want to accept that he will age and lose his attractiveness. There must be a large psychology with Americans who want to prolong their “youth” for as long as they can for these beauty product industries to remain so successful. …show more content…

This phenomenon defines beauty for a person to be more on the inside, and to become more acceptable of those who are less attractive by not shaming them for that. However this resistance is only in its early stages and doesn’t appear to to have made a wide scale

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The portrait symbolized Dorian’s soul, a yellow book to show the effect that Lord Henry has on Dorian, and a laburnum to symbolize how Dorian was poisonous to many people. The portrait that Basil Hallward drew of Dorian Gray was significant, it was a mirror to Dorian’s soul. In the beginning, there is a slight change in the portrait, Dorian’s “expression

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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.

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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.

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Chapter 16 Chapter sixteen of The Portrait of Dorian Gray begins with Dorian visiting an opium den. While there, Dorian thinks about all of the life choices he has made so far. All of the "rumors" appear to be getting to him. Just as he was leaving the den he is confronted by a man, James Vane. This man is holding Dorian hostage at gunpoint threatening to kill him for wronging his sister, Sibyl Vane.

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899 Words | 4 Pages

The motifs in the novel The Picture Of Dorian Gray create a recurring idea to emphasize the immorality present throughout the novel. This is done through motifs of religion, pastiche and reflections. The reference to biblical and mythology literature add a more dramatic sense to the immorality in the novel. Religion acts as a descriptor to the phenomenon to provide a more realistic explanation that ties in with his gothic theme. It aids in emphasizing the morality in the novel as religions are typically the sources that influence morals in society.

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286 Words | 2 Pages

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

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443 Words | 2 Pages

In today’s society, there is often told of stories of teenagers who commit suicide, and with that comes a revelation about that person’s life and why they chose to take their life so suddenly and abrupt. Stereotypically it comes with a moral along the lines of they were bullied to the point where they believed that there was no sign of resolutions. Death is present in the most famous tragedies, such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, from which there is an extreme conclusion to be able to decipher the true theme about it. In Wilde’s The Picture of Dorain Grey, there is a vivid death scene that puts all of the pieces of the puzzle together in one short instance. Basically what happens in the end of the novel, Dorian Gray takes his own life by stabling a knife through a portrait.

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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.

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What is most significant about Dorian Gray is his process of corruption. He sleeps with other men and leaves them with only suffering, as said by Basil Hallward "You have filled them with madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You

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Before he dismissed the compliments made by both Basil and Lord Henry as mere niceties, but now he projects them at the portrait and understands why the compliments were given in the first place. By objectifying Dorian as a work of art and appropriating his looks on the canvas, Basil sparked Dorian’s narcissism. Dorian cannot help but feel forever captivated by his own beauty, much like he captivated Basil with it, and now dreads the temporality of beauty. His beauty will not remain forever for one day he shall grow “old, and horrible, and dreadful” (Wilde 27-28).

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A youthful, special personality lies in the heart of a man that inspires a painter’s best work. This nature is intricate, kind, pure, and a wonderful focus for portraits and paintings alike. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, a close friend tragically robs this youth and leads the man to a life that terminates because of evil. Gray, the corrupt man of interest in Oscar Wilde’s novel, has a complex personality, giving him many different companions in the story. Fatefully, he meets the artist Basil at a party due to Basil’s interest in his friend’s striking and mysterious identity.

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In the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Dorian can be seen as a modern day narcissus. The whole novel portrays characteristics from the Greek mythological story about Narcissus and his love for himself. Dorian and Narcissus can be seen in the same way, for they both have narcissistic personalities. Their personalities is what carry the plot throughout the two stories and have such an impact on what happens. The Picture of Dorian Gray and the tale of Narcissus both show the common plot of a young male being in love with himself, which in the end, results in the tragedy of the two stories.

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854 Words | 4 Pages

In the early 18th century a new genre of fiction prose, named "Gothic Novel" was introduced. The term ”Gothic” used to refer to the German tribe of the Goths, and later on signified ”Germanic”, then ”medieval”. The Gothic novel spread over the 19th century and had the popular theme of haunted places such as castles, crypts, gloomy mansions and convents; supernatural elements having the role to intensify the atmosphere.

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1509 Words | 7 Pages

The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin,Ireland on October 16, 1854. He was educated in Trinity College in Dublin and Magdalen College. He married in 1884 with Constance Lloyd. Wilde published his only novel which is The Picture Of Dorian Gray ‘s 1st edition in 1890.Critics found that novel scandalous and immoral after that critic Oscar Wilde revised the novel in 1891 and he add six new chapter into novel . Wilde represent his philosophic and artistic ideas on the second edition of book and also that edition includes some part of Wilde’s real life such as Basil Hallwar’s emotinal feelings for Dorian Gray .Oscar

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Topic: Oscar Wilde uses symbolism to embody the differences in social classes in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (pages 100-101) Oscar Wilde promotes the inevitable contrast of the three social classes (lower class, bourgeoisie and aristocracy) through his novel, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, by utilizing symbolism[a]. Throughout the novel, this recurring theme is expressed by Wilde through the actions and expressions of his fictional characters. Fixating on the first two pages of chapter 10, the motif is exemplified through three characters; Dorian, Victor (Dorian’s servant), and Mrs. Leaf (Dorian’s housekeeper). The diversity of the social assortments is undoubtedly depicted within the contents of the initial paragraph itself.

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