Gender Trouble in Paris Essay

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

He admits to Lord Henry that he goes nightly to her plays but does not truly love Sibyl, he loves the feeling of pleasure he gets from his obsession. He idolized her and calls her sacred but does not value her as a person. When asked by Harry, “When is she Sibyl Vane?” Dorian replies, “Never” (Wilde,54). This is the beginnings of Dorian’s ability to place his own pleasure above others and Dorian has immediately lost himself in this pleasure. “What there was in it of purely sensuous instinct of boyhood had been transformed by the workings of the imagination, changed into something that seemed to the lad himself dangerous. It was the passions about whose origin we deceived ourselves that tyrannized most strongly over us” (Wilde,58). The danger of Dorian’s blind obsession is shown with Sibyl’s suicide. His obsession led to the death of one person as well as the first signs of his own worsening soul. After this experience pleasure is no longer a form of love for Dorian, but rather a detachment from reality. While talking with Basil over breakfast Dorian shows he does not place the same value in emotions as he had done before. “A man who is the master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them” (Wilde,105). In contrast to the emotional obsession with Sibyl, Dorian next becomes obsessed with his portrait and a book. Both are means to

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde is able to show how possessions can change a man so drastically. Over the course of the book the readers examine how many items such as the painting, the yellow book and much more, shape and alter Dorian from being outgoing, likable, and overall good to secluded, manipulative and most of all deceitful. Dorian gray has many motives for being deceitful that help develop the characters, and change the way they interact with each other.

Much of the criticism regarding The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde has dealt with Dorian Gray’s relation to his own portrait (Raby 392). While some may argue that the portrait represents a reflection of Dorian Gray’s character, this is only a superficial analysis of the novel and Dorian’s character. While Dorian Gray’s true character never changes, it is his own perception of his character (his conscience) that is reflected in the changing face of his portrait. In essence Dorian’s picture becomes a mirror through which the "true Dorian" judges his own metamorphasis as the superficial "Lord Henry Dorian" attempts to embrace Lord Henry’s teachings. Dorian’s

Reema Amin 6th Foster AP Jr. English 8/24/14 In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, language resources are found in abundance when forming moods in a variety of passages. Wilde employs many of these resources in chapter 16, when Dorian decides to go to an opium den in an unsafe area, late at night. By using alliteration, imagery, syntax, and diction, a mood of eeriness and ominousness is easily represented in the passage that describes Dorian’s trip to the opium den.

Judith Butler’s essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” calls for a new way to view sex and gender. Butler argues that “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo”. In this case, gender is not constituted by what one is, but rather what one does; the performative acts constitute gender. In other words, gender is not the starting place; it is an identity repeatedly constructed throughout time. Butler is trying to show us a feminist perspective of sex and gender. She attempts to follow Beauvoir’s path in a fight against society norms.

In chapters 11 and 12 of Oscar Wilde’s, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, the element of gothicism, hedonism, characterisation, and several literary devices are explored through the use of narrative style and conventions. Through these aspects of the text, it allows for Wilde to shape the reader's’ perception and response, effectively enabling them to engage with the novel. The narrator of the novel plays a major role in portraying the current psychological state of Dorian, which then constructs the audience’s judgement of Dorian and his morally incorrect actions. The narrator implies that the yellow book is the one of the primary causes of Dorian’s behaviour, “For years, Dorian could not free himself from the influence of the book.”

Gender subjectivity is another important aspect of the debate around gender because it focuses on a move away from the idea of innate sexual identity characteristics that divide human beings into male and female (Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014). This type of view challenges the essentialism of sexual difference into something more then a binary between male vs. female, heterosexual vs. homosexual, etc., as it recognizes that these dichotomies are problematic because the term of gender encompasses a whole range of identities across a spectrum. In particular ideas like what does it mean to be equal? (Butler) and seeing division of gender into binary conceptions of identity can be seen as a process of ‘othering’ (de Beauvoir) are some of the areas that this topic examines.

Judith Butler questions the belief that behaviors of either sex are natural. She proposes a rather radical theory that gender is performative and that sex is constructed. When gender is being performed, it means that someone would take on a role, acting in such a way that gives society the idea of their gender and constructs part of their identity. To be performative means that we produce a series of effects.Gender is constructed and is not in any way connected ‘naturally’ to sex.

Dorian Gray falls in love with a young girl named Sibyl Vane, who he describes as being “hardly seventeen years of age, with a little flower-like face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark brown hair, [and] eyes that were violet wells of passion.” (46) He does not continue on to describe her personality, just more about her features, her voice, and her acting. He gets to a point at the end of his description where he proclaims, “She is everything to me in life.” (47) Everything to Dorian must have been nothing because Sibyl plays her role well. Whatever it may be that has caused her to be flighty and naive, be it poverty, immaturity, or ignorance, that was who she was.

In chapter 20 of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Dorian reflects on his past crimes and wonders whether he will ever change and retrieve his innocence again. Throughout the final chapter of the novel, the elements of Gothic novel that Wilde explores conveys the idea of the pursuit of individualism. Dorian’s wild, racing emotions clearly show how much he is driven by his readiness to fulfill his desires under any circumstance. Through this, the use of specific words and punctuation markings highlight Dorian’s personal yearning of removing himself from his past.

Dorian Gray's life is dictated by his physical appeal. His beauty lies within his youth. Dorian's perception of beauty allows him to love. He is

The textbook identifies four approaches to gender development: biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical. Define each theory. Then answer the following question: which of the theoretical approaches to gender do you find the most valid? Be sure to include at least two examples from your own experience as well as two scholarly sources to back up your claim.

Her essay deals with the conceptual presence of gender within society that functions as the primary element in expected behavioral roles. Drawing upon previous philosophic and psychoanalytic thought, Butler espouses a theory rooted in the concept of social agents that "constitute social reality through language, gesture, and all matter of symbolic social sign." (Butler 270) Butler asserts that gender is not based on an internal identity or self-definition, but rather on perceptory, reflective notions of performances. Gender itself, in its unstable temporality, is defined by Butler to be "an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts"--an ephemeral performance from which social constructs are formed. (Butler 270) In this analysis, Butler establishes the notion of gender as an abstracted, mass perception which is rendered concrete by the fact of its common acceptance. It is a shared reality of the public, it's existence is a consequence of society's mutual acknowledgment. In this light, Butler describes the concept as being purely temporal--the appearance and perception of gender constitutes its reality. As a result, the examination of gender construction is the examination of its performative, perception-based manifestation. Upon breaching the collective assumption of the actuality of gender, its mutual acceptability is undermined, rendered unstable, and therefore, non-existent.

Therе arе mаny wаys in which tо exаmine the cоncept оf gеnder. Mаny pеоplе simplу detеrmine gеnder as a divisiоn intо mаle аnd femаle but it becоmеs mоre difficult with theоry. In Judith Butler’s Performative Acts and Gender Constitution she says that gender is an act that is repeаted, reеnacted and re-еxperienced (Butler, 1988:906). It is a performance that is impоsed to individuаls by mаny outsidе sоurces thrоughout histоry such as the sоciety. She аlso аdds that sоciety mоlds us into how we view “men” and “women” shоuld act or behavе. We wеre raised to behаve in cеrtain wаys that оur pаrent’s beliеve were traits of a prоper lаdy or a gentlemаn becаuse they too, were rаised with the same understаndings.