The Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde

Dorian Gray, the protagonist of the novel, is an example of male youth and beauty. He attracts the attention of two men: a painter named Basil Hallward who creates his masterpiece in the form of Dorian, and a nobleman Lord Henry Wotton who influences Dorian to become a tenacious pleasure-seeker. Lord Henry convinces Dorian that his youth and beauty is waning and resultantly, Dorian curses his painting saying “If it were I who was to be always young and the picture was to grow old… I would give my soul for that!” (Wilde 28) This curse starts the five stages of moral regression within Dorian Gray that ultimately leads to his demise.

Furthermore, Dorian’s moral principles get progressively worse, eventually leading to the murder of Dorian’s longtime friend, Basil Hallward. Dorian acts impulsively and erratically while showing Basil the mutilated portrait, “and suddenly an uncontrollable hatred for Basil Hallward came over him” (115) spurring Dorian to stab Basil repeatedly. Due to his impulsive nature and devotion to seeking pleasure, the moment his anger took over, Dorian chose to ignore his conscience. He retains his childish behavior because he never

When Sybil’s brother returns he confronts Dorian but only to find that, “ He seemed little more than a lad of twenty summers, hardly older, if older indeed at all, than his sister had been when they had parted so many years ago” (Wilde 140) this made it seem impossible that Dorian could have killed his sister. Once again Dorian’s youth saves him from the consequences he deserves. This encounter starts to affect Dorian negatively, it brings back the memories of Sybil and all his actions. In the end of the book after doing all the corrupt things he has done, he finally becomes aware. The narrator says, “It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for. But for those two things, his life might have been free from stain. His beauty had been to him but a mask, his youth but a mockery” (Wilde 162). He finally realizes that youth is not everything and that it is not the most important thing. He realizes that it is better to be ugly and moral than it is to be beautiful and immoral. The memories flood back to him and he is overwhelmed. He looks at the painting and sees all the terrible things he has done. Then with the same knife as he killed Basil, he stabs the painting. All the ugliness from the painting transfers to Dorian and he dies, but the painting becomes

Basil Hallward and Henry Wotten are quite the opposite of each other—Basil is unwaveringly conventional in his values while Henry instead enjoys entertaining the idea of radical and inappropriate ways of thinking (on page 4, he claims that “the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary,” to which Basil responds that he “hate[s] the way [Henry] talks about his married life). Because of their profoundly contrasting ideas, they are not so much foils for each other as they are for Dorian Gray. It is by these two men that one measures Dorian’s place on the scale of morality.

Dorian comes to terms with the fact that his portrait will carry his burdens (both mental and physical), and only cares that he will be forever youthful: “Beneath its purple pall, the face painted on the canvas could grow bestial, sodden, and unclean. What did it matter? No one could see it. He himself would not see it. Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul? He kept his youth, —that was enough. And, besides, might not his nature grow finer, after all? There was no reason that the future should be so full of shame” (153). He gains eternal youth in exchange for the goodness and innocence in his soul. Where Dorian’s face never looks older than twenty years of age, his soul and the portrait are both worn down and destroyed over time. Youth and good looks fade as people age, and Dorian is getting in the way of destiny by not aging. Dorian’s regret is what kills him in the end. He is disgusted at who he has become and the life he led; if he had aged normally, his life could have been full of wonderful

As his soul “undergoes…psychic disorder” (Monsman), his fascination with the grotesqueness of his picture also grows. Watching his picture Gray “would sit…filled…with that pride…that is half the fascination of sin…smiling with secret pleasure as the misshapen shadow…” (Wilde 133). Gray becomes interested in seeing his sin come alive on canvas. This in itself represents a man who is unstable mentally, as he derives pleasure from his own image’s ruin. Eventually Dorian’s downward spiral of mental ruin leads to his death.

As the novel goes on so does Dorian's life. He begins to be under the control of Lord Henry to some degree. He also begin's to spend more time with Lord Henry, who is

“If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that -- for that -- I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!" (Wilde 30-31). After making this deal Dorian start to become a horrible person he make his girlfriend and soon to be fiance Sibyl to commit suicide after he yelled at her, he smokes cigarettes, ruins other people's lives, does drugs such as opium, and goes on to kill Basil. All of society knows that something is up with Dorian because he has never aged and still looks like he's twenty. As the years go on Dorian begins to lose his soul while still remaining young which seems similar to the state of limbo in “Inception” where you don't grow older physically but your mind and soul do. Dorian eventually goes on a downward spiral after killing Basil and sees that the painting gets ugly for every bad deed he does.. So in response he tries to do a good deed to change the painting. But when this backfires and the painting gets worst he stabs it which basically means he stabbed his soul and he ends up dying and the painting returns to normal.

Throughout the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde tells a tale about a young man named Dorian whose entire life changes after he meets Basil Hallward, who paints a portrait of Gray that ultimately leads to Gray’s demise. At the same time, Dorian also meets Lord Henry, who eventually plays a bad influence over Dorian. The portrait shows the man Dorian has become

By exchanging his spirit for his childhood, Dorian frees of the great within himself. The plot demonstrates to us that unkindness does really exist in a person. From the minute that he gets to be perpetually youthful, he starts to weaken. Indeed, even once he come to his epiphany and saw his disgust through the picture he denied seeing it and proceeded with his toxic deeds.

After Dorian murder’s Basil, Dorian begins to feel guilty and he swears he will start a new and wholesome life. Despite his efforts and his fortunate luck (James who was going to kill him died is a bizarre accident) Dorian cannot escape himself. The portrait of himself will always remind him of what he truly is inside. No matter what he does Dorian cannot escape the past or his wrong doings. This situation applies to most readers, as most people have gotten away with a sin. Although no one else knows about the wrong doing, the individual cannot escape the guilt or memory of what they have done. This is what happens to Dorian and the only way to escape his guilt is through suicide (unintentional).

Beauty and youth is a very fickle topic to most. It is highly desired and some go through somewhat unconventional means to achieve their version of beauty. But how far would one be willing to go? Even if one were to preserve their beauty for an extended period, how far would one be willing to go to prevent others from finding out their true selves? This is what Dorian Gray faces in “The Portrait of Dorian Gray.” Before seeing his portrait, Dorian was a young, pure, and beautiful boy who was very modest and would brush off the many compliments he received. But after taking in his beauty and realizing the fragility of it, he goes in a crazy rage, and wishes that the painting would be the one to grow old and ugly instead of him. His wish is granted and he is horrified as he watches himself decay through the painting. This causes a drastic change in his character and morals as he develops from an innocent boy into a sinful and wretched man.

He is infatuated with Dorian's beauty in the beginning. He appreciated Dorian's beauty but did not wish to possess it for himself. Basil exclaims, “When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale... I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.” His love for Dorian changed the way he perceived art. Basil eventually paints a portrait of Dorian to capture his beauty forever. Basil’s portrait marks a new phase in his career. Once he has painted Dorian, he fears that he has put too much of himself into the work. Basil reluctantly introduces Dorian to Lord Henry, who he fears will have a damaging influence on Dorian. He admits, “Yes, that is his name. I didn't intend to tell it to you.” Basil is later envious of the relationship between Lord Henry and Dorian. Lord Henry upsets Dorian with a speech about the transient nature of beauty and youth. Basil, wishing to protect and defect him, voices his objection to Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian. Dorian felt Basil had come to realize his true personality and that he would bring it to someones attention. Basil is murdered by Dorian. The murder of Basil marks the beginning of Dorian's end. He cannot overcome the realization that he killed his friend.

After receiving this advice Dorian soon becomes distraught over the fact that he will get older. He sees the portrait Basil Hallward has painted of him and prophetically wishes, “How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young…If only it was the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this—for this—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!” (205). When Dorian realizes the transient nature of life he decides to embrace new hedonism to the fullest, giving in to every impulse.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, a young and once innocent character, named Dorian Gray, struggles to find who is he. Self- Discovery is one of the main themes in the novel. Dorian Gray, throughout chapters 1-12, gradually loses his innocence through discovering who he is. Dorian Gray sees the painting and though everyone finds it beautiful, Dorian says it is not and wishes he would never grow old. Dorian after losing his innocence, never wants to grow old, he wants to be young forever. Young Dorian Gray takes other people’s views, especially Lord Henry’s, and makes a little more extreme, but in the process, he lost his innocence and will never be able to get it back.