The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, revolves around a young man who has his wish of eternal youth granted. His age and sins are absorbed by his portrait, while he remains youthful and physically untouched. Ultimately throwing immortality away by not living as a proper human with morals, but by sullying his soul, demonstrated by the growing hideousness of his portrait throughout his his life. Wilde by using foil characters, choice of diction to employ emotional response, and an allegory within his novel, showcases human nature’s susceptibility to corruption. Surrounding the protagonist, Dorian Gray, are two juxtaposing characters: Basil Hallward and Henry Wotton.

Oscar Wilde once wrote that, “[b]ehind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic” (Wilde LOC 88). In the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the main character, Dorian Gray, is a subject of wonder. His presence alone shape the lives of those around him for better or for worse.The development of Dorian Gray as a character throughout the novel impacts the theme that appearances can be deceptive.

In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty is depicted as the driving force in the lives of the three main characters, Dorian, Basil and Lord Henry. Dorian, the main character, believes in seizing the day. Basil, the artist, admires all that is beautiful in life. Lord Henry, accredited ones physical appearance to the ability of achieving accomplishments in life. Beauty ordains the fate of Dorian, Basil, and Lord Henry. The novel embodies the relationship of beauty and morality. Beauty is not based on how attractive an object is to everyone, but how attractive it is to one.

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.

In this novel, beauty and youth reign over everything. In Victorian period, The Picture of Dorian Gray was characterized as scandalous and immoral. Typical idealistic image of behavior and modesty inherent to old time Victorian England was discredited in the novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray contained radical ideals for the period of time it was written. Dorian represents all what was disgraceful and forbidden condemned in Victorian

In Chapter XI of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the eponymous character, Dorian, practices escapist behavior. Upon noticing his portrait changing to reflect his immoral acts, he hides the picture in his upstairs schoolroom and distracts himself with New Hedonism, the amoral lifestyle preached by Lord Henry Wotton. Chapter XI chronicles Dorian 's material pleasures over the course of eighteen years. Initially, I believed that the purpose of this cataloguing chapter was to illustrate Dorian 's escapist behavior and unhealthy coping mechanisms. The unsuspecting song "Gronlandic Edit" by Of Montreal (stylized as of Montreal), however, suggests that escapism is often accompanied by a search for a more permanent solution to one 's

Wilde’s protagonist Dorian does not command the same level of sympathy from the reader that Eugenides’ Cal does, perhaps due to Dorian’s arrogance. Whilst reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, I felt little sympathy towards the protagonist Dorian, due to his constant drug use, sinfulness and entitlement to be able to do those things without bearing the marks of evil. A group of critics have labelled this novel as a moralistic tale, warning readers against the danger of selfishness, and superficiality. Perhaps it is this quality of warning that brings Dorian less sympathy, and maybe Wilde realised that if the readers became too attached to Dorian’s antics, that the moralistic message would not have come through so strongly. Perhaps the only

At first sight, Oscar Wilde the author of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” wish to emphasize on the importance of beauty and youth from the beginning. This was illustrated on the way Dorian character has been first introduced, “In the center of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself, Basil Hallward, whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused, at the time, such public excitement, and gave rise to so many strange conjectures.” (Page 3) In this one passage Oscar Wilde was able to give Dorian character an extraordinary advantage over the other characters. “Full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty” hints to the reader that Dorian is above the other towering over people because of his extraordinary beauty. Fyodor Dostoevsky the author of “Stavrogin’s Confession” did the same when he wrote; “He hastily drank his coffee, hastily dressed himself, and

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, all meaning is subjective and reflects the narcissism of the reader. The chiasmic structures within the novel highlight the theme of reflection. They also support the mirror motif, which serves to underscore Dorian Gray’s narcissism. In recognizing his own beauty, Dorian finds pleasure in narcissism, which arises from scopophilia. This leads Dorian to fall in love with Sybil Vane, an actress who often plays androgynous roles. Further, the mirror motif connects with the self-reflection theme in the preface. However, the main message to derive from the reflection theme is that whatever meaning a reader may find in the novel is purely a reflection of him and has nothing to do with the meaning that

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.

Some of these themes - such as the extravagant lifestyle of the high class, may have left a stronger impression back in the author’s time, but manages to remain a theme that is still seen in modern day literature. Classic novels always succeed in creating timeless themes, which is something Wilde also succeeds in with Dorian Gray. Within the tale of the downwards spiral of Dorian Gray’s life, readers can see how much influence one man can bring to another, the fragility of beauty, and the questioning of the meaning of “art”. These themes are still applicable to society and its problems today, despite the novel itself being 127 years old as of this year. There is no reason why these themes should not be relevant 50 years later, as the nature of man and society fundamentally have remained the same since the beginning of

He was young and beautiful during the time period that Glenn Clifton describes that youth glorification was at its peak of envy and the elderly were viewed as unnecessary (286) and just as described, Lord Henry reveled in the youth of Dorian Gray, in his mind according to Glenn Clifton, great looks and youth were synonymous with living well (285). Dorian Gray loved his looks so much, he loved the attention that he received about something that was inert, he was born with this wonderful talent that could not be duplicated only admired and envied and talked about, his obsession with his beauty reflects the tensions in the Late Victorian conceptions of aging (Clifton 283). He had lived his entire life being at the center of attention, and when Lord Henry planted the seed of knowledge that as soon as Dorian’s looks begin to waver so would his admirers. He was so swept up by the lavish lifestyle of fame and influence that was so rampant around England during that time, although it is exaggerated in the novel, Timothy Peltason writes that Oscar Wilde’s interpretation of British society and their faults are written humorously and slyly (123). Dorian Gray had become so entitled that he does not want to age, he wants to keep his beauty, he wants the portrait that was made in his likeness to age instead of himself, he does not want to bear the ugliness of the aging process (Wilde 29). At first it works, when he pushed Sibyl Vane to suicide, when he lies and the people around him age, he remains beautiful and glorified by everyone around him, they would never suspect someone as pure and innocent looking as Dorian Gray of committing any sin of any kind, everything was working in his favor. Little did they know, that the portrait continued to get more and more hideous, the skin grew sagging and his eyes became cruel, but in the beginning nobody was the wiser, Dorian Gray’s looks deceive people, due to his innocent looks,

There is a continuous battle between good and evil forces throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde eloquently crafts the storyline as he uses self-pleasures and indulgences against purity and spiritual correctness. Through the author’s use of expressive diction, it can be shown that Dorian Gray is the focal point of the controversies throughout the story. Dorian is cast into a lifestyle with all focus on temptations and pleasures when he first meets Lord Henry. Although Basil attempts to ward off Dorian from listening to Henry’s theories on lifestyle, Dorian ultimately ends up only living for his own selfish desires.

In Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray a beautiful young man gets to stay young because a portrait receives all the signs of aging and sin. Although the portrait grows truly grotesque with the marks of sin, Dorian gets to continue on his path of immorality. Yet, when he stabs the portrait to free his conscience, he dies because he has killed the essence of who he is. In the novel, Wilde uses the ideals of conscience and beauty to reveal how affixation with one’s outward appearance will lead will to complete destruction of morality, and therefore one’s self.

Wilde also was famous for his leading of the aesthetic movement and his imprisonment for propagating homosexuality. The Picture of Dorian Gray tells a story about a degradation of a young man Dorian Gray. At the beginning, an artist Basil Hallward paints a portrait of the kind and innocent Dorian Gray and, after seeing the artwork, Lord Henry Wotton - a vain and snobbish class man - requests to meet him. Influenced by eccentric Henry Wotton’s philosophy, Dorian begins to become vain and cruel but while his external appearance remains unchanged, his appearance on the painting alters every time he commits a sin. The novel explores many issues, one of them is aestheticism - exaltation of art and beauty, leading to the eternal question - can a beautiful person be moral and a moral person be beautiful, which always have and will stir society’s curiosity. Oscar Wilde once said that "All art is quite useless" and in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he tends to juxtapose various expressions of art with the routine of Dorian Gray and a shallow life in the nineteenth century. As a tool to reveal the concept of a life at the end of the 19th century Wilde uses art of pretty - but meaningless - things used to please one’s vanity and create a mundane environment. This raises the question: what did Oscar Wilde want to imply by and how does he use art to develop the theme of morality in The Picture of Dorian Gray? It was impossible to avoid art in any of its expressions (parties, theatre, clothes, etc.) in even the most regular lives in the 19th century and of course it influenced the way of thinking, created the social status and the image of oneself, so, after all, art had a huge impact on the individuals of the 19th century. And, as often beauty does, art encourages greed and vanity, which Oscar Wilde demonstrates through the usage of art in the novel.