The Picture Of Dorian Gray Essay

Aestheticism is a philosophy in which its followers practice complete self-indulgence. Aesthetic principles teach that the arts, beauty, and youth are absolute over anything else. People who follow this philosophy are very egotistical, and are extremely concerned with appearances. It is often associated with jewelry, painting, music, and perfumes. (insert quote to prove) All followers of Aestheticism put activities pertaining to beauty above anything else. Their priorities hold beauty above attributes such as kindness, morality, and intelligence. Hedonism is a practice that is very similar. Followers of the philosophy of Hedonism conclude that pleasure is the most important aspect of life. In the picture of Dorian Gray, Aestheticism and

Oscar Wilde's novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", presented many themes. One such theme is the idea of doubleness. Oscar Wilde used this as a technique to link his characters and ideas. While doubleness is shown in many aspects of the novel, the most obvious and most important presence of it is the parallel between the main character, Dorian, and his self-portrait. This bond between Dorian and his picture is crucial to the understanding of the novel. Dorian and the picture are in a sense one character acting as two.

Hamlet, Frankenstein and Dorian Gray are all protagonists who grapple with the juxtaposition of morality and the values which are outlined by their respective eras as ‘reason’. Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, for example, is a character consumed by the conflict between the aesthetic values that were intrinsic to the Fin de Siècle, and morality. Indeed, aestheticism offers no distinction between moral and immoral acts, tending explicitly to the pursuit of pleasure. This is demonstrated in Dorian’s superficial relationship with Sibyl Vane. Dorian’s description of his infatuation with Sibyl, ‘I loved you because you were marvellous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realised the dreams of great poets

After countless hours of meticulously replicating the handsome man on the pedestal with delicate brushstrokes, Basil Hallward completes yet another exceptional portrait. Dorian Gray’s first glance at the masterpiece leaves him vacant and speechless. The disheartened painter interprets this silence to be disappointment, but in actuality, Dorian’s mind is flourishing with sinister thoughts of envy and detestation toward the everlasting youth the painting possesses. As the

Artists of any art form tend to use real life experiences as their muse. Oscar Wilde was no exception. In creating the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde used his experience of sitting in on a painting session, done by a Basil Ward. He then proceeded to comment on how it would be amazing if the painting aged while the subject of the painting did not. Throughout the novel, we notice this kind of lifestyle being lived out by Dorian and Lord Henry, but we also see how Dorian handles his conscience based on his actions. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel that, while it has its controversies over what its purpose is, is a novel that “can function as an appropriate text for a wide variety of classes” (Waldrep; Smith II 53). Despite what Wilde believed, practiced, and even the preface of the novel, Wilde wrote this novel as a lesson on morality.

The novel’s contrasting settings portray a gulf between social classes in Victorian society. How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of The Picture of Dorian Gray?

The greatest heartbreak is caused by people who we look up to and appear to be the most harmless. Ever since we were young, our parents always taught us to stay away from strangers and avoid people who appear to us as scary or unusual. Within these aspects of danger, it is implied that true terror is caused by individuals whose appearance are different and out of the ordinary. The opposite of this theory occurs in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, written by Oscar Wilde. The protagonist goes by the name of Dorian Gray, and is portrayed as being the most charming man who represents youth. An important feature of Dorian is the fact that he never ages throughout the novel. Dorian uses this feature to his advantage in many instances by tricking

Sibyl Vane plays a symbolic role in The Picture of Dorian Gray; moreover, she plays a symbolic role in Dorian Gray’s life. This essay will explore how Sybil’s character initially influences Dorian in a positive way, giving him the motive to turn away from decadence but subsequently brings about his downfall. Recurring themes will be discussed such as the aesthetic and references will be given to show examples of Sybil’s symbolic role in his life. A summary will follow, giving a brief synopsis concluding the essays arguments.

In the “Picture of Dorian Gray”, Oscar Wilde prefaces his only novel by examining the value of art and the artist. After a short examination, Wilde concludes that “All art is quite useless” (Wilde, 2), contradicting the principles of the Aesthetic Movement, a contemporary to Wilde and Dorian Gray, that became popular during the fin-de-siècle English Victorian society. Aestheticism believes in imitating art and living life experiencing the pleasures of the world, adopting the hedonistic way of living. A few pages into “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, aesthetics becomes a prominent theme as shown by both the artist Basil Hayward, who uses beauty to inspire his art, and Lord Henry Wotton who praises the aesthetic philosophy murmuring to Dorian that “youth is the one thing worth having.” (Wilde, 24). This seemingly useless sentence holds the crux of the story, as it creates the atmosphere for the revealing of the painting of Dorian Gray which alter the rest of his life. Lord Henry’s aesthetic philosophy critically damage Dorian as up until this point he has lived an ethical life, but soon becomes influenced by Lord Henry’s philosophy that “we never get back our youth” (Wilde, 25) and thus becomes afraid of aging. This fear of ageing causes Dorian Gray to plead with dark forces to never grow old but instead be given the opportunity to retain his youth while the painting ages, admitting that for an opportunity like that that “there is nothing in the world [he] would not give! [He]

The film (2009) started with Dorian killing Basil. Dorian was a young French man who went to London after the death of his grandfather because he was the sole heir. Dorian was good looking maybe, too good looking that he captured the imagination of the painter, Basil. Now, in the film, it seemed that Basil doesn’t look half as what the book describes. The book says that he was rugged but in the film he seemed to be as if a ladies’ man and very well groomed. He even introduced Dorian to Henry at the party which is not true in the book. There was also an underlying affection and fixation for the part of the painter towards Dorian. In the film, it was interpreted as love and lust.

A murder has been committed. The accused enters the court room with an explanation at the ready; “the book made me do it”. There is no jury in the country that would believe that. A perfectly sane man could not commit such an appalling crime simply as a result of reading some words on a page. Books do not have that much control on a person’s life. They cannot dictate a person’s actions.

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, a young man by the name of Dorian Gray unknowingly wishes his portrait to take the place of his soul, aging and suffering for him. By the time he realizes this, he is already beginning a dark path. As time passes and Dorian continues to live his life only for pleasure, the once beautiful portrait of him ages and becomes disfigured, mirroring his selfish decisions. Ultimately, his portrait is his undoing as he grows to hate it, evening stabbing it in hopes to relieve the curse he has finally recognized. Unfortunately for him, this results in his death; the portrait returning to its former, pure state, and Dorian becoming the aged and disfigured body. This story of Doran is Wilde’s way of showing how art is not something that can physically change us. He describes are as neither moral or immoral, The Picture of Dorian Gray illustrating a world where it would be. However, art does impact the lives of people, perhaps not physically, but mentally.

The beauty of Dorian Gray lies in the portrayal of himself, and an artist to be a beautiful creation. Although, he is beautiful he has ugly meanings, and it's corrupted with charm. The painting is his moral sense in art, so it's the moral life of Dorian Gray. Moral art is that is well formed to the character of Dorian Gray. Which are selfish, corrupt, evil, and fundamentally decadence in sin. It holds his guilty mind in the form of a painting. Dorian Gray is counter-balanced by himself and the portrait.

As seems to be the theme of Oscar Wilde’s book, The picture of Dorian Gray, art an beauty are both the same, yet they are different. But how can this be? Well, beauty and art are intertwined the moment art is used to capture a sliver of pure beauty, in order to make that moment last forever. According to Lord Henry, “ Yes, Mr. Gray, the gods have been good to you. But what the goods give can easily be taken away. You only have a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully” (Wilde Pg. 22). However, much like Lord Henry’s take on beauty and youth, comparing beauty and art is the same as comparing aestheticism with creativity. One can only capture so much of the other, but they can never, truly, be the same. Oscar Wilde, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, demonstrates the characteristics of aestheticism through Lord Henry Wotton, and the characteristics of creativity through Basil Hallward in order to highlight what happens when both art and beauty collide. Although Oscar Wilde does center his story on Dorian Gray and his painting, Basil and Lord Henry’s relationship to beauty and art is embodied by Dorian’s internal struggle in choosing between art and beauty; choosing between right and wrong.

Double is one of the most frightening themes of Gothic literature as it discloses humans’ darkly hidden desires or natures through their transformations. The characters’ transformation into double can be either literal or figurative. Either way, it demonstrates the decay of ones’ souls when the controls of their desires are lost, which result identity crisis or extreme panic and usually end in death. In Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the picture illustrates Dorian’s figuratively split self, which his prayer has granted him through the immortality of youth and beauty. However, this unreal self shadows his real self and causes his identity crisis as time goes by. On the other hand, in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll creates a chemical drug that turns him into Mr. Hyde- a literal double. This transformation frees him from the despairing Victorian society. However, once he wants to escape his double, but he has lost the control of his transformation, it imprisons him in the unwanted form forever. The temptation of having this literal double and the punishment when lacking control of it give an unbelievably terrible fear about double power. Therefore, Jekyll’s double manifests double theme more effectively than the figurative double of Dorian does.