In literary works, allusions exist in order to create deeper meanings within the text. When a reader recognizes and understands a reference, it allows them to appreciate the work on a different level. The Picture of Dorian Gray contains many parallels to the myth of Narcissus. Much like Narcissus, Dorian Gray is blessed with entrancing beauty, develops obsessive love for his own image, and wastes away due to that love. To begin with, both texts describe in detail how beautiful the young men are. Upon meeting him for the first time, Lord Henry remarks that Dorian is, “...wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity.” (18) Before
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Narcissus scorned every woman until Nemesis cursed him to fall in love with himself. Upon seeing his reflection in a pool of water, Narcissus is immediately enamoured with it. He remarks that, “...I burn with love of my own self- and yet how can I reach that loveliness I see mirrored in the water?” (113) Upon seeing his portrait, Dorian feels a similar despair at being unable to keep the beauty shown in the painting. “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose?” (29) As time passes throughout the novel, Dorian becomes more and more obsessed with his image in the painting, referring to Narcissus directly. “Once, in boyish mockery of Narcissus, he had kissed, or feigned to kiss, those painted lips that now smiled so cruelly at him. Morning after morning he had sat before the portrait, wondering at its beauty, almost enamoured of it, as it seemed to him at times.” (109) Narcissus and Dorian share a similar pain: being in love with their own beauty that seems so unattainable to
Narcissus scorned every woman until Nemesis cursed him to fall in love with himself. Upon seeing his reflection in a pool of water, Narcissus is immediately enamoured with it. He remarks that, “...I burn with love of my own self- and yet how can I reach that loveliness I see mirrored in the water?” (113) Upon seeing his portrait, Dorian feels a similar despair at being unable to keep the beauty shown in the painting. “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose?” (29) As time passes throughout the novel, Dorian becomes more and more obsessed with his image in the painting, referring to Narcissus directly. “Once, in boyish mockery of Narcissus, he had kissed, or feigned to kiss, those painted lips that now smiled so cruelly at him. Morning after morning he had sat before the portrait, wondering at its beauty, almost enamoured of it, as it seemed to him at times.” (109) Narcissus and Dorian share a similar pain: being in love with their own beauty that seems so unattainable to