Difference Between Frankenstein And Dorian Gray

The Gap between Man and Monster When most people think of monsters, they imagine grotesque beasts, horrid creatures, and the myths of legend. Monsters throughout history have often been characterized by super-human physicality and amoral behavior. Contrary to popular belief, however, the difference between a monster and a man has nothing to do with physical qualities. A monster is often not born, but rather a direct result of the environment in which it developed.
Two novels are widely known as horror stories with monsters as main characters: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Shelley’s novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein pursues his goal of creating life. He stitches together human remains and …show more content…
In this novel, Basil Hallward paints a portrait of a young man by the name of Dorian Gray. At the start of the novel, Basil shows his portrait of Dorian to his close friend, Lord Henry Wotton, who is awestruck by the beauty in the painting. While posing for the last stretch of the portrait, Dorian and Lord Henry converse. Henry describes his personal moral philosophy to Dorian which includes the notion that personal pleasure should supersede all other quests in life despite the immorality of that pursuit. Henry plants the seed in Dorian’s mind that his wondrous looks will soon fade into old age and he should take life by the reigns while he has the chance. This brief conversation sparks the wildfire that is Dorian’s future. Dorian begins to live by the code that Lord Henry preaches. Lord Henry becomes Dorian’s mentor and continues to foster the corruption of Gray’s mind throughout the rest of the …show more content…
Both Victor’s creation’s and Dorian’s young minds were corrupted by someone that they looked up to as a father figure. In Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Grey, vanity plays a large part in the corruption of the protagonist. In Frankenstein, the inability to overlook the hideous appearance of his creation drives it to become a monster. In The Picture of Dorian Grey both Dorian and Henry’s conceit about Dorian’s looks start the onslaught of immorality. There is a prominent difference between the two novels and the characterization of the monster. In Frankenstein the creature’s hideous looks cause others to react to him poorly and lead him to emotional despair that eventually causes his madness. Whereas in The Picture of Dorian Grey, society’s obsession with beauty transforms Dorian into the monster that he eventually