In Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry is portrayed as an artist, while Dorian Gray is portrayed as the canvas in which Henry paints on. In the beginning of the novel, Dorian’s first meeting with Lord Henry immediately shows how easily influenced Dorian’s character is. Lord Henry’s charismatic manner in speaking captivates Dorian causing Dorian to “never [take] his gaze off him” and be put “under a spell.” By captivating Dorian, Lord Henry is able to take advantage of Dorian’s ignorance and naivety causing him to adopt Lord Henry’s point of view on life, changing who Dorian is as a person. Lord Henry baffles Dorian with his views on youth and beauty, convincing him that beauty stands above all human aspects and life
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Being not only wealthy, Lord Henry dedicates his life to fulfilling his own pleasures, self-indulging in anything that catches his eye, Dorian being one of them. Dorian Gray being described as the epitome of male physical beauty by Basil sparks Lord Henry’s interest, as beauty and aesthetics is one of the many pleasures he seeks for. Similar to Lord Henry’s fondness of pleasure, Dionysus and the bacchantes sought after pleasure too. By isolating themselves, Dionysus and the bacchantes would lose all self-control, drowning themselves in wine, hunting and devouring animals to pieces, and engulfing themselves in sexual pleasure. To Lord Henry the pleasure in manipulating and molding people is similar to the bacchantes’ form of pleasure as he is compared to “[dancing] like a Bacchante over the hills of life.” Wilde notes that the bacchantes “[mock] the slow Silenus for being sober”, similarly to how Lord Henry is mocking Dorian for being so naive about life and youth and is trying to expose Dorian to the true natures of the world may it be for Dorian’s well-being or not. Lord Henry manages to break the shell in which Dorian resides in, changing him from the young and innocent Dorian that Basil once knew to a Dorian whose individual self which has been hidden within is finally being brought
Being not only wealthy, Lord Henry dedicates his life to fulfilling his own pleasures, self-indulging in anything that catches his eye, Dorian being one of them. Dorian Gray being described as the epitome of male physical beauty by Basil sparks Lord Henry’s interest, as beauty and aesthetics is one of the many pleasures he seeks for. Similar to Lord Henry’s fondness of pleasure, Dionysus and the bacchantes sought after pleasure too. By isolating themselves, Dionysus and the bacchantes would lose all self-control, drowning themselves in wine, hunting and devouring animals to pieces, and engulfing themselves in sexual pleasure. To Lord Henry the pleasure in manipulating and molding people is similar to the bacchantes’ form of pleasure as he is compared to “[dancing] like a Bacchante over the hills of life.” Wilde notes that the bacchantes “[mock] the slow Silenus for being sober”, similarly to how Lord Henry is mocking Dorian for being so naive about life and youth and is trying to expose Dorian to the true natures of the world may it be for Dorian’s well-being or not. Lord Henry manages to break the shell in which Dorian resides in, changing him from the young and innocent Dorian that Basil once knew to a Dorian whose individual self which has been hidden within is finally being brought