When people criticize The Picture of Dorian Gray lacks of standpoint about morality, Oscar Wilde defends his book by saying, “ All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment”. The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde, describes a beautiful gentleman Dorian Gray, under the influence of his two best friends, sells his soul in exchange for everlasting beauty and youth, and dies tragically at the end. In this novel, Dorian learns beauty and vanity when he saw his portrait painted by Basil Hallward, and desires for beauty and pleasure after listening to the words of Lord Henry. As Oscar Wilde moralized, these three main characters in this novel are all punished due to their excess or restrained emotion, which refutes
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Basil realizes and admits that to Dorian, “I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it”(Wilde 115). When Basil first meets Dorian, he is strongly attracted by Dorian’s beautiful appearence; after that, Basil paints a full-length portrait for Dorain to appreciate his beauty. Like most of the artists do, Basil admires and worships beauty; however, in the case of Dorian Gray, Basil puts too much emotion in it, which leads him to the punishment. Basil’s excess worship to Dorian Gray lets Dorian realizes his extraordinary physical beauty and vanity, which is the reason Dorian kills Basil at the end. Basil’s over-admired emotion to Dorian, to some extent, lets him almost lose everything in his life. Not only does he lose his life, he also loses his friendship with Dorian and his excellent intelligence for art. The reason is that Basil’s excess worship to Dorian makes Dorian become the soul for Basil’s art, thus, Basil even cannot paint as usual when he loses Dorian. Therefore, for Basil Hallward, his excess worship to Dorian and beauty is punished by his tragic death and his final loss of artistic intelligence and friendship with …show more content…
With Dorian’s trade with the devil and his over indulgence of sensual enjoyment, “His soul,certainly, was sick to death”(Wilde 135). At the beginning of the novel, Dorian is simple and nature; however, after his excess discovery of hedonism, Dorian’s soul became irretrievably evil and corrupted. It is a well-established fact that Dorian always overindulges himself in pleasing his sensation, just like enjoying the opium and love affairs, culminating in his corruption of reputation and soul. His punishment for excess desire is losing his soul, which means he will never have the chance to return to his pure boyhood. Also, it stands to reason that Dorian’s punishment comes from his increasing renunciation of his conscience, which can be interpreted that when Dorian Gray seeks too much in sensual pleasure, at the same time, he tries to restrain his conscience to be good. In fact, Dorian has the desire to alter to a good person, even though it is because of his vanity. Several times when Dorian came up with the idea to turn good as his simple nature, he either denies his opportunity to change or refuses to be responsible for his downfall. Eventually, his renunciation of conscience is punished by killing himself, when he wants to destroy the portrait which represents his soul and conscience. Thus, Dorian’s punishment could be explained in either excess discovery of
Basil realizes and admits that to Dorian, “I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it”(Wilde 115). When Basil first meets Dorian, he is strongly attracted by Dorian’s beautiful appearence; after that, Basil paints a full-length portrait for Dorain to appreciate his beauty. Like most of the artists do, Basil admires and worships beauty; however, in the case of Dorian Gray, Basil puts too much emotion in it, which leads him to the punishment. Basil’s excess worship to Dorian Gray lets Dorian realizes his extraordinary physical beauty and vanity, which is the reason Dorian kills Basil at the end. Basil’s over-admired emotion to Dorian, to some extent, lets him almost lose everything in his life. Not only does he lose his life, he also loses his friendship with Dorian and his excellent intelligence for art. The reason is that Basil’s excess worship to Dorian makes Dorian become the soul for Basil’s art, thus, Basil even cannot paint as usual when he loses Dorian. Therefore, for Basil Hallward, his excess worship to Dorian and beauty is punished by his tragic death and his final loss of artistic intelligence and friendship with …show more content…
With Dorian’s trade with the devil and his over indulgence of sensual enjoyment, “His soul,certainly, was sick to death”(Wilde 135). At the beginning of the novel, Dorian is simple and nature; however, after his excess discovery of hedonism, Dorian’s soul became irretrievably evil and corrupted. It is a well-established fact that Dorian always overindulges himself in pleasing his sensation, just like enjoying the opium and love affairs, culminating in his corruption of reputation and soul. His punishment for excess desire is losing his soul, which means he will never have the chance to return to his pure boyhood. Also, it stands to reason that Dorian’s punishment comes from his increasing renunciation of his conscience, which can be interpreted that when Dorian Gray seeks too much in sensual pleasure, at the same time, he tries to restrain his conscience to be good. In fact, Dorian has the desire to alter to a good person, even though it is because of his vanity. Several times when Dorian came up with the idea to turn good as his simple nature, he either denies his opportunity to change or refuses to be responsible for his downfall. Eventually, his renunciation of conscience is punished by killing himself, when he wants to destroy the portrait which represents his soul and conscience. Thus, Dorian’s punishment could be explained in either excess discovery of