The Picture Of Dorian Gray Essay

Oscar Wilde 's The Picture of Dorian Gray, is a story almost solely infused with the Victorian era 's obsession with appearances. Epigrams pierce through this shallow pool of perfection and offer slight glimmers of the harsh reality behind this vanity. Lord Henry, the main source of epigrams, acts as a magnifying glass for the Victorian culture 's deep and dark problems lying just below the calm, mellow surface. Many of Wilde 's epigrams concentrate on the morality of how one deals with one 's…

masculinity; Jane Eyre’s Mr Rochester, for example typifies the Byronic Hero, whereas The Picture of Dorian Gray focusses upon the experience of three men, whose ability to transcend Victorian gender roles influences their masculinities: Dorian is a naïve, hedonistic character who leads a double life, whereas Basil represents the repressed Victorian gentleman, and Sir Henry Wotton whose manipulation of Dorian allows him to maintain a façade of idealised Victorian masculinity. This manner of…

Oscar Wilde's Aesthetic Gothic: Walter Pater, Dark Enlightenment, and The Picture Of Dorian Gray Main Thesis Wilde uses several echoes within The Picture of Dorian Gray. This central argument is supported by several examples of Dorian Gray acting as double to not only several characters within the novel but within mythology as well. Wilde merges the Gothic and the aesthetic in the book. “The merger is possible, and inevitable, because of the tendency of Gothic writing to present a fantastic…

beginning, Dorian Gray seems to be a somewhat aloof character, who is unaware of his beautiful looks and simply living his youthful and naive life. Lord Henry even goes as far to describe him as a young Adonis, with a rugged strong face and coal-black hair, whose personality is likened to Narcissus. Nevertheless, when this whisper of influence from Lord Henry is introduced to him, Dorian recognizes the emptiness in his life. The cunning manipulation of Lord Henry starts of by highlighting to…

The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Professor’s Analysis “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” (Wilde 3). There are many debates about the greatest book that ever existed, and this debate will continue to rage on but what is undeniable is that The Picture of Dorian Gray is definitely a well written book. The morality of this book however is a different issue altogether as this book discusses many different themes from youth…

in those who grasp on to these areas in their life. In the story A Picture of Dorian gray, Dorian is absorbed by his youthful self permanently, this leads to a decay in his social and physical life. Taking a character like Dorian Gray exhibits the types of characteristics a person might have when trying to control their natural age and personality in life. The beginning of the story gives a clear cut picture to what Dorian Grays view…

Kim Thang ENG 1012 3/7/16 The Picture of Dorian Gray: Depiction of Women When one talks about women, there are a lot of perspectives, opinions, and perceptions toward them. A woman is centrally inborn with her strength, including her body, attitude and behavior. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry views women as "decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly" (Wilde 47). They are depicted as inferior to men and influence men in negative ways. It…

influential nineteenth century author, Oscar Wilde, and toyed with in his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde utilizes cultural elements to…

Both the narratives of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, incorporate the theme of the inventory of hazardous knowledge and the detrimental consequence of manipulation. In the novel of Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein becomes fascinated by the creation of life and studies the human body of its anatomy and its decay. After 3 years of rigorous studying at a college located in Ingolstadt, Victor Frankenstein familiarizes himself with the occult sciences…

the gothic novels Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray written in the nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature and individuality influenced writer’s style. As shown in both Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray gothic elements influence the novels by using imagery of death and destruction. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the portrayals of a…