It could be said that guilt is one of the most powerful emotions a person can feel. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Arthur Dimmesdale experiences the extremes of this emotion. Dimmesdale has an obsession with keeping a clean public image, but falls victim to sin which leads to a consequence of suppressing all feelings of guilt, affecting his mental and physical health. This psychoanalysis of Dimmesdale will evaluate why he should confess to his sin and the benefits…
Michelle Watts 10-22-2017 English Literature since 1800 Second Essay Assignment The Layers of “Goblin Market” Does great art make you feel or make you think? John Ruskin and Walter Pater have different approaches when it comes to art appreciation. The argument by Ruskin is that great art is “received by a higher faculty of the mind” and Pater is convinced that art “is the aim of the true student of aesthetics”. Not only are both schools of thought are correct but must…
Oscar Wilde’s, The Picture of Dorian Gray, examines the concept of morality and how it may change through the influence of others. In several unique instances, the direct influence of another can change a person’s moral understandings and actions for this is most clearly notable in the relationship between Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray. Ultimately, Lord Henry’s corruptive nature was responsible for the downfall of Dorian Gray by purposefully exposing Dorian towards a hedonistic and sinful…
OSCAR WILDES “The picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde was a very popular Irish author, poet and a play writer, best known for his book “The Picture Of Dorian Gray”. Born on the 16th of October 1854 in Dublin, Ireland, to Robert Wilde and Jane Francesca Wilde, he turned out to be a quick-witted kid like his parents. His father was a well-known doctor, earned the title of ‘Sir’ for his work as a medical advisor. His mother, Jane Francesca, was a writer who used to write under the pseudonym…
excelled exceptionally in academics at Trinity College in Dublin, Magdalen College, and Oxford. Leading him to become a writer of plays, novels, essays, and poems, which he is most known for today. Specifically, he was known for his novel “The Picture of Dorian Grey” and the play “The importance of Being Earnest.” Although most of his works were criticized for being…
When one hears the word “monster,” the stereotypical horror, the hair-raising cliché is often pictured. While the commonplace image is found to an extent in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Oscar Wilde defies the custom in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Both novels, however, stress that it is not one’s outward appearance that makes a monster, it is the lack of responsibility for their actions that creates a monstrosity, whether it be a man or beast. The authors emphasize this point to promote…
In Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray, the title character is forced to face a life full of cruelty and regret. As the novel progresses, Dorian goes from fearing death to embracing it. Dorian kills, watches the people he cares for die, and eventually comes face to face with is own death. All of these changes in Dorian’s life are due to his deteriorating soul and corrupt morals. In the Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde accompanies Dorian with death to advocate the importance of selflessness.…
“The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim” (Wilde 1). However, on occasion art begins beautiful and then alters negatively. This is the case in both Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Percival Everett’s Erasure. Although the stories within each are very different in nature, they are interconnected in the way that the work of art within each alters and changes. Plato stated in Phaedrus, “writing has one grave fault in common with…
appearance does not represent one’s soul. In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the protagonist Dorian Gray’s excess obsession with beauty, easily influenced nature, and irresponsibility for himself ultimately trigger his downfall in the end of the novel. The superficial and excessive desire for beauty of Dorian Gray distorts his mortal value and leads to denigration…
Extreme fascination, passion, lust and beauty can be tempting, but admitting to them was a struggle facing people in 19th century or Victorian Era and this is evident in the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” When Oscar Wilde wrote, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, he was critiquing a cultural moment in time. He was attempting to make his Victorian audience think about their inability to admit to their true desires and fear of temptation. A British journalist by the name W. T. Stead committed the…