Dorians

Shakespeare’s play, the Tempest (1611) is an abortive revenge drama that focuses on the character of Prospero as his discovery of the nature of humankind allows him to rekindle his sense of empathy. Conversely, Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) follows the life of the titular protagonist whose discovery of the power of his youth and the inevitability of growing old causes the degradation of his virtue. Although these texts differ greatly in content and context, a parallel…

Society Corrupting Everyday People in The Picture of Dorian Grey Corruption: Perversion of integrity. Oscar Wilde tries throughout his novel The Picture of Dorain Grey to warn people about the corruption society is capable of. Oscar Wilde had experienced torment and brutality during his lifetime, due to the outcomes of people’s opinions of his work. It was thought that his novel was used as a way to “manipulate and corrupt young men with whom he had past history with,” (Watkin). This court…

Dorian Gray Master Theme Paper The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is about three men--Lord Henry, Basil Hallward, and a younger man named Dorian--who all have either hedonistic views or depleasuristic views on life. Lord Henry influences Dorian to be hedonistic and only care about beauty and aesthetic pleasure, buthowever Dorian takes it to the extreme and becomes completely enveloped in beauty. Throughout the novel, these two hedonistic men idolize beauty, but as they idolize it, they…

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray exhibits a perpetual amount of ambiguous morals; his points of redemption along with feelings of guilt contribute to the complexity of his nature throughout the course of the novel. The opening chapter presents Dorian Gray as an innocent young male with exceptional beauty. He captures the eyes of characters like Basil Hallward and becomes a muse. However upon meeting Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil’s, he becomes introduced to the…

it allows them to appreciate the work on a different level. The Picture of Dorian Gray contains many parallels to the myth of Narcissus. Much like Narcissus, Dorian Gray is blessed with entrancing beauty, develops obsessive love for his own image, and wastes away due to that love. To begin with, both texts describe in detail how beautiful the young men are. Upon meeting him for the first time, Lord Henry remarks that Dorian is, “...wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his…

Picture of Dorian Gray” has many interpretation of the meaning of art and responsibility of an artist. For Basil Hallward art should only represent beauty and the artist should only be the bridge allowing people to see the beauty of the world. “An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty.” (Page 68) Yet, Dorian Gray was…

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, is a cautionary tale that demonstrates the risks of critical reflection on art, culture, and the nature of humans when clouded by the ideals of beauty and eternal youth. Through the story focused on hedonistic moral values and chaos, Wilde is able to establish a world, much different from the one known today, in which language, ritual, and morals have no profound effects on the characters, instead fabricating a setting in which men who are ordered to…

was an ambassador for Aestheticism, Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray, which portrayed many of his beliefs. In the novel, Dorian Gray personifies the aesthetic lifestyle in action, pursuing personal satisfaction with abandon. He does not distinct between moral or immoral acts, and simply does what pleases himself without caring about others affected by his actions. Rather than being an advocate for a pure aesthetic lifestyle, Dorian is an…

However, the education does not guarantee their growth and development when they do not acknowledge their weaknesses. Knowing one’s weakness is indispensable for developing or overcoming it. In the novel of Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the main character, Dorian, has a weakness is that his excessive vanity result in the feeling of superiority; his appearance is much better than that of anyone else. While he does not realize his weakness, his feeling of superiority makes him blind to…

Based on the playwrite “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray: Preface” both by Oscar Wilde, it could be inferred that the author fits under The Sage archetype because of the tone of the text, and the morals of the texts. To illustrate how the author fits under The Sage archetype because of the tone of the text is when “The Picture of Dorian Gray: Preface” by Oscar Wilde says, “We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse…