Graham's Magazine

In the book, A picture of Dorian gray, we see Oscar Wilde use a lot of references to flowers intentionally to try to convey a hidden message. During the victorian era flowers had defined meaning to the world. Flowers were a form of communication, on there own, that gave meaning and emotions to specific flowers constructing a hidden message. Just like today flowers still uphold the symbols they represent. We see that a rose is a representation of love, beauty, and compassion while the thorns are…

In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, we are faced with a pallet of characters, all whom are very dynamic and have clear ambitions. Up until Chapter 6, we are given the idea that Dorian Gray is a generally normal man. He shows no sign of abnormality, he is simply a man with rather good looks and he has an immense interest in Lord Henry’s philosophical way of thinking. The first real event in which the reader can either justify Dorian’s actions as good or bad is located in…

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a reminder to today’s society that we should not base the idea of beauty by ones superficial appearance and materialistic belongings but by a person’s ability to find light in darkness and choose what is right from wrong, without the opinions of others distracting them. This novel also explores the idea that when a person can make a mistake and learn from it is when they are a truly a beautiful person, it employs that one can be a destructive force to themselves if…

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…

as a serial story in the July 1980 issue of Lippincott 's Monthly Magazine. It was in 1891 that The Picture of Dorian Gray was published as a book. It was published by Ward, Lock and Company editorial house. The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde 's only novel. Although he was a well-known writer, he was best known for his plays, poetry and short stories. The book was originally a serial story that was published in a magazine. The story elicited much criticism from many who felt that the…

Miss Julie is naturalistic play written by August Strindberg in 1888. A naturalistic piece is a more extreme form of realism that is defined as “An avant-garde movement, which flourished between 1880 and 1914, that portrayed heredity and environmental factors as the primary causes of human behavior through the accurate rendition of external realities,” explains editor Tobin Nellhaus. Miss Julie contains these naturalistic elements as it takes place in real time and focuses heavily on survival of…

Known as the ‘Russian Byron’, Mikhail Lermontov is revered for his radical interpretation of the Romantic antihero in A Hero of Our Time. He sought to fashion “a portrait built up from the vices of our whole generation” (Lermontov, preface), to create a character who would embody the spirit of the contemporary Russian man. In what would be his only prose work, Lermontov employs traits commonly associated with the Byronic hero as the basis for the character of his protagonist, Pechorin, such as…

Introduction Morality is one who conforms and follows the moral standards. The main protagonist named Jean-Batiste Grenouille in the novel Patrick Süskind, Perfume: the story of a murderer, defies such standards. The character is a man obsessed with scent and strives to acquire what he identifies as the “master scent”. In order to obtain such scent Grenouille commences murderous behavior upon young victims, specifically virgin girls as he is lured by the purity in their aroma. Set in 18th…

Oscar Wilde once said, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person, give him a mask and he will speak the truth”. Masks reveal one’s self through a different form with the use of different features. Masks have been used widely used through various cultures to hide one’s identity, disguise, or used in (religious) rituals. They can symbolize certain dominant traits, features, ancestry, or imagination. The Majlion (ماجليون), a elegantly made mask, is of fundamental importance to its…

Youth is associated with freedom, joy, and overall beauty. The young are beautiful and ignorant and as time goes on one’s experiences shed light on the true appalling nature of life. This nature takes over and abducts the beauty that comes with being young. Oscar Wilde explores the idea of the fading allure of beauty’s relationship to corruption. In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde the author explores the close ties between beauty and corruption through his use of the character Lord…