Gray

Oscar Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890 during an era in British history when immoral actions and values were to be hidden. When the book was first published the issue of the main characters' -Dorian and Basil- sexualities, became a very pressing issue for the book not to be printed for the masses. The British culture, centered wholly on facade, wished to keep its reputation as being the most pure civilization and display its highest morals, even though there were the underlying…

In the book Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, there are four types of genius and beauty that affected character’s lives: reputational beauty, superficial beauty, scientific genius, and psychological genius. Sibyl killed herself after abandoning her acting career for the beauty of Dorian Gray, who met her only a few days before. Even Basil the painter is stabbed by Dorian, after trying to help Dorian regain the purity of youth, the reputational and superficial beauty of whom Basil had for himself (in…

Throughout the tragic and enlightening novel The Picture of Dorian Grey, by Oscar Wilde, the author uses a morally ambiguous character in order to highlight the universal truth that if someone lives a life of reckless self indulgence, then both the person and their friends will be corrupted and ruined. The portrait of Dorian grey features a morally ambiguous character, Dorian Grey, who is convinced to live a hedonistic lifestyle and pays for it with his life in the end. At first Dorian is…

Oscar Wilde does an excellent job utilizing Heteronormativity and Homosocialality to portray masculinity throughout his book, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Heteronormativity is the idea that heterosexuality is the only established sexual orientation. While, Homosocialality focuses more on the idea that men can bond with men without being labeled homosexual. The three main characters, Basil, Lord Henry and Dorian, experience many situations that illustrate these two theories. There is also an…

new worldly perspective resulting from their own experiences; scholars classify these works that focus on a single event defining a character’s life philosophy as bildungsromans. Set in nineteenth-century England, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray recounts Dorian Gray’s growth from a young man to an adult in the midst of the growing aesthetic movement, with his friend Lord Henry Wotton introducing him to its morality. After their first encounter, Lord Henry’s hedonistic values corrupt…

feelings they had towards them. If ever women should seek a voice in that society men would take immediate action to force them into uncomfortable situations as they did not perceive women as actually possessing their own voice. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a misogynistic novella that is made evident by the perils and later suicide of Sybil Vane due to Dorian’s impacts, the tragic love life of Margaret Devereux due to her father’s influence…

In the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, sin and redemption is an occuring theme. The main character, Dorian Gray, commits plenty of sins and has the opportunities for redemption, however, when Dorian tries to atone for his wrongdoings he is unsuccessful. Dorians’ underlying intentions keeps him from redemption, due to his hedonistic views. In the beginning of the novel, Dorian is portrayed as a young and innocent boy that is easily influenced by Lord Henry, a character with a…

Now that he’s put away the picture, he figures he can go one with his life now. Years later, Dorian ceases to throw parties and gatherings at his house and he starts spending money on more hands on items such as jewelry, perfume, musical instruments etc. The only reason Dorian had a strong reputation was because he hosted social functions at his house for everyone to come to. Ever since he became self-conscious about the portrait, his reputation began to go down because he became obsessed with…

in both The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, where the writers fulfill their duties…

In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde it is apparent that Lord Henry’s influence drastically changes Dorian’s view of himself and the world around him. Dorian’s character began as a blank slate, but deep within Dorian’s character there was the temptation for the forbidden. Lord Henry saw this as an opportunity to introduce his philosophy and indulge his desire to manipulate him for his own pleasure. Lord Henry’s philosophy of Aestheticism is not inherently bad, it simply allows an…