Kim Wilde

In the story “The 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…

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty.” This is German-born poet Rainer Maria Riike, quote on society’s lack of appreciation for nature. Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul is a Trinidadian author who won the award for literature in the year 2001, he was born Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul in Chaguanas in the year 1932. As a teenager he attended the Queen’s Royal College in Port…

Wilde and the Decadents both feel that "This rationalization of homosexual desire as aesthetic experience has as its subtext an escalating contempt for women, whose bodies seem to stand in the way of philosophical beauty" (Showalter 176). To repeat, Decadents…

Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley both agree upon that a monster originates from a contaminated soul. When one's soul begins to rot, a monster within emerges, for both of their monsters began as pure souls who were unaware of the evils of the world. When the soul gets contaminated by evil, it begins to transform into a monster. Dorian Gray’s inner monster begins to arise when Lord Henry inserts a fear in him (that if he sins too much it will start to show on his beautiful face and he cannot afford…

animals to pieces, and engulfing themselves in sexual pleasure. To Lord Henry the pleasure in manipulating and molding people is similar to the bacchantes’ form of pleasure as he is compared to “[dancing] like a Bacchante over the hills of life.” Wilde notes that the bacchantes “[mock] the slow Silenus for being sober”, similarly to how Lord Henry is mocking Dorian for being so naive about life and youth and is trying to expose Dorian to the true natures of the world may it be for Dorian’s…

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…

Dorian is the central figure of the story, everyone else lives their lives around him. Both men and women wish to be in his presence. The women fall in love with him and the men want to be in his company. Dorian eventually fulfills the stereotypical female role in the novel. Despite there being other women in the story Dorian is the one who receives all the attention and it is Dorian who ruins the hopes and dreams of men, not the women in the story. The women in the story are only there to…

The Picture of Dorian Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray depicts the life of Dorian a young, impressionable aristocrat who captures Basil’s artistic imagination and soon becomes a friend to basil. Along with becoming Basil’s friend and muse Dorian meets the famous Lord Henry at one of the painting sessions. Lord Henry is a witty man who enjoys celebrating youth, beauty, and the selfish pursuit of pleasure. Basil reluctantly introduces Dorian to Lord Henry, who soon influences the young Dorian.…

olfactory description creates a picturesque paradise in Basil’s studio, subverting expectation for any sin or immorality. It represents Basil precisely as he is always loving and optimistic, without any callousness, in his appreciation of beauty. Wilde describes the Basil’s studio filled with the “rich odour of roses”, making the reader sense the beauty all around them. The over exaggeration of Wilde’s emphasis of beauty, such as the “heavy scent” and “rich”, is to show the false imagery of the…

When the text begins, Dorian is introduced as a flawless young man that was pure and beautiful. Basil’s painting reflects this perfection, and even Dorian is blown aback by his own looks. We are then introduced to his past by Lord Fermor, who reveals his tragic family history that involved the loss of both parents, a tragedy that would result in his upbringing by a loveless tyrant. Dorian is then described as having a unique fascination for Lord Henry, and is one of the few people that were…