Paramount Pictures

When people criticize The Picture of Dorian Gray lacks of standpoint about morality, Oscar Wilde defends his book by saying, “ All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment”. The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde, describes a beautiful gentleman Dorian Gray, under the influence of his two best friends, sells his soul in exchange for everlasting beauty and youth, and dies tragically at the end. In this novel, Dorian learns beauty and vanity when he saw his…

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…

An entertaining and moralistic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray combines multiple literary elements into a well-written novel with underlying ideas about the inherency of evil and its roots. Many prominent literary themes stand out throughout the novel, but the most common and prominent ones remain: “man vs. self” and “man vs.society”. Throughout the story, the questions of moral values such as the creation of evil and the importance of beauty standards in society appear frequently and are…

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…

In "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Oscar Wilde conveys a compelling theme centered on the detrimental use of influence personal in our relationships. Although the philosophical novel has multiple themes, the theme involving the detrimental use of influence in personal relationships manifests itself through the destruction of various characters including: Dorian Gray and Basil Hallward. One of the broader notions presented in the novel reveals itself as the stark disapproval of sacrificing one's…

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…

The novel The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde is about the life of the character Dorian Gray. Dorian is a young and beautiful man who makes a Faustian pact that his self-portrait, drawn by painter Basil Hallward, would grow older as time past instead of Dorian. Throughout the story, Dorian commits many sins, for example, using his influence to ruin others’ lives and the murdering of Basil Hallward. However, Dorian’s appearance is still young and beautiful because the portrait…

Zedina Martin Dr. Adair English 201 8 March 2018 When there is love anything is possible, not! The poem “The Passionate Shepherd to his love” is a pastoral and romantic poem by Christopher Marlowe that has a focus on the Shepherd’s love. The speaker of the poem is the Shepherd. The poem “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” is a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh in response to Marlowe’s poem. A Nymph is the speaker of the poem. Raleigh’s poem is a direct mockery of Marlowe’s poem and all the claims and…

“Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress,” said Napoleon Bonaparte. In accordance, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende and “Master Harold”…and the Boys by Athol Fugard both consist of dynamic characters who act as oppressors. In The House of the Spirits and “Master Harold”…and the Boys, Esteban Trueba and Harold, respectively, have similar characteristics in the sense that they both lose control of their emotions and take out their anger on others. The House of the…

While today’s acceptance levels of the LGBT+ community are at the highest levels in modern history, for a long time the level of acceptance was a negative one. During the 1800s and some parts of the world today, being homosexual is thought to be a disease and/or crime. Writers who were apart of the LGBT+ community in the 1800s were marked by their sexuality. Their pieces of work, if even read, were ridiculed. Anything they did was placed below writings of their straight counterparts, no matter…