The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde’s, The Picture of Dorian Gray, examines the concept of morality and how it may change through the influence of others. In several unique instances, the direct influence of another can change a person’s moral understandings and actions for this is most clearly notable in the relationship between Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray. Ultimately, Lord Henry’s corruptive nature was responsible for the downfall of Dorian Gray by purposefully exposing Dorian towards a hedonistic and sinful…

Oscar Wilde was writing The Picture of Dorian Gray, gothic literature had declined in popularity. Although many of the gothic tropes still managed to make their way into many narratives of the late-nineteenth century. These narratives, Dorian Gray, included became known as Victorian gothic literature. The Victorian Gothics aimed to juxtapose the psychological terror, mystery, madness, and curses with a recognizable and familiar environment. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde focuses these…

Art and the pursuit of beauty are two of the primary driving forces of Oscar Wilde’s famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Art is aesthetically pleasing because it is essentially anything created predominantly for the purpose of being beautiful. Whether a painter, an actress, an orator, or even an opera singer, each artist in the novel is depicted as most beautiful when observed through their art. Reality, the shared apparently physical space in which all individual universes seem to be…

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…

Within When one hears the word “monster,” the stereotypical horror, the hair-raising cliché is often pictured. While the commonplace image is found to an extent in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Oscar Wilde defies the custom in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Both novels, however, stress that it is not one’s outward appearance that makes a monster, it is the lack of responsibility for their actions that creates a monstrosity, whether it be a man or beast. The authors emphasize this point to…

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 that), and so he vows to never let his burdens physically show on his body.…

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 erotic triangle that links the two enemies, Basil and Lord Henry, to a romance which is Dorian. These theories…

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…

Dark desires and forbidden pleasures of gothic novels are at the center of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Turn of the Screw. The novels explore the relationship between the corrupted and the corruptor. The gothic novels The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James share the idea of corruption, but in different ways; The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of moral corruption and extreme narcissism while The Turn of the Screw tells of corruption of…

Extreme fascination, passion, lust and beauty can be tempting, but admitting to them was a struggle facing people in 19th century or Victorian Era and this is evident in the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” When Oscar Wilde wrote, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, he was critiquing a cultural moment in time. He was attempting to make his Victorian audience think about their inability to admit to their true desires and fear of temptation. A British journalist by the name W. T. Stead committed the…