Comparing Frankenstein And The Picture Of Dorian Gray

When most people think of monsters, they think of ugly creatures whose purpose is to scare anything that it comes across. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, that is the case. Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creation is a hideous monster that terrorizes his creator and townspeople. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray depicts a monster as a beautiful young man whose painted portrait starts to look more like a monster than his actual self. Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray both tell stories of monsters who do evil things. Both Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde believe that what makes a man a monster are his actions and his appearance as demonstrated by Frankenstein’s creation and Dorian Gray.

The way that Victor Frankenstein’s

The beautiful portrait painted by Basil becomes increasingly ugly as Dorian commits his crimes. The portrait’s “gold would wither into grey. Its red and white roses would die. For every sin that he committed, a stain would fleck and wreck its fairness.” (Wilde). The withering of the painting represents the destruction of Dorian’s soul as he grows more corrupt. The physical representation of his actions through the painting frustrates Dorian, but he sinks deeper into his life of sin. Someone might think that seeing a physical representation of his sin would make Dorian think twice about his actions, but it does not. Dorian continues to commit horrible crimes and his portrait becomes more ugly. Dorian Gray “remains young and beautiful, while the portrait grows steadily older and more hideously ugly, manifesting in its deformity the moral corruption of Dorian's ‘soul’” Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray, is a young man who sits for portraits painted by Basil Hallward. The portraits show his true beauty and youth. In the beginning of the novel Dorian, Basil, and Harry have a conversation about the portraits and how Dorian wishes that the portrait would age instead of his so he could keep his beauty forever. While Dorian begins his evil deeds, he notices that as he had wished, the portrait grew uglier as he became more monstrous. Because his body does not age and become ugly, the increasingly ugly portrait becomes the physical representation of his monstrosity. Dorian hides the portrait from everyone because he is ashamed of what he has done. As Dorian becomes more and more corrupt, the portrait grows uglier and a more realistic representation of Dorian’s true