Cruelty plays a vital role in developing the plot and characters in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Throughout the piece, many acts of cruelty are displayed from Dorian Gray and others that show truly who they are how they've developed from it. Dorian takes on a huge change in his morals and standards because of the influence taken in from others. This influence causes him to only care about his own youth and vanity, resulting in a huge change of personality. The more Dorian becomes influenced by Lord Henry and the painting, the crueler he becomes Right at the start of the story Basil Hallward, who is somewhat obsessive over the young and beautiful Dorian Gray, decides to paint a portrait in his praise. Unbeknownst to Basil, Dorian had been speaking to Lord …show more content…
Dorian fame, youth, and beauty attracts the innocent young actor, and the two fall in love. At Sibyl’s performance of Romeo and Juliet, she completely botches the acting. This enrages Dorian and he goes backstage to confront her. Dorian claims he does not love her anymore and Sibyl runs to her dressing room where she poisons herself out of heartbreak. In conversation with Lord Henry, Dorian says, “I was terribly cruel to her. You forget that.” then quickly follows up with, “You have explained to me myself, Harry, I felt all that you have said but somehow I was afraid of it, and I could not express it to myself.” (Wilde, 90). Dorian is continuing on the path of no return. He was incredibly cruel towards Sibyl Vane and caused her to commit suicide. Due to Lord Henry’s influence he does not blame himself, yet he blames Sibyl for acting poorly. As the cruel actions continue Dorian gets deeper and deeper into the lifestyle of Lord Henry, to the point where he shrugs off a loved one's death as it is nothing. Sibyl’s purely innocent personality contrasted with Dorian’s cruel and hedonistic life which shows just how Dorian is developing as a
Wilde writes about it being “perfectly charming”. The chapter then is corrupted by Lord Henry's influence on page 17. This structure of chapter continues through the first 10 chapters and then shifts to fill a more gothic idea. The setting becomes more ominous with the environment having blinding “fog” (Wilde 147) and the “cold rain”(Wilde 184). As corruption is about to take over Dorian's life he becomes blinded by the “lovely night” and environment again.
These last two characters share many virtues as part of their personality and other ones that show how their differences make them unique. The main difference is in the relationship each one of them has with Dorian Gray. While a casual reading of Oscar Wilde’s book The Picture of Dorian Gray shows that Lord Henry Wotton has mutual interest friendship with Dorian, while Basil Hallward has a friendship with Dorian founded on admiration, which reveals that Harry’s values are based on mutual interest with others and Basil’s values have to do more with dedication and compromise. For instance, Lord Henry’s values are shown mostly in Dorian’s dialogue and in his relation with Dorian. In various occasions, the novel’s main character talks about the way he sees Wotton and his qualities.
Dorian is a young man who is not yet fully formed in his thinking and has a very handsome appearance. Basil is instantly taken with him and finds that he wants Dorian all to himself. The way Basil influences Dorian isn 't through words but rather through his actions. He idolizes him.
1. The Picture of Dorian Gray exhibits several aspects of the Victorian era, such as the gentility and decorum associated with the “Gentleman”. There are also references to various Victorian era works of art and literature. One Victorian era conflict was the Opium epidemic. On pages 86-90, Dorian goes to an Opium den, which is a specific instance of the Victorian influence.
Crocker: What is going on in your mind, Ominica? Dorian 's life was terrible because of the immoral things he did, not because each action had consequences. Just because he was handsome does not mean he was happy. If you look at the novel, you see him trying to change himself and even tells you (Points to Lord Henry) that he was going to change.
Basil attempts desperately to lead Dorian to decency, to hold onto the perfect image of Dorian, being the one and only force of goodness in his life. He cannot accept the reality of Dorian’s actions after being influenced by Lord Henry. Basil’s good nature can be seen through the fact that he never loses faith that Dorian can change his ways and become the innocent, naïve boy he once painted and loved unconditionally. This goodness backfires after Dorian kills Basil. He had reached a point in his life in which he had lost his consciences and his corruption was out of control.
Sybil’s ability to separate herself from the reality and transform into whom ever she desired, was subconsciously longed for by Dorian. The captivating play put on by Sybil demonstrates to Dorian that there is potential to transform one’s self. It is Dorian’s chase to become a fictional-like character, that made him fall in love with an actress. When Sybil could no longer posses the skill to transform into another character, Dorian losses interest because she was not able to fulfill the role of the muse she initially was sought out to be.
Talks about insecurity, emptiness and loneliness. You feel like no one loves you and you reflect on those feelings of self-hatred and insecurity and trying to overcome them. The Dorian Gray in Basil 's painting is the “real or original” Dorian Gray. He is young, pure, and whose innocence is literally painted on his face. However, throughout the story the painting shows who Dorian is.
Lord Henry is known as the person that turns an innocent boy named Dorian Gray into a cruel vile murderer. Some of the comments stated by Lord Henry are seen as cynical however there is controversy on whether or not he truly means these statements or rather they are just for effect on the story. I believe Lord Henry doesn’t mean these comments completely based on his actions in the book. The author of the book The Picture of Dorian Gray was Oscar Wilde. Wilde was known as a very eccentric kind of fellow.
In my opinion, this is a good example of the futility of the society that he’s inserted in. Lord Henry is one of the main influences in the change of Dorian, because he is the one that gave him awareness of the power of beauty and youth, and the one who gave him the yellow book that opened is mind to unthinkable possibilities; but he’s not the only one that takes him to a life of promiscuity and addictions. We are all free to choose between good and evil, and, before Dorian met Basil, he didn’t had a strong notion of reality, and when he got aware of it, he was frightened; he didn’t wanted to lose the charms of his
At the start of the novel we see him admiring and borderline idolizing Dorian for his beauty. However, he leaves it at just that. He accepts Dorian for who he is and does not view his youth as an excuse to try and mold him into the kind of person he wants him to be. When Dorian chooses to be influenced by Lord Henry, he cautions him, but does not actually try to stop him; however, this pattern does not continue for long. Over time, Basil begins to scold Dorian and attempt to nudge him into what he believes is the right direction.
“Because you have the most marvellous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having” (Wilde 29). This sentence became the root that sets in the mind of Dorian Gray which in turn instils the fear of aging. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde first published in July 1890 on the magazine of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine and immediately caused an uproar due to its perceived allusion to homosexuality as it was an assault on the repressive Victorian Era during that time.
It is here where he meets a young actress, Sibyl Vane. Dorian return’s several times, and falls in love with Sibyl. Dorian’s love for the actress makes him question Lord Henry’s philosophy, even though he realizes it was Lord Henry’s philosophy that has motivated him to go into the theater for adventure in the first place. A later performance, in which he convinced Basil and Lord Henry to attend, is dreadful, and terribly embarrasses Dorian. Dorian’s rebuke of Sibyl is swift and brutal, a fact that he finds gratifying.
Dorian Gray Gone Wilde Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray supports the idea that one should be careful what they wish for, as it may come true. Dorian Gray, the main character, makes a wish that a painting will change instead of him throughout his future. In the novel of The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, the deterioration of Dorian Gray, and the way he progressively becomes a worse of a person shows how the author, Oscar Wilde, added himself into the novel as a character to show the world how he sees himself. He is portrayed as childish and unaware of the events happening around him. Dorian Gray ruins his future by committing a multitude of sins that later in life he realizes he cannot fix.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is written by a popular writer, Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde are famous because of his poetry and short stories but this is his only novel. The genre of this story are classic horror story. This story show us how a man turned to be a killer for his own personal needs and desire. He desire for his portrait will get aging instead of him and he will remain young forever.