Essay Comparing The Picture Of Dorian Gray And Narcissus

In the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Dorian can be seen as a modern day narcissus. The whole novel portrays characteristics from the Greek mythological story about Narcissus and his love for himself. Dorian and Narcissus can be seen in the same way, for they both have narcissistic personalities. Their personalities is what carry the plot throughout the two stories and have such an impact on what happens. The Picture of Dorian Gray and the tale of Narcissus both show the common plot of a young male being in love with himself, which in the end, results in the tragedy of the two stories. In the story The Picture Dorian Gray he slowly destroys himself with his narcissistic tendencies. With the encouragement from Lord Henry, Dorians narcissism only grows. While Dorian 's

Narcissus was also a man of youth and beauty of his time, he had many people fall in love with him; however, “he only showed them, disdain and contempt.” (Narcissus Mythological Story). When Echo fell for him, he told her not to bother him anymore. So she roamed the woods until she withered away to nothing, ultimately killing herself, much as Sibyl Vane did over Dorian. Nemesis learned what he had done and as punishment showed him, himself in a river and there he stayed watching himself as he fell more in love. Once he realized it was only a reflection he became depressed and committed suicide. Both Dorian Gray and Narcissus destroy themselves with narcissistic tendencies through both novels. They destroy not only who they were before, but they destroy sibyl vane and echo also. Once Dorian basically makes sibyl kill herself, he sees himself as a monster which only makes the plot of the novel go farther, this is what makes him obsessed with the portrait. Narcissus with rejecting echo gets what he deserves as he falls madly in love with himself and slowly realizes he could not actually have himself as a partner which destroy him mentally and