Theme Of Appearance In Dorian Gray

The mentor, Basil tries to use his influence over Dorian to keep him away from a life of sin and pleasure. The devil figure, Lord Henry uses his influence to get Dorian to follow a life of pleasure, and uses the yellow book to reinforce that. Wilde shows that bad influence overtakes good influence, as the bad influence Dorian is under corrupts him and leads him to kill the good influence in his life, Basil. Dorian is so corrupted by the bad influence that it leads to his ultimate destruction.

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.

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

Dorian understood why he was being punished and the picture was his physical way of knowing he was doing wrong. Everyone has a voice that tells them if they are right or wrong. By choosing not to listen to the voice we put ourselves at risk, and in the case of Dorian it led him to his

His words and painting influenced Dorian’s life immensely and this made him so determined to want to retain his youth after taking a look at his

Basil has come to ask Dorian about all the horrible rumors surrounding him, and hopes they turn out false. Basil also asks about the portrait and why Dorian hides it, so Dorian decides to show him his “to see your soul. But only God can do that—you shall see it yourself to-night!”. Dorian then takes Basil to see his picture, which at first cannot be recognized by Basil, but soon he realizes the true horror of the situation, “an exclamation of horror broke out from the painter’s lips as he saw in the dim light the hideous face on the canvas grinning at him” (Wilde 113). Dorians soul has become rotten to the core with selfishness and pleasure, mainly because of Lord Henry’s poisonous words.

The researcher decides Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned to be the objects of the study on inferiority and superiority complex causing hedonistic lifestyle in main character. The first reason, both of literary works cover the changing of each life of the main character, society and ultimately the individual. Second, they both share the same social background of the main character in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian, displays a well-respected young man. He doesn’t recognize his own beauty until he sees it reflected in Basil’s portrait, and, once he does, it’s all too late. While Anthony in The Beautiful and Damned is illustrates reaching pleasure as the lifestyle and it becomes a habit.

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.

(Wilde 23). This conversation leads Dorian to wish that he will only age in the painting, and not in reality. Wilde creates a theme of superficiality as he shows through motifs and symbols how Dorian’s sinful and horrific inner beauty becomes excused as the characters of the novel primarily superficially values Dorian’s outer beauty. A main motif that helps Wilde illustrate the theme of superficiality is the colour white.

At the end of the book, he has lost all of his innocence and gained cruelty. Bad company and objects are what causes Dorian Gray 's corruption. Basil Hallward is a painter who wants to paint Dorian 's picture. He is a quiet and unchangeable man. When he first meets Dorian, they talk about how it was destiny for them to meet.

Morality and The Picture of Dorian Gray “The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.” C.G. Jung The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, was first published in 1890, right in the middle of the Victorian Era, an era that was characterized by its conservatism. Ever since, and due to the content of the book, it has been condemned as immoral. Furthermore, on 1891, Wilde published a preface protecting his book from public punishment in which he said “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

As years pass the picture ages like a real person would age, but it not only grows older, but uglier because of his actions. The picture is the mirror of Dorian 's soul, as he commits terrible actions the picture becomes

Dorian Gray is a handsome, narcissistic young man enthralled by Lord Henry 's new enjoyment. He satisfies in every pleasure of moral and immoral life ultimately heads to death. Henry tells

His views, opinions and influences captivated by Dorian Gray which continuously encourages Dorian Gray into bad things. The third main character is Basil Hallward who was an artist that paints a picture of Dorian Gray and thus, becomes obsessed with him as Dorian Gray’s beauty was Basil’s art object. Basil feelings towards Dorian were left unclear, likely because in that time, those who involved in homosexual are going to be punish be society. ‘The Picture Of Dorian Gray’ book, Oscar Wilde emphasized some relationships which were Basil Hallward and Lord Henry were friends of Dorian Gray, but, as I reach to the middle pages, Basil had feelings for Dorian Gray as he even confessed to Dorian in Dorian’s

He is horrified by this and grows a hatred for Basil Hallward, the artist of the portrait and one of his closest friends. Basil makes a comment to Dorian about how he could never commit any sin and Dorian snaps, he takes Basil to the attic where he has been hiding the painting and forces him to look upon his changed work. In a fit of rage, Dorian kills Basil: “He rushed at him, and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind his ear, crushing the man’s head down on the table, and stabbing again and again” (Wilde 151). Dorian’s obsession with beauty was the force which pushed him to commit countless sins and even drove him to commit murder, and eventually suicide. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the perfect example of a Dark Romantic novel, it focuses on sin, dark beauty, and the literal and metaphorical self-destruction that comes from