A Snowflake Falls Where will a snowflake land? A snowflake flutters from the skies above and is pure and untouched until its final destination, which may be a glorious meadow or a dirty gutter. Staying pure, according to The Picture of Dorian Gray, may be impossible, as it is unknown where that snowflake may land. The fictional novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde, takes place in the Victorian era and is an example of Gothic fiction combining horror and Romanticism. The theme that resonates throughout is eternal youth as Dorian Gray is willing to sacrifice anything to stay young and beautiful. Sibyl Vane represents the theme beautifully as a character with unspoiled purity. Her innocence and amazing talent make her most …show more content…
She goes on to tell her mom about a dream she had and how her prince would take her away and care for her forever. She says, “Prince Charming rules life for us now” (Page 64). Her mother gives her a hard time and tells her that she is a foolish child. Sibyl laughs and really doesn’t care about the reality of the situation because she is in love and that is all that matters to her. She is living life like she is on stage and rehearsing for the marriage scene. Sibyl really thinks she loves Dorian and tells her mom, “I love him because he is like what Love himself should be” (Page 65). Sibyl’s mom reminds her daughter that she doesn’t even know his real name, but Sibyl is very naïve and innocent and although she knows very little about who Dorian really is, she doesn’t really care. She knows he is rich and she knows he is beautiful and she is hopeful that he can save her and care for her. These fantasy-based ideas are obviously not founded on real …show more content…
It is all she is and pretending to be another person is what she is good at. She is not good at real life. On the night that Sibyl realizes that she really loves Dorian, she can’t continue in her play to act like she loves someone else. She tells Dorian, “Even if I could do it, it would be profanation for me to play at being in love” (Page 91). She cannot find a balance between real life and acting. Now that Sibyl chooses reality over make-believe, Dorian is faced with choosing to love who she really is or a character that he finds interesting. She is just a normal, beautiful, real person and not Juliet or Rosalind. Dorian decides that he really does not love Sibyl Vane and he tells her this. Sibyl pleads with him to stay, but he is done and leaves her with his last hurtful comment, “You have disappointed me” (92). Sibyl’s dreams are shattered. Her prince is not going to save her. She is not going to live happily ever after. Sadly, Sibyl feels lost and empty and that she has no other choice but to end her life. The next morning, Dorian changes his mind and writes a passionate letter of apology, but it is too late…Sibyl has committed
(…) I pity any poor woman whose husband is not called Ernest” (p. 912). This ridiculous requirement causes the reader to realize that the characters’ strange concept of a functional relationship and the simplified view of love is somehow a social norm in that period. Another evidence of a foolish behavior is when Gwendolen and Cecily first meet. Wilde problematizes a social norm that corresponds to women’s behavior which is that women are known to change their minds. Once Gwendolen meets Cecily she immediately says “Something tells me that we are going to be great friends. I like you already more than I can say” (p. 913). After a short conversation and realizing that they are both engaged to Ernest Worthing, instead of being furious at the man who, as they thought, had proposed to both of them, they argue about whose right it is to marry the liar. Then, ironically, Gwendolen says “From the moment I saw you I distrusted you. I felt that you were false and deceitful” (p. 916). The reader recognizes both humor and hopelessness in the situation. This
Dorian uses his appearance as a facade of masculinity. Because he lacks self confidence in who he is as a person, he sells his soul for a lifetime of youth. He offers the one part of himself that makes a human an individual in order to save the wrapping paper that masks the true gift of personality. He becomes so focused on hiding his lack of self confidence that he wastes the time he could have discovering inward manly traits such as trust, compassion and loyalty. This lack of inward traits allows him to only see the outward beauty of those around him. As he “falls in love” with Sybil Vane, he is mesmerized by her art of acting, not her as a person. Because she searches for love in Dorian in ways not involving only appearance, she loses her ability to act. Her ability to act is the aspect that Dorian falls in love with: not her personality. She loses the trait Dorian has fallen for causing a loss of attraction; “unlike Dorian she prefers the real to the artificial .
In the article, “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality,” Catherine Orenstein attempts to show the contrast between the modern romanticism of marriage and the classic fairy tale’s presentation of them (285). She looks at the aristocratic motivations for marriage and the way these motivations are prominent in Cinderella. She then looks at the 20th century to highlight the innate difference of our mentalities, showing a much more optimistic and glorified relationship. In the article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja claims that Cinderella’s success can be attributed to her craftiness (288). She shows her and her mother as an equal to the stepfamily, analyzing each family’s goals and values. She attempts to show their similarities,
In his search for hedonistic pleasure, Dorian Gray ruins many reputations and is the cause of a few deaths. Even Basil points out that Dorian is linked to destroyed lives, realizing that “One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours [Dorian’s] seem to lose all sense of honor, of goodness, of purity. You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there” (143). This is why Sibyl kills herself because after being introduced to pleasure, she cannot act anymore and Dorian unreasonably rejects her. Consequently, after hearing of Sibyl’s death, Dorian is grief-stricken, but quickly recovers and becomes an insensitive Lord Henry clone again: “You [Dorian] were the most unspoiled creature in the whole word. Now, I [Basil] don’t know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you. It is all Harry’s influence” (104). Instead of truly acce...
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a rich story which can be viewed through many literary and cultural lenses. Oscar Wilde himself purposefully filled his novel with a great many direct and indirect allusions to the literary culture of his times, so it seems appropriate to look back at his story - both the novel and the 1945 film version - in this way.
However, the nature of this love is different in each story. In “Araby”, it is an innocent, pure, platonic feeling that completely changes the life of the character exerting an enormous influence on his psychological state. The boy has lost interest in everyday life. He cannot concentrate on his studying; he does not play with his friends; he can think about nothing else except for his beloved. For him, the lady is like a symbol of blissful happiness, a goddess; his love to her is sacred: “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand” (108).It explains the strong feeling of the boy for the girl. With Eveline, the situation is different. It is difficult to say for sure whether she indeed loves Frank or not. She thinks about him only as about a person who will help her to achieve her aim. She does not feel any tenderness, any passion to him –any of those feelings that are associated with real love. For her, the young man is a means, although she does not consciously treat him like that. She praises his virtues seeing that Frank is “kind, manly, open-hearted” (3), that he is interesting as a personality; she is proud to be his beloved. Still, it seems that Eveline is not in love with him. She admits that “it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him” (3). She is simply pleased to have a
In Perrault’s story, the young prince immediately falls in love with a young woman who “…was dressed like his great-grandmother” (11) and marries her immediately. The story was to be a shock, however, the young prince did not tell about it. Perrault says, “The Prince told him: That he lost his way in the forest as he was hunting, and that he had lain in the cottage of a charcoal-burner, who gave him cheese and brown bread” (12).Being so blinded by his love, it conquered his life enough to tell a lie, in which Perrault says, “The King, his father, who was a good man, believed him; but his mother could not be persuaded it was true…” (12). The King is so blinded by the happiness from his son’s love to ignore what may have happened. Blinding love, however, can come in multiple different ways. Many times this love comes as the love for materialistic goods. The King is never truly in love with his queen but instead her money, in which Perrault says, “… The King would never had married her had it not been for her vast riches…” (12). ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬The King only saw the money before him and that’s all. He never saw the queen and that’s why they are so different. With the money in sight, he lost the view of true
As Dorian descends deeper into the depths of his depravity, the audience loses faith in him. His innocent, childlike and charitable qualities, seen in his philanthropy and petulance when he is first introduced, are lost, and he acts cruelly and selfishly. For example, when his lover, Sibyl Vane, performs on stage and fails to meet Dorian’s expectations, Wilde fashions Dorian’s reaction to be callous and bitter to her so that the reader sympathizes with Sibyl. The juxtaposition of Dorian’s incredible devotion and his sudden hatred of Sibyl Vane creates shock and makes the reader realize Dorian’s injustice to his lover. When he first meets Sibyl, Dorian is enamored by her beauty and talent.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
...on Dorian has resulted in him to influence Sibyl’s actions. Once Dorian claimed that he no longer wanted to be with Sibyl, she got on her knees and begged him to not leave her. Regardless of her attempt to make him stay, she failed and later committed suicide by taking drinking prussic acid. Dorian was a strong influence on Sibyl. She loved him and admired him, and as soon as he rejected her, she took made irrational decisions because he had such a strong impact on her.
Oscar Wilde was a writer that appreciated writing style more than the actual substance in literary pieces. In his only finished piece, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde accomplished perfection. He shows his skillful ability to poignantly use figures of speech, we can also infer that he has astonishing mastery in his wording and use of vocabulary when he describes different characters, places, and settings. Something that is also noticeable in this novel is the point of view that allows the reader to dip into the minds of the characters and see the full picture of the story.
Dorian preferred to address her as “an actress” rather than revealing her name to Lord Henry (Wilde, 34). This is the first clue Wilde gives us about Dorian’s shallow love. Dorian never tries to identify the real Sibyl, as he is deeply embedded in her art. When Lord Henry invited him to dine with him, but Dorian declined his request and said, “ To-night she is Imogen...tomorrow night she will be Juliet.” (Wilde 40). This made Henry question him, “when is she Sibyl?”. Still unclear about Henry’s intentions Dorian proudly answered, “never” (Wilde 40). Therefore, it is evident that he is in love with actress Sibyl, not the real Sibyl Vane. It is so sad that he always sees her as an actress, but within minutes Henry guessed Dorian is not really in love and he tried to divulge his views to Dorian, but it was fruitless. Henry’s efforts might have failed with Dorian, but it’s an eye opener for the readers. When someone is in love they would talk about them not their professio...
Vane, presents herself as one who feeds off her daughter’s youth to feel young. She pertains a strong desire of living her life through Sibyl’s young life as an actress who has a secret relationship with young, wealthy Dorian Gray, which disconnects her from protecting or paying any acknowledgment to her children. Oscar Wilde describes her obsessive response about the great things of youth during her discussion with James about Dorian Gray when she remarks, “…if this gentleman is wealthy, there is no reason why she should not contract an alliance with him. I trust that he has all of the aristocracy. He has all the appearance of it, I must say… his good looks are really quite remarkable; everybody notices them” (Wilde 47). With the remarks made by Mrs. Vane, Oscar Wilde’s attempt to express the thought of youth, with even those in the slumps, as a lifestyle worth looking forward too and how an appealing, physical appearance of youth is something that everyone wants as an expression for high
Vane - Sibyl and James’s mother. Mrs. Vane is a faded actress who has consigned herself and her daughter to a tawdry theater company, the owner of which has helped her to pay her debts. She conceives of Dorian Gray as a wonderful alliance for her daughter because of his wealth; this ulterior motive, however, clouds her judgment and leaves Sibyl vulnerable, In The Picture of Dorian Gray mrs. van is Sybil mother and she is portrayed as a selfish golden gold digging mother. She wants her daughter symbol to marry a man for his social status and money which is wrong because she had married a man for love and comfort. It is always wrong to marry someone for their money because there 's more to a person than just materialistic
Oscar Wilde’s 19th century The Picture of Dorian Gray portrays a young, naïve man, Dorian Gray, who begins to change because of Lord Henry Wotton’s negative influence on him; likewise, Dorian influences Sibyl Vane as a result of Henry’s influence on him. Because of Henry’s influence, Dorian’s attitude towards women and his respect for women change for the worse. Because of Dorian’s influence on Sibyl, she commits suicide.