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The picture of dorian gray moral
The reason behind the picture of Dorian Gray
Society in the picture of dorian gray
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When an artist composes a great piece of work, he puts his heart into it. Part of that person is invested into its creation, which makes it more than just a statue in the park, or a picture on a wall. In Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, more than the artist's heart is put into his painting. Basil Hallward, an artist, paints an amazing lifelike portrait of a man named Dorian Gray. From the moment that these two men met, it was clear that Hallward was infatuated with Gray, and there are several indirect references in the book that he is in love with him-though the author never states either is a homosexual.
The painting changes Dorian's life in ways unimaginable. After the portrait is created, Dorian stops aging over time. The painting on the other hand, ages with the years and grows older like a real human being would. This picture is a driving force in Dorian's life, and while he was once a very good person, his conscience was in the painting that led him to lead a corrupt life causing tragedy to others.
On the final pages of the book, Dorian becomes fed up with what the painting makes him do, and after murdering Hallward, the creator of the evil painting, he decides to get rid of this dreaded piece of art once and for all. Dorian takes the same knife that he killed Hallward with, and stabs the portrait of his older self. A sudden scream echo's, leading the servants to his room a short time later. There, dead on the floor, is an old unrecognizable man who they find out is Dorian. The only evidence that this thing was once Dorian Gray was by the rings on his hands. He lay there, dead on the floor, with a knife stabbed through his heart. Hanging on the wall was a portrait of his, but it was him in his younger years-his youth.
He spent his last living moments as a young person, as he had since the picture was painted.
Within The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde depicts two characters that follow the philosophy of Walter Pater. These two characters are Dorian Gray and Henry Wotton. They both embody Pater’s ideal of placing as much enjoyment in one’s short life as possible. While Dorian learns of Pater’s philosophy from Henry he soon exceeds his teacher and becomes invested within the philosophy of living life to the fullest. Dorian exceeds Henry in Pater’s philosophy through his active experimentation and desire for beauty, but Dorian fails to live up to all of Pater’s expectations due to his inability to separate morality for art.
At his later years of life he got a wife and had two little girls. He was still the same artist, he was before. His past helped him out a lot. It made him work a lot harder to achieve his goals cause as a young child he didn't put much effort into anything unlike now. During his life he accomplished many different things, for example, he got one of his paintings in a museum. He
painting would age instead of him. He gets his wish in a most eerie way; as, with
he had troubles with finances, he had familial issues, and he had issues in his romantic pursuits. But, instead of letting himself be crushed under the weight of his troubles, he took a stand and created beautiful paintings out of it.
The first thing the painting reminded one of was a drug addict and his drug. After Dorian brought the painting home and realized that it was aging and he wasn’t, he hid it under a screen. Eventually, he hid it away in a locked room because his servants were curious as to why he had kept it covered. Yet, even though he was ashamed of it, he kept going into the room to study the portrait, such as an addict going back for more supplies.
The idea that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a heavily aesthetic novel is very true because the central theme of the novel is that art should only exist to be art.
Dorian Gray shows how much he gave up to pursue his obsession when he said that his fiancé’s suicide was melodramatic and unnecessary (Wide 88-89). Obsession causes Dorian to indulge all forms of self-pleasure, whether moral or immoral, and to disregard the value of his own soul to preserve his transient beauty. The portrait that Basil Hallward painted acted as a mirror to his soul’s state and grows revolting each time he indulges in immoral acts, which inhibit him from focusing on what is truly important. It was only until the end when he kills himself does his soul reverts back to his inner beauty as shown in his portrait (Wilde 197). Wilde shows us how conformity can push us to obsess something that we don’t truly believe and ignore all other aspects that actually lead to our good lives. Through Dorian Gray, we are taught that we need to stand by our beliefs and not lose ourselves in other people’s beliefs. Wilde teaches the audience that we need to hold onto some core beliefs and elements that we hold near and dear to
Many readers are able to interpret what caused Dorian Gray’s downfall throughout the novel of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Some would say it was the influence of the character Lord Henry, however, I believe it to be the yellow book Lord Henry gives to Dorian as a gift. The book symbolizes the indirect branch of control that Lord Henry places over Dorian Gray. Since the very beginning of Lord Henry and Dorian Gray’s relationship, Lord Henry has been influencing Dorian with his hedonistic insights.
In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde readers are presented with a vast depiction of the art of immorality in the face of ignorant innocence portrayed by the character Dorian Gray. In the beginning it seems to be a quaint novel on artistry and the paradoxical relationship between two lifelong friends by the name of Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. The plot takes a surprising twist when introduced to the real center of attention, the character of the seemingly innocent Dorian Gray. Upon this introduction Wilde then begins to tell the tale of what a life of secrecy and deception will lead to without the consciousness of a moral threshold and the inescapable burden of Dorians horrid accumulation of sins. The deception begins with a simple shout out to the heavens for the impossible to be granted. This then flourishes into unspeakable acts caused by an Egyptian statue, bringing misfortune to Dorian Gray by giving him exactly what he so desperately desires, thus teaching the world a lesson. Not everything we so strongly desire the world to provide is good for the soul.
The portrait of Dorian Gray represents his inner beauty. The longer Dorian Gray stays beautiful on the outside the worse his personality gets. That’s why the portrait becomes so ugly in the end that Dorian had to destroy it.
In this novel, we see the corruption of Dorian’s unscathed innocence and his beauty by various outside sources. Dorian first meets Basil, who values Dorian’s beauty so much that he is Basil’s muse for art, his way of living. Basil wants to cherish Dorian forever, and wants to keep him for himself. Additionally, at first, he cherishes Dorian’s beauty more than he does his personality. As an artist, Basil is completely enamored by Dorian’s beauty, and he says, “what the invention of oil-painting was to the Venetians, the face of Antinous was to late Greek sculpture, and the face of Dorian Gray will some day be to me” (Wilde 12).
The picture of Dorian held significant meaning over several of its characters. A prime example is the meaning of the picture to its creator, Basil, and his reactions to it. To Basil, it is a masterpiece that represents his aesthetic ideal, but he fears that he poured too much of himself into it (Raby 3960). Basil, after Dorian complains about the paintings mocking beauty, tries to destroy it so it doesn't harm their friendship (Sobczak 1506). Basil vows to never put the picture to be exhibited but refuses to state why (Sobczak 1507).
Because Dorian’s soul does not reside in his body, but in a portrait, he experiences a number of curious circumstances. First, Dorian’s body does not age. It remains the same as it was on...
Dorian Gray's life is dictated by his physical appeal. His beauty lies within his youth. Dorian's perception of beauty allows him to love. He is convinced that his beauty allows him to accomplish anything he desires regardless of the consequences and still be loved by his friends. He uses his beauty to mitigate his evil actions. Dorian says, “I don't wish to know anything about them. I love scandals about other people, but scandals about myself don't interest me. They have not got the charm of novelty.” Youth and beauty are the most precious things to Dorian. In his life, beauty is of utmost importance. Then he sees the picture of himself, painted by Basil, absorb his sins and this changed his view. “I hope it is not about myself. I am tired of myself tonight. I should like to be somebody else,” Dorian said. He aspired to have had a good life rather than one filled with artificial meaning and beauty. The moral beauty of Doran lies within the portrait of himself. The portrait imitated his life. He finally realized that beauty cannot help him escape his evil actions. He deeply lamemted his wish that the portrait bore the burden of his age an...
He also blames all the misery of his life on the hideous painting of him (152). Dorian 's hatred towards the two pieces of art mirror how Victorian society looks upon art created by people like Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde 's plays, essays and other works of art are looked poorly upon by some in the Victorian era as his work was considered by some to be corrupting. Oscar Wilde, however uses the book The Picture of Dorian Gray to subtly counter these points. “All art us at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril” (4). Oscar Wilde criticizes Victorian culture as he implies that too many people read and analyze the surface or read the symbol, but not both. In order to properly understand a piece of literature the reader must interpret both surface and symbol. Dorian Gray fails to do this as he interprets merely the surface of the portrait and also of the yellow book, but he fails to investigate the symbol of each piece of art. By failing to completely analyze the text he draws terrible conclusions of what the purpose of the book is and as he begins to formulate horrible ideas based off these incomplete conclusions he has drawn from the book. He then proceeds to blame all his corruptness on the book, when in reality it is his poor analysis of the book