Dorian Gray And The Lady Of Shallot: Stepping Out Of The Shadows

1135 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary criticism of the picture of dorian gray

During one’s life, one must step out into the real world and experience all of what the world has to offer. In order to attain a well-balanced life both mentally and socially, one may seek any way possible to live life to the fullest. We were put on this earth to live- not just simply by breathing in and out everyday, and making life the best it can possibly be. It has been said that you have not really died if you have lived. This theory has been applied to several pieces of literature. In the book The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and “The Lady of Shallot” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, two characters have not lived their life to the fullest extent. In the aforementioned literature, the characters of Sibyl Vane and the Lady of Shallot lived their lives through the invulnerability of constant security.

Sibyl Vane is an actress who is greatly devoted to her acting career. She is so consumed by her realm of acting that she does not experience the many other aspects and joys that life has to offer. All her heart, soul, and mind is put into her hobby, as it envelops her entire existence. Sibyl solely depends on this mindset to carry her throughout her life.

Leading a life similar to that of Sibyl Vane’s is the Lady of Shallot. In this poem, she is condemned to weaving and forbidden to ever look out of her window down to the wonderful city of Camelot. If she should look down, a terrible curse shall be laid upon her. Both Sibyl Vane and the Lady of Shallot are artists who lead very sheltered lives and have an unfortunate fate ahead of them. Before the story beings, Oscar Wilde describes the effects that art has on a person. He states, “All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbols do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors (Wilde 3).”

These sheltered lives allow the women to remain in their safe little worlds, apart from what other ways of life the world has to offer. In order for them to lead a less “curtained” life, they needed to take more chances in hopes of more goodness and reality to welcome into their lives. When speaking to Dorian Gray, Sibyl’s lover, Sibyl admits that her life was consumed by the theatre. She confesses:

…Before I knew you, acting was the one reality of my life. It was only in the theatre that I lived…. I believed in e...

... middle of paper ...

... quite possibly not have been what they were. Experience in dealing with the outside world would have strengthened them to be more independent, stronger people.

Furthermore, a broader lesson of these works of literature would be to just get out there and live. Step off the stage, step out of the tower, and hide the mirror. Perhaps take a chance once in a while. Do not just go through the motions of life, and live it to the fullest extent. One can lead a more happy, fearless life if he or she can really go out and experience it.

In conclusion, the writings The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and “The Lady of Shallot” by Alfred Lord Tennyson convey certain lessons of life. The characters of Sibyl Vane and the Lady of Shallot lived their lives through the sanctity of constant security, and died as a direct result of their shadows. During one’s life, one must step out into the real world and out of the shadows. In order to be balanced both mentally and socially, an individual may pursue any way possible to live life to one’s high expectations. Do not get caught up in life’s shadows. Step out of the darkness and into the light, hoping to not be consumed by the invulnerability

Show More
Related

  • Janie and Hester: Dealt Unfair Hands But Played the Game

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both awe-inspiring and indescribable is life, the defined “state of being” that historians and scholars alike have been trying to put into words ever since written language was first created. And in the words of one such intellectual, Joshua J. Marine, “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”. Essentially, he is comparing life to a bowl of soup. Without challenges or hardship into which we can put forth effort and show our potential, it becomes a dull and flavorless broth. But for characters in novels like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the difficulties and trials that we all must face can transfigure the mundane liquid mixture of existence into a vibrant and fulfilling gumbo. The protagonists of these works are two strong-willed and highly admirable women, who prevail in the face of overwhelming odds stacked in everyone’s favor but theirs. In their trying periods of isolation brought about by cold and unwelcoming peers, particularly men, they give their lives meaning by simply pushing forward, and living to tell the tale.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Life In The Play Our Town By Thornton Wilder

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    People has times that they are looking forward to. The times such as childhood, schooling help lead us through our life. While this way of thinking has many positive side, we forget the appreciation of all details of the moments. We see the moments in Thornton Wilder's play “Our Town”. This play takes us to a small town in New England and we see how simple it is, to the point where we may get bored to our lives. After looking through the events in the play we might have see as big and important described as relatively simple and straightforward, we begin to question how important that these events are in our life. Not like Emily realize how much of life was ignored until death. But after death, she can see how much everyone goes through life without noticing the events that are occurring all the time.

    Read More

  • Gothic Characterism In Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    On the other hand, in The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde presents London as a dystopia. Through the senses of Dorian Gray, the reader travels through the surface of London as if the observers are tourists. The surface depicts the adoration of London, such as the park full of flowers, the sociable beings, and the warm weather. However, as we travel with Gray deeper into the story, we see the repulse of London, such as the opium den, the cold and foggy weather, and the death of Sibyl Vane. Wilde presents these kinds of horrid images only in the night, as to warn of the dangers that will be cleaned by morning.

    Read More

  • How Does Henry David Thoreau Use Repetition In Walden

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel Walden, transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau proclaims the importance of recognizing a determined life built from the parameters of society. He declares, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” (Thoreau 261). In this quote, Thoreau utilizes the literary device of repetition to emphasize the importance of mastering the skill of not letting the unimportant and insignificant matters infiltrate one’s life and not letting others choose one’s actions. Another example of an adamant life is unraveled in Emily Dickinson’s inspiring poem “A Light Exists in Spring.” In the poem, she reveals that, “It passes and we stay/A quality of loss/Affecting our Content” (Dickinson 268). Arguably, this demonstrates that many people struggle with the pursuit of happiness because individuals allow outside influences to change or to decide what one does; this shows that people will often times go along with the raging river of the status quo to later be washed ashore and deserted alone on an island, an island called self. Ultimately, it is essential to observe that by realizing that one lives a dictated life the pursuit of happiness takes one step closer towards breaking away from the overbearing pressures of conformity and the status

    Read More

  • Extended Metaphor, Utilized by Anne Bradstreet and Robert Frost

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...oices that approach in life for his extended metaphor throughout his poem. The lives’ of the speakers are evident in each poem whether there are faults or decidable opportunities for that speaker. Along with the continued use of the metaphors to create the extended metaphors, there were also several uses of personification and imagery. The speakers and authors had different yet comparable themes. As extended metaphors they shared slightly similar themes of life from Anne Bradstreet’s idea of flaws in writing during one's life and Robert Frost’s theme of deciding which path to take in life.

    Read More

  • Essay On Monstrosity In The Picture Of Dorian Gray

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    Monstrosity is not just defined by disfigurement, but also by the actions and obsessions of man. Most, if not all, tales of monsters often came about as exaggerations of sins and immoral actions. Others see men who become too obsessed with the idea of overstepping their own humanity and playing God as monsters in society. Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray reflect this idea. While the painting and the creation mirror the monstrous nature and the sin Gray and Frankenstein enact throughout the course of each novel, both Dorian Gray and Victor Frankenstein are the true monsters.

    Read More

  • Life as a Prostitute in The Painted Cohorts

    2390 Words  | 5 Pages

    She stands beneath the streetlight and waits for the theatre to open its doors. She looks toward the ground, knowing her unworthy position in her culture, and waits for a person to understand her circumstances, to see her not as the prostitute but as the woman who needs money, love, passion, or excitement to replace the emptiness that led her to first begin her walk on these streets.

    Read More

  • The Works of T.S. Eliot and Yulisa Amadu Maddy

    990 Words  | 2 Pages

    experiences are reflected in their writing. Both of these writers present the reader with the concept of human mortality in such a way that not only is the fear of death prevalent in their work, but also the love of life.

    Read More

  • Free Essays on Picture of Dorian Gray: Dorian as Faust

    3302 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Shalott

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alfred Lord Tennyson offers oblique reflection on a number of major Victorian themes and subjects in his poem “The Lady of Shalott”. The most prominent theme that appears in the poem is the idea of passion and love in a woman. The poem is simply about the way women were suppressed from their feelings and everything else during the Victorian era. Tennyson’s poem shows the commentary of society's oppression of women during the Victorian era. Tennyson takes the knowledge of women’s entrapment in society and makes it a literal entrapment in his poem. This essay will argue how passion, love, and women’s oppression is a major theme of the poem and what the commentary it alludes to about the Victorian era.

    Read More

  • The Picture Of Dorian Gray Analysis

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” The aesthetic movement dealt with the nature of art and the simple beauty that is encompasses. Wilde prefaces his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a reflection on the artist, the art, and the value of both. In Oscar Wilde’s novel, Wilde describes his part of the aesthetic movement and bases the events in the novel on his own experiences.

    Read More

  • Anne Finch's Poems

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    While other writers use their poetry to decipher the meaning of life, Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea was busy writing about how to live it. Five of her poems, “Jupiter and the Farmer,” “The Tree,” “The Shepherd Piping to the Fishes,” “Love, Death, and Reputation,” and “There’s No To-Morrow,” convey strong messages to the reader about how to live their lives. In her poetry, Anne Finch uses anecdotes to help illustrate the validity of her statements, thereby providing the reader with a strong, meaningful, and important message about how life should be lived.

    Read More

  • Narrative – My Foolish Faith

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    Life without hope in a dull, frustrating world congeals the stuff of human existence...almost. To some, born-lived-died is more than the plot of too many bad novels; it dooms them, chaining their lives to a Maslowian fate. Others drown the raw truth in unrelenting labor, raucous revelry, sunlit spring breezes, cigarettes at noontime, or the bottle. Yet some find hope in this droll, frustrating world, but they will not agree and cannot be sure of that hope. Or can they?

    Read More

  • Beauty in The Picture of Dorian Gray

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty is depicted as the driving force in the lives of the three main characters, Dorian, Basil and Lord Henry. Dorian, the main character, believes in seizing the day. Basil, the artist, admires all that is beautiful in life. Lord Henry, accredited ones physical appearance to the ability of achieving accomplishments in life. Beauty ordains the fate of Dorian, Basil, and Lord Henry. The novel embodies the relationship of beauty and morality. Beauty is not based on how attractive an object is to everyone, but how attractive it is to one.

    Read More

  • Picture of Dorian Gray: Influence, Corruption and Conscience

    3042 Words  | 7 Pages

    Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, explores the themes of influence, corruption and conscience. “The obvious influence of Lord Henry upon Dorian shows how one may corrupt another to such an extent that one's own conscience withers and dies”(Weintraub 116).

    Read More

More about Dorian Gray And The Lady Of Shallot: Stepping Out Of The Shadows

Open Document