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Lord henry influence on dorian gray
Purpose of the picture of dorian gray
The picture of dorian gray character analysis
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How far would you go to be beautiful forever? In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the main character Dorian Gray took as far as wishing upon a portrait of himself. It all started when a man name Basil Hallward painted a beautiful portrait of a young man. Basil discussed the painting with his close friend, Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry is smart and scandalous man. He believes that this is Basil’s best work and he suggests that he shows it off publicly. Basil admits to Lord Henry that his model in his painting is actually a young man by the name of Dorian Gray. Basil and Dorian met at Lady Brandon’s party. Basil looked over and spotted Dorian. Basil told Henry when he seen Dorian, "A curious sensation of terror came over me" (Wilde, 7). Basil …show more content…
As a child, Oscar attended the Portora Royal School. He graduated in 1871. Oscar was a very smart child. He was given a scholarship to attend Trinity College. He was even rewarded his school’s foundation scholarship, which is one of the highest honor. He later attended Magdalen College in Oxford. Graduation year, Oscar attempted to write poems. He wrote a poem called "Ravenna". The poem won the Newdigate Prize for having the best English verse composition. After graduating from Oxford, Oscar moved to London to continue writing poems then he moved to New York to give a lecture …show more content…
They had 2 sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. Soon after, Oscar wrote his first novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar had a connection with the character Basil Hallward. Basil had more than just friendship with Dorian Gray. Basil was in love him romantically. Around the time Oscar was enjoying his success from his book, Wilde was having an affair with a man named Alfred Douglas. Alfred’s father, the Marquis of Queensberry, got word about his son's affair with Oscar. He went over to Oscar's home and left a note saying "Oscar Wilde: Posing Somdomite", misspelling of sodomite. Oscar was upset by the note and tried to sue him for libel. That was the worst idea he could have done. When the trial started, Queensberry told the court about Oscar's homosexuality. He showed the court love letters that Oscar wrote to Douglas. The judge dismissed the libel case and arrested Wilde for "gross indecency". He was sentenced to two years in prison. Oscar said that "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me: Dorian is what I would like to be". Oscar based The Picture of Dorian Gray off of the feelings that he couldn't express to the
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is a novel written by Oscar Wilde. The story takes place in England, where the artist Basil Hallward paints a portrait of the young and beautiful Dorian Gray. During his stay at the artist’s studio, he gets introduced to Lord Henry who later becomes one of the most influential people in his life. Dorian Gray becomes aware of his amazing beauty and youthfulness due to the portrait and wishes that the portrait ages instead of him. His wish comes true, Dorian remains beautiful and youthful while the portrait changes. Lord Henry becomes his best friend and motivates him to live in abundance, to sin and always strive for beauty. After a while, Dorian discovers that his portrait doesn’t only age, but also changes face expression as a result of all his sins and evil deeds. Dorian gets anxious by the fact that the portrait shows his evil soul and is scared that somebody will see it, therefore he hides it. The portrait haunts Dorian although it’s hidden. As Dorian’s sins gets worse, he feels that he can’t handle the pressure anymore and decides to destroy the portrait that shows his true self.
Wilde later moved to France and got married to a woman named Constance, later bearing two sons with her. The marriage may have been just to cover up his homosexuality because even though he was married, Wilde had a long list of male lovers that basically worshipped the ground he walked on. Throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde makes several hints towards his views of marriage that can be connected to his marriage with Constance. There is a scene in chapter 4 between Lord Henry and Dorian where the subject of marriage is brought up. Lord Henry warns Dorian to “Never marry at all, . . . Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed” (49). Wilde may have been tired in his own marriage, leaving his wife disappointed. If the only reason Wilde married Constance was to say get him off the radar then obviously it would leave the couple disappointed. In order to have a happy marriage, there needs to be a love connection and since Wilde was not attracted to the opposite sex, there were problems. On the other hand, Wilde wrote other pieces like poems and stories that contradicted his homosexuality. In 1895, Wilde was involved in a case with the Marquess of Queensberry. The Marquess of Queensberry denounced Wilde as a homosexual. Why did he accuse him of being a homosexual? It was known that Wilde had been in an affair with the Marquess of Queensburry’s son since 1891. This was a huge shock to the public. Many were disgusted. Once denounced, he then turned around and sued for libel. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of libel is “the act of publishing a false statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone.” While up on the stands, Wilde was asked to explain one of his most well-known quotes “The Love that dare not speak its name.” Wilde’s response explained
The classic novel by Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray inspires beauty, and romance. The main focus of the novel is aesthetics, a philosophical view detailing the nature of creation and appreciation of art and beauty. The tragedy of the young Dorian Gray after becoming misled by his companion, Lord Henry Wotton, is one that causes many to reform ideas on life and purpose. Lord Henry believes in hedonism, a thought stating that pleasure is the only true good; he declares, “The only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and fulfilment of the senses” (Wilde). This outlook is tempting for many persons, including that of the title character, Dorian Gray. In contrast to Lord Henry is an artist named Basil Hallward, whom perceives Dorian to be his muse; serving as inspiration, and purpose. Basil has many moral traits including trust, compassion, and kindness. His infatuation with Dorian causes him to change his art and style, composing an exquisite painting of the young boy. Basil states, “the work I have done, since I met Dorian Gray, is good work, is the best work of my life…his personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style. I see things differently.” (Wilde). Dorian becomes so mesmerized by the beauty of the picture and the words of Lord Henry that he wishes for the picture to depict his sins and age, rather than his physical being. To the surprise of the young Dorian, his wish becomes fulfilled. This theme shares similarity to the Faust story, as the title character exchanges his soul for pleasures
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde introduces Dorian Gray as a mysterious and beautiful young man. He has no opinion and is very similar to a ball of clay, in the sense that he has no opinion and is free to be molded by whoever takes interest in him. Basil and Lord Henry both take interest in the young man. While both praise his physical beauty, Lord Henry wants to turn him into a hedonist minion. He convinces Dorian that he is a perfect candidate to live life according to his pleasure and that Basil is a poor influence upon him. Dorian takes this to heart and lives his life this way. He exchanges the purity of his soul for the beauty of his youth in certain painting. This breaks him down. He becomes less and less welcome by those who once admired him. He gets blackballed from clubs, has promiscuous sex and spends seventy-two hour periods in London’s opium dens. His life of seeking pleasure makes him more and more unhappy. When Basil shows up, he wants some one to sympathize with him and tell him that what he has done is not his fault. During the scene of Basil’s murder, Dorian’s want to be seen as good is apparent, but his unwillingness to accept fault and his corrupt ideology drive him to kill Basil, unveiling a new, malicious side to Dorian Gray.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical fiction novel written by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray is referring to two portraits, first of all is the portrait of Dorian Gray painted by Basil Hallward, the painter in this novel, and the second one is the literary picture of Dorian Gray created by the author in this novel. The physical beauty of the main character of this novel, Dorian, remains unchanged even after 18 years but the painting of Dorian is changing horribly throughout this story to reflect the corruption of Dorian’s soul.
The young and stunning Dorian was always accompanied by stares as he entered a room. Women wanted to be with him and men wanted to be him. Basil described the experience he had in meeting Dorian for the first time: “When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale” (Wilde 16). The simple fact that a male was so taken aback exemplifies the fact that Dorian is visually stunning. However, the budding connection is anything but authentic. The nature of attraction that Basil feels toward Dorian lacks the fundamental structure of a true relationship. The truth is that Basil is attracted toward Dorian purely based on his appearance. He is the model from which Basil is able to create a magnificent painting but beyond that, he is just eye candy. These thoughts are brought to the attention of Dorian through Henry’s continued indoctrination of beliefs. As anguish creeps into the back of Dorian’s brain, he calls out Dorian for only liking him for his looks and questions what the future between them will hold when he begins to grow old: “How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. I know, now. That when one loses one’s good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything” (Wilde 38). This is a driving theme behind that novel that Oscar Wilde consistently advances. It was quite clear that when Basil fist saw
Dorian Gray’s downfall rests in his willingness to sacrifice himself to Lord Henry’s vision. When Lord Henry first meets Dorian Gray, he notices Dorian Gray’s beauty. Lord Henry tells Dorian that youth and beauty are the finest of all treasures, and they should be cherished and guarded because they quickly fade. Recollecting the words of Lord Henry, Dorian first recognizes the extraordinary beauty and youth in the portrait and then is pained by the thought of losing it. He envies the figure in the painting, and wishes, “If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture was to grow old! For that-for that- I would give everything!” (p.28) Lord Henry's words on youth and beauty influence Dorian to make this wish. His wish was granted and the painting will show his sins and his age while Dorian would remain young. As Dorian observes the portrait alter more each time he does something unpleasant, he realizes that ...
In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray goes through the Hero’s Journey because of the challenges he had been through, the way he transformed, and his crisis.
Along these lines, the life of Oscar Wilde and his novel, Dorian Gray can also be compared to that of rock star Freddy Mercury of Queen and their song, "Bohemian Rhapsody." Here we have Oscar Wilde, fun-loving, witty, cynical, decadent kind of guy, undone by his homosexual liaison with Lord Alfred Douglas, languishing in jail for sodomy. A few years previous to this sad turn of events, he writes The Picture of Dorian Gray--about a decadent, immoral murderer, who also has homosexual relations (with various young men who die, become drug addicts, commit suicide, etc.), and who dies a horrible and disfiguring death due to his evil ways. Now, we also have Freddy Mercury, who lived a flamboyant and decadent lifestyle as a sexually ambiguous rock star.
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 all 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). Dorian’s beauty is greatly appreciated by Basil, and he is the one who makes Dorian realize his beauty and charms.
Dorian Gray is a grand Gothic experiment from the moment in Basil Hallward’s studio when he desperately swears that he “would give [his] soul” if only he “was to be always young, and the picture … was to grow old” in his stead (Wilde 28). Even before this moment, Dorian was a test subject of Lord Henry’s, who wanted to see how many of his own ideas he could inject into the boy. This influence rapidly planted in Dorian the ideas of eternal youth and beauty and led to the encasement of his soul in the portrait. After the switch, Dorian not only is under Lord Henry’s influence, but he is also Oscar Wilde’s subject. In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde manipulates Dorian, his surroundings, and his circumstances to capture a realistic portrayal of the character’s downfall by depicting the nature of the body, mind, and soul, and the relationship they share.
Dorian Gray starts off as a young, beautiful man who is loved by many. Because of this, he is all that Basil Hallward, a painter, and Lord Henry Wotton, a nobleman, ever think about. However, they have different ideas on what they want Dorian to become. Their conflicting influences become one of the main conflicts of the book, and this is noticed by Basil. He says, “Don’t spoil him. Don’t try to influence him. Your influence would be bad.” Basil influences Dorian’s choices and actions the most at the beginning of the novel. This is evidenced when Basil says, “He is all my art to me now.” Basil wants Dorian to devote himself to love and selflessness in order to live a happy life. Dorian follows this advice and falls in love with Sibyl Vane, and she becomes another conflict for the novel. He is willing to sacrifice anything for Sibyl, which pleases
Basil Hallward, a painter, knows the corruptive influence that Lord Henry can impose upon his model, Dorian Gray. Basil does not want Lord Henry to even meet Dorian because he is afraid that Dorian will be influenced and ruined. Basil begs Henry by saying, "Don't spoil him. Don't try to influence him. Your influence would be bad. The world is wide, and has many marvelous people in it. Don't take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him" (Wilde 10). Right from the beginning Wilde begins to show what type of person Lord Henry is. Lord Henry's influences pose a threat to Dorian. Basil is well aware of this.
... Wilde split himself into three parts and gave them different personalities. Basil's and Lord Henry's fascination with Dorian represents Wilde's obsession with young men and his own unconscious fears. "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be -- in other ages, perhaps." He was quite aware of what he really is: faithful, softhearted and blinded by love (we can find him as another Basil in De Frofundis).