Beauty Being like everyone else is what seems to be expected in today’s society. Being who you truly are as a person just is not common in this day in age. Dorian in Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” experienced similar criticism due to his unbearable beauty. Society has its way of judging and creating standards in order to create expectations on how life should be. Members in society are expected to exceed those, as in Dorian in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Beauty is the root of evil. How you look is what ranks you in today’s society. Physical features such as hair, eyes, lips and body shape as well as what you’re wearing and how you wear it all matter when you’re trying to come out on top in today’s world. …show more content…
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter” (Wilde) which, in a sense expresses Basil’s admiration with Dorian. So much so that he would not have minded to be in Dorian’s position. How others look will have you questioning yourself. Are you to skinny? Too fat? Is your nose too wide? Are you good enough? Especially when there are set rules and standards that many seem to follow. Such rules and standards is what had Basil questioning his worth and Dorian in fear of losing his position in …show more content…
At the height of Oscar Wilde’s career, which was the era of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde was writing at a period of time when only the wealthy and educated would be able to afford his works. He himself was always fascinated with looks even as a child. Even though Wilde believed that an artist should not put themselves in their work, he did very much of that. When The Picture of Dorian Gray was released, critics were outraged by the lack of mortality in the novel. The homosexual tendencies within the book were believed to be downright immoral which caused Wilde’s infamous imprisonment for homosexuality. While Wilde was on trial, he was asked several questions about The Picture of Dorian Gray in which it was suspected that Wilde was confessing his relationships and love for men. The irony of it all is that Wilde was at that moment having an affair with another male. Expressing his feelings in his writing was a different and unique way of confessing to society. Society at the time only believed in men and women relationships and since Wilde did not follow the set rules and expectations he was highly frowned upon. As in today’s world; if you choose to be different in any way, society lashes back unapologetically. Oscar Wilde was a believer that all art is surface and a symbol and his art was a symbol of his lifestyle. Contradictory to Wilde’s works, however, Wilde felt that all art is
The relationship between Oscar Wilde’s text, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Queer Theory appears in subtle aesthetic references due to Oscar Wilde’s inhabitance of a society highly intolerant of homosexuality. Queer theory relies on the idea of mismatches between sex, gender, and desire. Wilde portrays the young protagonist Dorian Gray with his obsession for beauty and the ultimate youthful appearance as well as subtle homosexual characteristics towards Basil Howard, the artist. Thus, Dorian effectively represents an androgynous character through his blurred boundaries between the roles of man and woman in the late 19th century society. Another idea of Queer theory acknowledges the gap between the actions of a character and the actual identity and feeling of the same character and the languages regarding homosexuality derive from a mainstream culture. Therefore Lord Henry, a respected nobleman, and his marriage remains questionable, as he often speaks ill of the institution of marriage and yet continues in his marriage due to societal expectations. The androgyny of Dorian Gray, the homosexual tendencies of Basil Hallward, and the detestation of marriage by Lord Henry, all affirm the idea of Queer Theory throughout Wilde’s writing.
In today’s culture, depending on the person, beauty can be depicted as a positive influence or as a negative influence. Alyssa Giacobbe outlines beauty in her article, “Youth, Beauty, and An Obsession with Looks.” Giacobbe swings towards a more negative viewpoint.
In the essay “What Meets the Eye”, Daniel Akst explains scientific facts about the beauty of men and women matters to people. He argues that attractive individuals receive attention, great social status, marries, and gets paid more on a job. One can disagree with Akst’s argument because anyone with the skills and knowledge, despite the appearance, can gain a decent relationship and can get paid well. Akst looks at beauty as if it can lead individuals to an amazing and successful life, but he is wrong. Nancy Mairs’ and Alice Walker’s views on beauty are explained internally and through self-confidence. Both women’s and Akst’s arguments on beauty share some similarities and differences in many ways, and an
Beauty is dangerous, especially when you lack it. In the book "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, we witness the effects that beauty brings. Specifically the collapse of Pecola Breedlove, due to her belief that she did not hold beauty. The media in the 1940's as well as today imposes standards in which beauty is measured up to; but in reality beauty dwells within us all whether it's visible or not there's beauty in all; that beauty is unworthy if society brands you with the label of being ugly.
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.
The novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde shows the life of three men who are affected by art in the Victorian society. In Victorian times men were expected to provide for himself and his family, accumulate wealth, exemplify good morals and prove his masculinity. If a man did not show one of these qualities in the Victorian time his masculinity would be questioned. In the novel these men show three different sides to masculinity. Each character finds himself unhappy with the role he is forced to play in order to prove his masculinity. For them it seems in order to be successful or achieve happiness they must push past the gender roles society has placed on them. Basil Hallward represents the artist, Dorian
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray has acquired both praise and condemnation for its presentation of human morals. Because the novel explores the ethical decisions that lead to Dorian Gray’s eventual demise, the themes of individualism and immorality are explored by critics as Bryan Aubrey and Philip K. Cohen. Essayist Bryan Aubrey examines how some characters in the novel exert themes as beauty versus ethics, and art versus life. He analyzes why Wilde creates catastrophic characters as Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward, and Lord Henry Wotton, in order to serve as human representations of these ideas. Aubrey alludes to Lord Henry’s use of hedonistic influence on Dorian Gray, by arguing how his purpose “is to cultivate an intensity of experience
In conclusion, it has been reiterated that Lord Henry's influence, the changes in Dorian, and the immorality of the yellow book further enforced The Picture of Dorian Gray as a moral book. Oscar Wilde allows for those who could understand the real meaning of the novel by comprehending the importance of these three things to discern that he fully intended on writing this novel as a moral book.
The Importance and Centrality of Beauty as shown in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or is it? Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray deeply expresses its thoughts on the importance of outward beauty in both its characters and descriptions of the environment. The importance of beauty is a very integral part of the novel in both scenery and character development. Dorian’s constant inner conflict between him and the portrait and how it ultimately leads to his death. Lord Henry and his first interaction with Dorian that leads the younger boy to alter his own vision of beauty and become selfish in the way he views beauty.
Oscar Wilde’s novel, Picture of Dorian Gray, portrays the dichotomy of the double life led by Dorian Gray.1 The contrast between the portrait and Dorian personifies the universal battle of sin versus morale and ultimately serves as a moral compass for society.2 Dorian’s development of a double life identifies with the results of sociological oppression leading to confinement.3 The development of this contrasting lifestyle inevitably influences a fatal deterioration of his soul and heart.4 Oscar Wilde’s exaggeration of the effects of the double life of Dorian Gray within his novel Picture of Dorian Gray ultimately conveys the degradation due to a confinement of the soul, and personifies the dualism between private and public lives.5
Duggan, Patrick. "The Conflict between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray." Journal of the CAS Writing Program (2008): 61-68. Print.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
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 upon poorly by some in the Victorian era as his work was considered by some to be corrupt. Oscar Wilde, however, uses the book The Picture of Dorian Gray to subtly counter these points. “All art at once” surface and symbol.
Woodcock, George. The Paradox of Oscar Wilde. London-New York: T.V. Boardman and Co., Ltd., 1950.
Though Wilde wrote in the preface to this book that, "To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim", we can still trace the shadow of the author himself in all of the three major characters. Basil Hallward, the artist who painted the picture of Dorian Gray, probably has a homosexual attachment to the young Dorian. And as a homosexual himself (or to be exact, bisexual, because he also loved his wife and two sons), Wilde here might be commenting on the enforced secret homosexuals' lives in the late nineteenth century. Seemingly striving after impersonality and aesthetic perfection in his work, Basil feels the greatest anxiety of having put "too much of himself" into his picture of Dorian (Chapter 1, page 20) that he can't exhibit it. To display his work of art in public would, in a sense, amount to exposure of Basil's attraction to Dorian Gray.