Free À rebours Essays and Papers

Today’s culture sells the lifestyle of pleasure to people around the world. Society says that the way to live life to the fullest and to achieve happiness is to do whatever makes the individual feel good, no matter what the action may be. This way of life was also sold earlier within the history of the world, and has gone by many names including Epicureanism in Greece and Aestheticism in the 19th century. Even though it has gone by many different names, it simply means living only based on emotions

Bad relationships make you feel more alone then when you really are alone. Sometimes people don’t realize when they are in a bad relationship. Dorian Gray is a young man of about twenty when the novel begins. He is exceptionally good-looking, but an innocent beauty. Dorian has a way with people that most people just don’t have. He uses his way with people and his good looks to manipulate and eventually destroy all his relationships especially with Sybil, Basil, and Alan. Sybil Vane is just one of

In analyzing Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, concepts such as influence and the origin of evil in Dorian Gray play an exceptionally valuable role in understanding the motives of the characters. Although some critics argue characters such as Lord Kelso significantly influence Dorian’s corruption, Lord Henry Wotton’s toxic personality undeniably impacts Dorian the most. Throughout the course of the novel, Lord Henry remains the ultimate source of evil and uses deception and persuasion to

Every child has a “monster” that follows them around. Some of them have messy hair and sharp teeth, some claw at the bed or hide under it, and some hide in the dark until children go to sleep. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, she creates an image of a monster with scary looks, a lack of love, and a sense of violence. In Oscar Wilde’s, The Picture of Dorian Gray, he creates a monster throughout the progress of his book. He is quite different from Mary Shelley’s in that he is described as attractive

In a London studio, Basil Hallward puts the finishing touches on his most recent portrait, that of a young man. Lord Henry, who is visiting with Basil, asks about the young man's identity, but Basil declines to answer. Basil never intends to exhibit the painting, because if he did, it would bare the deepest feelings in his soul. However, Basil lets slip that the subject of the portrait is Dorian Gray, who shortly thereafter pays the two men a house call. Lord Henry starts to talk to Dorian

The Picture of Dorian Gray presents the reader with numerous possibilities in regards to its theme, yet the one most prominent is the continuous and direct allusion to the Bible as can be seen in the characters themselves, their dialogue, and the imagery surrounding them. As the book opens, two characters are introduced, Basil Hallward, a deeply moral man and an artist who meets Dorian at a party and becomes obsessed with his beauty, which in turn inspires his art; and Lord Henry Wotton, a man of

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray it is unequivocal that a large part of Dorian’s corruption is attributed to Lord Henry Wotton and his cynical, paradoxical teachings. However, it is evident, upon closer inspection, that Dorian’s own nature and the portrait of Dorian himself – although inanimate – plays a much larger part in the deterioration and ultimate demise of Dorian Gray. Throughout the novel it is easy to get caught up in Dorian’s ever-prominent obsession with Lord Henry and his

The term ‘beauty’ may have very relative significance. Something can be beautiful for us, but ugly for other people. The external beauty of a person is often the first thing that we pay attention to. This is the result of the association of beauty with good and ugliness with evil. Through the outer appearance we make a general opinion about a given person. Such a way of thinking may be very misleading. In order to get to know the person we need to look to the inside – into the soul. This is the place

To exemplify the possible traumatic downfall of the Aesthetic Era, Oscar Wilde inscribes a transformation from purity to vanity into his main protagonist, Dorian Gray. With the beauty and innocence of a young man, Gray enchants the lives of many with his grace. However, he falls victim to influence from his manipulative role model, Lord Henry Wotton. When obsession becomes reality, not even the ones dearest to Dorian can stop his detrimental downfall. In Oscar Wilde's book, The Picture of Dorian

The Picture of Dorian Gray "The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought and sold. It can be poisoned or made perfect. There's a soul in each one of us. I know it." This is a statement made by Dorian Gray to his best friend, Lord Henry, a few hours after he realizes that his behavior of the last eighteen years has been absolutely terrible. First I shall explain the way Dorian Gray lost his ability to be good and how he found it again eighteen years later. After Sybil Vane's death,

Before a person is born, influence in their life begins. The baby is influenced by whatever the mother does, eats, and how she cares for herself. After the baby is born, they’re innocent, and naïve. They’re dependent on adults to care for them, to nurture them and teach them about life. Little by little, this child is slowly losing its naivety, and become more conscious of its surroundings, and the way others behave around it. This child starts to have its own opinions; opinions forged by the influence

Des Esseintes' Infatuation with Artifice in Huysmans' Against Nature In J.-K Huysmans Against Nature, Des Esseintes rebels against his family, religion, and Parisian society to establish an identity unique to himself. He perceives this rejection of the truistic self as the development of individuality when, in actuality, it is only a self deriving from his reaction to the overstimulated public. By decorating his abode with eccentric objects, he falsely believes that he can detach himself from

Homosexual Elements in The Picture of Dorian Gray In spite of the novel's heterosexual text, many critics agree that it has various homosexual elements in its characters, in the dialogues, and even in the portrait itself. One of the critics, Richard Dellamora, mentions this feature of the text, and comments that "By definition this context is heterosexual. Wotton is married and pursues actresses. Basil himself is a graduate of Oxford, a well-established artist, and respectable to a fault" (28)

“The Picture of Dorian Grey” is written by Oscar Wilde and the novel presents us the story of a young beautiful boy, who dreamed to never lose his beauty and his youth. In this essay my aim is to reveal the role of influence over the protagonist Dorian Grey, which changes the life of the central character of the novel. In the paragraphs that follows, I will write about the Dorian’s transition of personality, the influence of Lord Henry over Dorian Grey, but also about the influence of Basil Hallward

The significance of choices and what their consequences reveal for the protagonist Dorian in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. As Jean-Paul Sartre once said "we are our choices". An individual 's choices reflect who they are and what they may become. In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Dorian 's pivotal decision to strike a Faustian bargain causes him to incessantly make poor choices that eventually lead to his demise. This is illustrated through Dorian 's decision to befriend

Looks Can Kill in The Picture of Dorian Gray Have you ever heard the saying, "If looks could kill"? Well, they can. Oscar Wilde reveals how looks can be charming, deceitful and even deadly. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, there are three main characters. Dorian Gray, who is a calm, very attractive young man and adored for his good looks, Basil Hallward who is a painter that idolizes Dorian and Lord Henry Wotton, an older man, who becomes a good friend of Dorian's. As Basil is painting a portrait

In the book, the Story of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is about a gentleman who deals his soul for eternal youth, and lives a hedonist lifestyle that goes terribly wrong. Dorian Gray loses his fiancé to suicide, which resulted in his first sin revealing itself in the painting. After Sybil Vane dies, her brother, James seeks revenge on Dorian. Subsequent to that, Dorian goes on to kill his friend, Basil Hallward, the painter of his portrait. In the end, Dorian Gray finally accepts his guilt and tries

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

suddenly. Shortly after, she committed suicide proving that her innocence could not withstand the pressure of social norms. Sibyl Vane’s superficiality was not entirely her fault because part of her idealism came from established societal gender roles. It is said that during the time period the novel was set in “women did not control the moral codes and psychological mindsets in their environment or how other people would treat them” (Gardner 3). Women during the Victorian Era were not seen

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. Wilde says that Dorian’s journey begins with Ordinary World. He is a young and good looking male. He has a normal life till he met Basil and Lord Henry. He now receives the Call of Adventure. When he met Basil at a party, they become friends and everything is still good until he met Lord Henry. He captured the imagination