The Picture of Dorian Gray Essay: The Soul of Dorian

708 Words2 Pages

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, the young lad was first seized by terrible remorse. After abandoning her in the theatre with most cruel words, he reconsidered his action during the night and was ready to forgive her and marry her, as he had promised. So the news of her suicide was of course quite an unpleasant shock to him.

Unfortunately Lord Henry was there to influence him with his corrupt and selfish personality. He taught...

... middle of paper ...

...the soul exists. The soul is a "terrible reality", because it is stronger than any physical phenomenon of belief or disbelief. Whatever you do, it always remains in the depth of your heart and you will always depend on it, as you depend on your reality.

If you poison it by neglect or ignorance, you try to sell it for what seems a cheap and easy price, but you cannot sell and separate from a reality that you are a part of; the unavoidable price of "buying" it back is very, very, high.

Open Document