Essay on Picture of Dorian Gray: Dorian as Tragic Hero

2335 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: literature essay of the picture of dorian gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Dorian as Tragic Hero

In "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, we see a beautiful young man who makes tremendous efforts to transform the actual world into the idealistic world of art, dreams and sensations. Dorian's quest, however, culminates in his ultimate tragic destruction. Given that Dorian lives a corrupt life, one is likely to focus on the negative aspects of his character. In spite of his significant character flaws, Dorian Gray may still be considered a hero. This essay will examine Dorian's degradation from the innocent world to the vicious, sensation-oriented world. The elements contributing to Dorian’s status of tragic hero will then be discussed.

At the beginning, the general mood looks like pure and innocent expressed by the descriptions as follows: "the rich odours of roses...the light summer wind...the heavy scent of lilac"(Wilde 5). This opening scene precisely symbolizes the world in which Dorian is situated at present. Just like the beautiful setting, Dorian is a "beautiful creature"(7) and the portrait Basil draws shows Dorian's "extraordinary personal beauty"(5). In other words, Dorian is in front of the mysterious gate of life that has immense possibilities. At this point, Dorian is ignorant about both the world of idealistic art and the world of mundane, earthly values. Dorian merely possesses "all youth's passionate purity"(17).

With the fateful encounter with Lord Henry, Dorian is ushered into a world of idealistic art and beauty. Lord Henry plays a key role in introducing a new world in which beauty, youth and sensations dominate. First, Lord Henry employs a powerful strategy of developing Dorian's self-consciousness of his ow...

... middle of paper ...

...t in order to “kill the past” and “monstrous soul-life”(192).

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Oscar Wilde. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985.

Cohen, Ed. Talk on the Wilde Side. Great Britain: Routledge, 1993.

Ellman, Richard. Oscar Wilde. New york: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1987.

Eriksen, Donald. Oscar Wilde. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.

Freidman, Jonathan (edited). Oscar Wilde: A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1996.

Hart-Davis, Rupert. The Letters of Oscar Wilde. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962.

Juan, Efifanio. The Art of Oscar Wilde. New Jersey: Princetown University Press, 1991.

Weintraub, Stanley (edited). Literary Criticism of Oscar Wilde. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1968.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Random House, Inc., 1992.

Show More
Related

  • A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story, 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', the main character is the grandmother. Flannery O'Connor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her from her direct conversation with the son, Bailey, her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, and the Misfit killer. Through these conversations, we know that she is a lady raised from a traditional background. In the story, her attitude changes more than once to accommodate the surroundings that she is in. With the data provided, we can tell that the grandmother goes from not wanting to go to Florida, to anxious to go, and in the end, I felt as if she went off the deep end. All of the sudden, the only thing she really concentrates on is Jesus and her not being killed.

    Read More

  • Mercy in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor represents her style of writing very accurately. She includes her "themes and methods - comedy, violence, theological concern - and thus makes them quickly and unmistakably available" (Asals 177). In the beginning of the story O'Connor represents the theme of comedy by describing the typical grandmother. Then O'Connor moves on to include the violent aspect by bringing the Misfit into the story. At the end of the story the theme changes to theological concern as the attention is directed towards the grandmother's witnessing. As the themes change throughout the story, the reader's perception of the grandmother also changes.

    Read More

  • Grandma vs Misfit

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” you are led to believe that the grandmother is a good, moral person while The Misfit is the opposite, bad and evil. These assumptions are soon torn down when you compare The Grandmother and The Misfit side by side. We see that the grandmother is self-centered, dishonest, and racist yet The Misfit is honest and nonjudgmental, he also sees himself as some sort of savior. Although both characters can be seen as evil, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother causes more damage than The Misfit.

    Read More

  • The Reader's Sympathy for Dorian from Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

    2031 Words  | 5 Pages

    The French born author, Anais Nin once wrote, “We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative” ("Think Exist Quotations"). Anais is expounding upon the inconsistency all people have in aspects of their personalities. Some days a person may be hailed as a saint for their actions, while other days they seem absolutely evil. In most literature, characters are defined as good or evil based on their revealed thoughts and actions. On occasion an anomaly may be found, where a character is more ambiguous. Dorian Gray’s Actions throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray paralyzes the readers’ ability to condemn Dorian as purely good or purely evil, causing them to be more sympathetic than usual.

    Read More

  • A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    She gets dressed up for a car trip so that, on the off chance that they would be in a car wreck and that in that wreck she would be thrown from the car and laying on the pavement, she would be happy because the people passing would think that she is a lady. This represents us as humans because daily we choose to be way too self-conscience. Think about females and make-up. Make-up is a perfect example of us caring a great deal about what others think of us. She is also very selfish in her endeavors. Instead of caring about what is best for the family, she wants to go to Tennessee because she has friends there whom she would like to see.

    Read More

  • Anaysis of William Blake's The Lamb, The Tyger, and Proverbs of Hell

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    William Blake, was born in 1757 and died in 1827, created the poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell. Blake grew up in a poor environment. He studied to become an Engraver and a professional artist. His engraving took part in the Romanticism era. The Romanticism is a movement that developed during the 18th and early 19th century as a reaction against the Restoration and Enlightenment periods focuses on logic and reason. Blake’s poetry would focus on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision consists in his creations. Blake was against the Church of England because he thought the doctrines were being misused as a form of social control, it meant the people were taught to be passively obedient and accept oppression, poverty, and inequality. In Blake’s poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell, he shows that good requires evil in order to exist through imagery animals and man.

    Read More

  • The Grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    The grandmother is the central character in the story "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago when she saw life through rose-colored glasses. She is pre-scented by O'Connor as being a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is not only the best way, but the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." The children, they tell her "stay at home if you don't want to go." The grandmother then decides that she will have to go along after all, but she is already working on her own agenda. The grandmother is very deceitful, and she manages to sneak the cat in the car with her. She decides that she would like to visit an old plantation and begins her pursuit of convincing Bailey to agree to it. She describes the old house for the children adding mysterious details to pique their curiosity. "There was a secret panel in this house," she states cunningly knowing it is a lie. The grandmother always stretches the truth as much as possible. She not only lies to her family, but to herself as well. The grandmother doesn't live in the present, but in the past. She dresses in a suit to go on vacation. She states, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She constantly tries to tell everyone what they should or should not do. She informs the children that they do not have good manners and that "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else." when she was a child.

    Read More

  • Manipulation and Deception in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lessons are learned through mistakes and experiences, but to completely understand the lesson, a person must be smart enough to profit from their errors and be strong enough to correct them. However, this was not the case for the main character in the short story; A Good Man is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor. In this tale of manipulation and deception, O’Connor depicts the main character, the grandmother, as a shrewd self-centered woman, who considers herself morally superior than the other individuals. Throughout the entire story, she is seen using her manipulative tactics on everyone, which brought her to a sinister ending. O’Connor expertly portrayed the grandmother as a character that did not correct her negative characteristics throughout the story. To prove this statement, the use of time will be applied to help focus on the main idea of the grandmother not changing her deleterious ways throughout this story.

    Read More

  • A Good Man is Hard to Find

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” Flannery O’Conner tells the story of a family in route to their Florida vacation and the trouble the grandmother gets them in. The grandmother does not want to go to Florida on vacation and tries many methods of changing her son, Bailey’s mind. Although she tries many methods, none of them have the effect on him she desires. Bailey is as stubborn as his mother, completely shutting the door on every proposition his mother makes. When she finally makes some progress in delaying their travels things go horribly. Bailey and his family discover the hard way just how ironic life can be.

    Read More

  • Examples Of The Grandmother In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    The grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is extremely dishonest and manipulative. Anything that goes against what the grandmother wants, she will try her best to make it go the way she wants. The story

    Read More

  • Dorian Gray Vs. Frankenstein

    2002 Words  | 5 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Ignorance is Fatal

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mars-2005, the planet has been occupied for several years now and Mr. Stendhal has commissioned a complete and stunningly accurate replica of the House of Usher to be built for him. Upon the completion he talks with his architect and we learn in 1975 all of Edgar Allen Poe's books along with many other masterpieces were burnt in the great fire. Any story about horror, fantasy, or the future was burned and by now all of those stories and authors are forgotten by most people. The architect didn't even know the story "The Fall of the House of Usher" and had no idea who Poe was. Stendhal continued to explain: Oh, it started very small. In 1950 and '60 it was a grain of sand. They began by controlling books of cartoons and then detective books and, of course, films, one way or another one group or another, political bias, religious pr...

    Read More

  • Human Nature In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor explores the complexity of human nature. The unnamed grandmother is a perfect example of how contradictory a person’s beliefs and standards can be. She is indirectly manipulative, yet she holds herself to a higher, purer standard than the other characters. Not to mention, the grandmother is not as she first appear, and she is stuck on the views of the past and how they apply to her as a lady, whether the views are correct or not.

    Read More

  • The Theme of Authority in William Blake's Poetry

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.

    Read More

  • Duality In Mark Twain's The Picture Of Dorian Gray

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dorian Gray seems to be two different people, at the exact same time. He is beautiful externally, but hideous internally. He is good-natured externally, and at the same time, ill-natured internally. Dorian appears to be perfect externally, but is extremely flawed internally. Dorian’s private ethics oppose the public morals of the traditional Victorian society in which he is a part of (Gillespie). He possesses a dual-nature through his struggle between his inner and outer selves. Dorian seems to exhibit a duality of innocence and sin at the same time. He is publically good and innocent. He maintains his good social standing for a time, by appearing to be the same, moral man he once was before he became friends with Lord Henry. However, at the same time, he

    Read More

More about Essay on Picture of Dorian Gray: Dorian as Tragic Hero

Open Document