Dorian Wilde And Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray

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The aesthetic author Oscar Wilde comments on the upper class of Victorian England. His life impacted the subject matter deeply in The Picture of Dorian Gray. His lesser known work, Lady Windermere’s Fan, works as a commentary on motherhood and Victorian marriage. The two works are stylistically different in the mood, characterization, and theme.
The mood of The Picture of Dorian Gray went from Wilde’s normal satirical prose to the dark and sullen description that accompany the transformation of Dorian. Novels for Students discusses how Wilde does this through the slow burn style of plot that adds to the suspense of the piece as a whole. He attempts to portray the darker side of the time through the use of drugs and the underground feel of Dorian’s …show more content…

The novel shows the life and transformation of Dorian from a young and kind man to an uncaring and insincere hermit, while showing the world around him that created this persona. Dorian’s progression through the novel can be summarized through 4 stages: purity, enlightenment, corruption, and immorality (Nasser 225). Accordingly, this allows for in depth character analysis and development as the reader can see how Dorian’s self imposed environment slowly consumes and corrupts his once pure nature. Wilde captures a development in Dorian and contrasts that change against the stagnant character of Lord Henry Wotton, the cause of Dorian’s …show more content…

According to Novels for Students Basil was infatuated with Dorian from the moment they met and he hailed Dorian(151). Basil’s love for Dorian effectively ignites the wick for the entire plot to begin and his love continues to be pure and unfettered. This contrasts with the Victorian ideas of love that didn’t even seem to exist. At the time marriage was for money, social status and carrying on the family line- no romance, no dating, no love. Wilde was famously put on trial for homosexual acts, a relationship that was said to have far more passion than his marriage ever did. Basil’s love for Dorian went unfulfilled throughout the novel, leaving a profound commentary on how love was viewed at the time of

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