In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde introduces Dorian Gray as a mysterious and beautiful young man. He has no opinion and is very similar to a ball of clay, in the sense that he has no opinion and is free to be molded by whoever takes interest in him. Basil and Lord Henry both take interest in the young man. While both praise his physical beauty, Lord Henry wants to turn him into a hedonist minion. He convinces Dorian that he is a perfect candidate to live life according to his pleasure and that Basil is a poor influence upon him. Dorian takes this to heart and lives his life this way. He exchanges the purity of his soul for the beauty of his youth in certain painting. This breaks him down. He becomes less and less welcome by those who once admired him. He gets blackballed from clubs, has promiscuous sex and spends seventy-two hour periods in London’s opium dens. His life of seeking pleasure makes him more and more unhappy. When Basil shows up, he wants some one to sympathize with him and tell him that what he has done is not his fault. During the scene of Basil’s murder, Dorian’s want to be seen as good is apparent, but his unwillingness to accept fault and his corrupt ideology drive him to kill Basil, unveiling a new, malicious side to Dorian Gray.
Dorian tries to make it seem as though his soul has taken him hostage and led to his downfall, proof that he wants to be remembered as good. He hopes that this attempt to make himself seem like the victim will cause others to sympathize with him and excuse any wrong-doing he has committed or might commit. Now that Basil is in his presence, Dorian is finally able to test his new method and see whether or not it will be successful:
“’You told me you had destroyed it.’
‘I was w...
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...ealize the situation. The friend who had painted the fatal portrait to which all his misery had been due, had gone out of his life. That was enough” (157). Shortly after giving us a taste of evil pleasure, Dorian returns to the rational he had been following prior to Basil’s murder. He wants to be thought of as good. On his way to the door, he doesn’t even look at the body, proof that he is ashamed of the joy he had expressed in observing it a few minutes before. He doesn’t want to acknowledge Basil’s death as a death but would rather as an absence. He expresses the same sense of shame and is very sad about what he has done. He also refers to Basil this time around as a “friend”, proof that he wants to be seen as good and truly misses him. He does not wish to accept the situation
Works Cited
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray New York: Pearson Education, 2007.
In A Separate Peace, John Knowles carries the theme of the inevitable loss of innocence throughout the entire novel. Several characters in the novel sustain both positive and negative changes, resulting from the change of the peaceful summer sessions at Devon to the reality of World War II. While some characters embrace their development through their loss of innocence, others are at war with themselves trying to preserve that innocence.
In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah deals with his loss of innocence as he is forced to join the children army of Sierra Leone in the country's civil war after being conscripted to the army that once destroyed his town in order for Ishmael to survive. His memoir acts as a voice to show the many difficulties that the members of Sierra Leone's child army had to suffer through and their day to day struggle to survive in the worst of conditions. In order to escape the perils and trials of war, Ishmael loses his innocence as he transitions from a child who liked to rap with his friends to a cold blooded solider in the army during the civil war in Sierra Leone. Through his transition, Ishmael is forced to resort to the addiction of drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, and “brown-brown” just so that he, along with the other members of the child army can have the courage to be able to kill their fellow countrymen and slaughter entire towns who stand in their paths. In order to portray his struggles in the army, Ishmael uses the dramatic elements of memories explained using flashback, dialogue, and first-person narration in order to establish the theme of the memoir being how war causes for a child to lose its innocence. The transition shown in the memoir illustrates how the title of the novel, A Long Way Gone, was chosen because it demonstrates how he is a long way gone psychologically, emotionally, and physically, from the child that he was when the memoir begins to the soldier that he is forced to become.
During the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, three people die: Sibyl Vane, Basil Hallward, and James Vane. In one way or another Dorian played a part in each of their deaths. Kestner says that the second type of narcissism is the inability to feel (217). Dorian feels no remorse for the deaths of these people and takes no responsibility for his part in it. Sibyl Vane committed suicide after Dorian’s brutal rejection of her. Dorian murdered Basil after showing him the painting. Basil was trying to save Dorian’s soul by begging him to confess his sins. Dorian flew into a rage and stabbed Basil, afterwards “he felt strangely calm” (Wilde 152). He justified his actions by saying that Basil was “the friend who had painted the fatal portrait to which all his misery had been due” (Wilde 152). Then Sibyl Vane’s brother, James Vane, came to get revenge on Dorian Gray and ended up dying when Dorian distracted a gunman during a hunt. None of Dorian’s friends on the hunt cared that the man has died; they only care that he has “spoiled [their] shooting for the day” (Wilde 193). These are the type of people which Dorian surrounds himself, people who will continue his down fall. The friends only care about beauty and titles which then influences Dorian to look at the world in the same way. Oscar Wilde added multiple encounters with Dorian’s friends as a criticism of society. The
Basil goes to speak to Dorian to tell to him of the rumors they have been spreading. Many people believe him to be immoral and a corrupting influence that must be avoided to keep one’s good name. Hearing such rumors trouble Basil because he worships Dorian so strongly and is so devoted to him. He even refuses to exhibit the portrait of Dorian, the imitation he made, “Because, without intending it, I have put into it some expression of all this curious idolatry.” (13 Wilde) Basil feared that the world would be able to tell how much he adored Dorian. Continuing his conversation, Basil claims “but you, Dorian with your pure, bright, innocent face, and your marvelous untroubled youth—I can’t believe anything against you.” (127 Wilde) Which is to say that Basil believes that when one commits sin it changes the man’s outward appearance, corrupting him and since Dorian is beautiful he is without sin...
...the horrific incident of his murder to his dearest Porphyria. Finally, the employment of the clever use of irony serves in proving the persona’s inner madness, as what he thinks and does is contrary to what Porphyria has done earlier prior to her death. Though the persona’s execution of his late lover was done to keep his everlasting moment of intimacy with her, the act was still malevolent and evil, and was a poor and foolish attempt in displaying his own affection for his love. In the end, it greatly epitomized his greediness over keeping Porphyria to himself, and his cruelty by taking away her life for his own benefit.
In court, it is said that one is “innocent until proven guilty.” However, one’s innocence can be taken away without a trial. In the novel Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, a six year old boy named Antonio Márez is about to begin school when Ultima, an old healer, comes to stay with him and his family. Antonio’s father is a former Vaquero and his mother is very Catholic. When Antonio’s uncle, Lucas, is cursed by the Trementina sisters, he becomes very sick and near to death. Ultima, Lucas’s last hope of survival is able to cure him. However, the sisters’ father, Tenorio, believes that it is Ultima’s magic that is now slowly killing his daughters. Tenorio sets out to kill Ultima which results in multiple tragic deaths. Throughout the story, Antonio learns a great deal about himself, his beliefs, and the people around him. Bless Me, Ultima uses Antonio’s obstacles to illustrate that as one grows older, his or her innocence is destroyed; however, it is replaced with knowledge, understanding, and maturity.
Upon meeting his father’s ghost, he learns that Claudius killed his father, and that he must take on the task of avenging his death. This encounter changed who he is completely. He said that he will wipe away books, the past, and all of the things he was taught. He will live “within the book and volume of …brain”(a.1, sc.5, l.). He only will live through this purpose in life, and everything else is erased from his memory. He is possibly trying to shut down the part of him that knows right from wrong. His purpose his more important than all else, even if it means destroying on people along the way. He was on a mission that was larger than he had ever imagined. He was driven by grief and ambition.
As Dorian commits his most evil act, killing his old friend Basil, “an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him . . . whispered into his ear by those grinning lips. The mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him, and he loathed the man who was seated at the table” (111). Dorian commits the murder because his soul (represented by the portrait on the wall) is corrupt to the core and compels Dorian to act impulsively against a man who clearly has no intention of hurting him.
His happiness does not last long as it drives him to his own destruction. Even though vice and virtue are opposites, when Basil overlooks Dorian’s vice he only paints the virtue he sees. When Dorian sees the painting he cleverly figures out a way to manipulate his virtue to cover up his
Basil Hallward, the artist who paints the soul of Dorian Gray, can be seen as the book’s only positive character. Basil seems to be too pure for the aesthetic period that surrounds him. When he paints what can clearly be called his masterpiece, Basil offers to give it away instead of showing it off, where it would grant him fame and fortune. He gives the painting to Dorian because his is afraid that he revealed too much about himself on the canvas. Dorian is worried that the viewers will be able to tell of his extraordinary interest, and even his love of the model in the picture.
In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde readers are presented with a vast depiction of the art of immorality in the face of ignorant innocence portrayed by the character Dorian Gray. In the beginning it seems to be a quaint novel on artistry and the paradoxical relationship between two lifelong friends by the name of Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. The plot takes a surprising twist when introduced to the real center of attention, the character of the seemingly innocent Dorian Gray. Upon this introduction Wilde then begins to tell the tale of what a life of secrecy and deception will lead to without the consciousness of a moral threshold and the inescapable burden of Dorians horrid accumulation of sins. The deception begins with a simple shout out to the heavens for the impossible to be granted. This then flourishes into unspeakable acts caused by an Egyptian statue, bringing misfortune to Dorian Gray by giving him exactly what he so desperately desires, thus teaching the world a lesson. Not everything we so strongly desire the world to provide is good for the soul.
Moreover, in the novel, the character it is clearly apparent that Dorian has a great impact towards Basil. Basil, who at first glance knew that Dorian would have an extreme power on his life wasn’t aware of how influential his impact would have been. Basil explains that seeing Dorian daily takes part of his art to a new level. When the Lord Henry demands that he must meet Dorian, Basil retaliates in fear that he will influence Dorian into his hedonism beliefs. Although Basil didn’t know that Dorian’s presence in his life would greatly impact him, he soon finds himself in a troublesome situation with his art. For instance, Basil expressed that “ an artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them” (Wilde, 15). Basil clearly has had a great influence by Dorian. His affection towards Dorian in apparent and when he creates his art piece he is convinced that he has shown too much of himself. Due to Basil’s admiratio...
He becomes an echo of someone else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. ”(Wilde 13). The words of an honored role model can easily persuade even the purest of hearts into the darkness of crime and evil, such as Dorian Gray. At this moment, Gray falls victim to the flourishing words of Lord Henry, who manipulates Gray from a timid and shining boy to nothing but a shallow man who commits capital crimes to conceal his secret.
Dorian Gray's life is dictated by his physical appeal. His beauty lies within his youth. Dorian's perception of beauty allows him to love. He is convinced that his beauty allows him to accomplish anything he desires regardless of the consequences and still be loved by his friends. He uses his beauty to mitigate his evil actions. Dorian says, “I don't wish to know anything about them. I love scandals about other people, but scandals about myself don't interest me. They have not got the charm of novelty.” Youth and beauty are the most precious things to Dorian. In his life, beauty is of utmost importance. Then he sees the picture of himself, painted by Basil, absorb his sins and this changed his view. “I hope it is not about myself. I am tired of myself tonight. I should like to be somebody else,” Dorian said. He aspired to have had a good life rather than one filled with artificial meaning and beauty. The moral beauty of Doran lies within the portrait of himself. The portrait imitated his life. He finally realized that beauty cannot help him escape his evil actions. He deeply lamemted his wish that the portrait bore the burden of his age an...
...n goes on to murder Basil in a moment of pure hatred, allowing Lord Henry to ultimately succeed in his aims of winning Dorian’s soul.