The Picture Of Dorian Gray Portrait Analysis

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Prompt #1 - The many faces of a portrait In Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture Of Dorian Gray’, the portrait shapes Dorian’s life by manipulating his behavior and perceptions in a negative way. Throughout the novel Dorian aspires to be superior to the painting because of the many sins that are reflected through it. The portrait becomes more hideous because Dorian is extremely corrupted with looks and sex. Between Lord Henry and the painting Dorian truly becomes a monster. Dorian takes in the superficial ideas of life, hoping to reinvent himself, and become a completely different person. The portrait evolves Dorian into someone who is paranoid, corrupt, and eventually a murderer. Dorian Gray’s true colors begin to show when he breaks Sibyl Vane’s When Lord Henry and Dorian first meet Dorian is innocent and naive. Yet, in just one meeting Lord Henry changes Dorian’s whole perspective on life. Lord Henry explains to Dorian that the portrait Basil painted of him will always be more beautiful and chaste than his own being. This leads to Dorian’s rain of envy. Throughout a few years Dorian becomes greedy and selfish. Dorian leads himself down a self-destruction path. He lets himself embrace all the sins of humanity, his morals become loose, and he becomes involved in a life of pleasure seeking. Meanwhile he starts to notice that the painting is tarnished and that the “face on the canvas bears the burden of his passions and his sins” (Wilde 86). The portrait reveals Dorian’s inward corruption; all of his bastardly actions are displayed on the once beautiful face. So, selfishly, he decides he wants to be good and make the painting beautiful again. When, in fact, the painting just keeps becoming more hideous. Thus, eventually leading Dorian to destroy the painting. Another form of corruption was the french “yellow book” that Lord Henry sent Dorian. Dorian claims that it was “a poisonous book” but it fascinated him. The protagonist in the yellow book lives his life as a pleasure seeker, which intrigues Dorian; it changes him into a more independent man. When Lord Henry visits and asks Doroan about the book, he On the night of Dorian’s thirty-eighth birthday Basil notices him walking on his way home. Basil confronts Dorian and asks him if “all these hideous things that people are whispering” are true (Wilde 144). Basil starts to get frustrated at how Dorian’s life has taken such a dark turn. Basil wants Dorian to “get rid of the dreadful people [he] associates with” he claims that Dorian has a “wonderful influence. Let it be for good, not for evil” (Wilde 145). Dorian becomes angered by the accusations Basil makes of him, he eventually snaps and decides to show Basil the monstrous painting of himself. Upon seeing the painting and witnessing the devilish nature of it; Basil begs for Dorian to pray for forgiveness. Dorian attained “an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward” (Wilde 151). In response to this expanding hatred; Dorian murders Basil. The portrait truly turns disgusting after Basil’s death. Another example of murder in Dorian’s life would be Sibyl Vane’s brother, James. Although James was not directly murdered by Dorian, his death was “another death to add to Dorian 's tally of life-wrecking disasters” (Shmoop Editorial Team). He indirectly murdered James, by angering the young man, when he mistreated Sibyl. Death and murder seem to follow Dorian everywhere, first Sibyl, then Basil, and now James, all dead after meeting

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