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Character comparison essay of the picture of dorian gray
Moral judgement, ethical decision making
Character comparison essay of the picture of dorian gray
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can be excused because people live for the sake of living. A conscience becomes a separate set of rules determined by each individual to please them. The murderer thinks murder is okay and the normal person doesn’t. Living with a conscience relative to personal desires and not living without a conscience (when it is defined as a set of predefined and commonly accepted values) is the same thing. To understand why living without a conscience is bad, or a trained one at least, it is first vital to know what a conscience is. Conscience is “when judgement remains though reason is forgotten” (Voland 251). A conscience is a vast set of values, stances, and/or premeditated decisions to hypothetical situation. A person has to address their conscience …show more content…
The Picture of Dorian Gray could really be called: The Picture of Dorian’s Soul. The novel explores what occurs to a man who in the face of having to make the choice of his life of standing for something, chooses wrong, destroy his soul, and according to the Christian belief damns it to hell. He does this by abandoning his trained conscience because he listens to a deceitful influence that instills in the man’s belief system the idea that pleasing society is a worthless endeavor, it is because of the novel’s similarities to other works of literary merit with this story arch that it is allegorical. Otherwise Wilde would have crossed a line into a very literal piece with less depth to the meaning simply because of his outright and unapologetic call-it-what-it-is style. After all Dorian’s soul is very literally personified as an object in the novel, unlike other novels where the soul is represented by some object or other. Like Foster puts it in How to Read Literature Like a Professor the state of the soul is often represented by things like the weather, “It’s never just rain or snow” (150) because the soul is rarely out of the body like in Wilde’s
As Confucius states, “To know what is right and wrong, and to not do it is the worst cowardice.” Duty, obligation of one person to another, flows from eons of social culture, philosophy, and religion. Ethics are similar to the mortar that holds the bricks of law and statutes together – without the mortar, the wall would be more prone to collapse. Ethics are different from laws in that they are an unenforceable moral code or set of principles to guide behavior, though there may be regulatory bodies which can act if the ethics have been breached. In the case of Lewis Blackman, the primary ethical principle of non-maleficence was breeched,
When one does wrong, the common reaction is to hide it and pretend as if nothing happened. Because of the human conscience it is difficult to completely forget about a wrongdoing. Through our conscience guilt is built up and eventually that guilt shatters enough barriers and in turn causes the doer to admit his/her wrong.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, Editor. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.
The Crucible is also a study of honour and integrity. Most people have a conscience - the inner sense of morality which steers us towards what we think is right. However, in times of public strife, the conscience takes a back seat to what is expected of us. It takes a strong conscience to know when you are right and say so, even in the face of overwhelming opposition.
In conclusion, there is no absolute truth or meaning behind the concepts and values of guilt and bad conscience except for the meanings that human beings give it. Because of the meanings that human beings give values and concepts, Nietzsche is free to argue that in his opinion, guilt and bad conscience goes in opposition to his role against morality because it can conflict with the moral codes in society. Depending on what society considers morally right determines if a certain concept or value will go against it. As Nietzsche might have mentioned before, the history and meanings behind a concept or value are not created by the world but is created by different groups with different cultural heritages and beliefs.
The Supremacy of Youth and Beauty - The first principle of aestheticism, the philosophy of art by which Oscar Wilde lived, is that art serves no other purpose than beauty. Throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty reigns. It is a means to revitalize the wearied senses as indicated by the effect that Hallward's painting has on the cynical Lord Henry. It is also as a means of escaping the brutalities of the world, as Dorian distances himself from the horrors of his actions (not to mention his consciousness) by devoting himself to the study of beautiful things: music, jewels, rare tapestries. In a society that prizes beauty so highly, youth and physical attractiveness become great commodities. Lord Henry reminds Dorian of as much upon their first meeting, when he laments that the young...
Forming a good conscience relies heavily, first and foremost on the virtue of prudence. The virtue of prudence is the practice of discerning the good in all circumstances, and choosing the right means of accomplishing it (CCC, 1806). By using our consciences and the virtue of prudence, one can determine what the best outcome of a situation is and strive toward that. In the political world this entails voting for candidates yo...
The novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde shows the life of three men who are affected by art in the Victorian society. In Victorian times men were expected to provide for himself and his family, accumulate wealth, exemplify good morals and prove his masculinity. If a man did not show one of these qualities in the Victorian time his masculinity would be questioned. In the novel these men show three different sides to masculinity. Each character finds himself unhappy with the role he is forced to play in order to prove his masculinity. For them it seems in order to be successful or achieve happiness they must push past the gender roles society has placed on them. Basil Hallward represents the artist, Dorian
Conscience, in modern usage, term denoting various factors in moral experience. Thus, the recognition and acceptance of a principle of conduct as binding is called conscience. In theology and ethics, the term refers to the inner sense of right and wrong in moral choices, as well as to the satisfaction that follows action regarded as right and the dissatisfaction and remorse resulting from conduct that is considered wrong. In earlier ethical theories, conscience was regarded as a separate faculty of the mind having moral jurisdiction, either absolute or as a representative of God in the human soul.
... conscience is “the voice present in every human being” that is “independent from external sanctions and rewards” – this is what the creature feels (Fromm 623). When humanistic conscience is analyzed in more detail, it becomes apparent that this form of conscience is based on the concept that as a human being, one equips an instinctive awareness that enables him/her to decipher between what is human, and in return, what is inhuman (Fromm 623). In addition, one who possesses a humanistic conscience is also able to distinguish between good and evil, conductive and destructive, etc. (Fromm 623). Due to the creature possessing a humanistic conscience, he is able to realize that he is not human and also destructive of life—this results in the creature’s hatred for Victor to increase, which later results in him obeying his own personal authority and carrying out revenge.
The Picture of Dorian Gray was heavily influenced by the Aesthetic Movement of the mid 1800’s. The Aesthetic Movement implied that art is only to exist for the idea of beauty, and that the viewer of the art should not look into the meaning behind the art. Oscar Wilde believed this theory, and he used ideas from the Aesthetic Movement in many of his pieces, including The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Picture of Dorian Gray was an incredibly controversial novel, especially with its added aesthetic ideas.
In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty is depicted as the driving force in the lives of the three main characters, Dorian, Basil and Lord Henry. Dorian, the main character, believes in seizing the day. Basil, the artist, admires all that is beautiful in life. Lord Henry, accredited ones physical appearance to the ability of achieving accomplishments in life. Beauty ordains the fate of Dorian, Basil, and Lord Henry. The novel embodies the relationship of beauty and morality. Beauty is not based on how attractive an object is to everyone, but how attractive it is to one.
...f nothing and therefore ethics “cannot be taught,” but since 99.9 percent of business and criminal justice professionals have a conscience, it is possible to teach and learn ethics (Perry).
The Picture of Dorian Gray was a remarkably well-written book due to the reaction of its themes by society. In the preface of the novel, Wilde introduces the opinion that "...there is no moral or immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all." Numerous views can be taken upon this fastidious comment. Many would agree that Wilde is justifiably correct because the preface was written with the intention that his readers understand the deeper meaning of the themes than worrying about whether it is considered morally acceptable; or perhaps, the view that it could be considered moral or immoral by the impact it has on the readers' lives. Even though there are several positions held on what The Picture of Dorian Gray's most important meaning is about, the most prominent is the novel as a moral book. Lord Henry Wotton immediately begins to corrupt Dorian's mind after they first meet by forcing his immoral thoughts of "yielding to temptation" which allows Lord Henry to hold his attention. After listening for quite a while to Lord Henry's views, Dorian begins to change his own to match them, and therefore begins to live a life of immorality. The yellow book is a device that Lord Henry uses to further corrupt and drive Dorian deeper into the pits of sin. Through Lord Henry's influence, the changes in Dorian Gray, and the impact of the yellow book, Oscar Wilde efficiently reveals The Picture of Dorian Gray as a moral book.
For years, the matter of morality has been a widespread topic of discussion, debating whether it is a product of our chemical composition or our free will. Before I get started, I will provide you with what I believe morality exactly is. Ethics is a “code of conduct,” much like a University’s student handbook, but applied to the expected morality of a larger group or society. Morals are how individuals choose to interpret and follow such code. Just as a student may not always act in complete obedience with the student handbook, humans also deviate from their ethical codes of conduct. Therefore, morals are the set of a person’s specific values and opinions formed by their interpretation of their society’s code of ethics. With this version of the meaning of morality, I believe that individual free-will and the neurological hardwiring in which we are born with both significantly influence the development of our mature human morality due to a variety of factors including: human brain development, differences in our upbringing and education, which give rise to disparities in matters such as what is considered right or wrong, decision-making processes, and our ultimate behavioral choices, and lastly, because morality cannot exist if based solely on human nature, it must also involve our own self-determination. My position that morality is not the product of one side of the debate or the other, but rather arises through the integration of both components, allows for a complete demonstration of morality in its entirety. In this system, the ambiguities present in the one-sided arguments are removed, making it easy to link any individual’s action to their personal moral accountability.