Picture Of Dorian Gray Essays (Examples)

Picture of Dorian Gray Tragically

Although Dorian has clearly been touched (figuratively) by Lord Henry, he immediately "falls in love" with the young actress he sees during a stage performance of a Shakespeare play. It seems to the reader that Wilde intentionally makes Dorian's feelings for Sibyl unrealistic and not true to Dorian's character by having Dorian come from nowhere with news that he is engaged to Sibyl, and then a few days later growing to detest her. While it is true that Dorian is capable of having strong and quickly picked up emotions towards people, it does not seem realistic that he would suddenly declare he wants to marry Sibyl unless perhaps he was trying to repress other feelings he was experiencing. In this way, critic Sedgwick's theory of "homophobic male panic" is also developed in the Picture of Dorian Gray.

Overall, the feelings of tragically repressed homosexuality in the Picture of Dorian Gray…… [Read More]

Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar ilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, provides a series of profound social criticism of his time in the form of witty epigrams. These epigrams made pointed social observations about life at the time of ilde's novel. Nonetheless, they can sill be applied to societies' customs and attitudes today.

Perhaps one of the most famous epigrams in The Picture of Dorian Gray comes from Lord Henry otton, who notes "I choose my friends for their beauty and my enemies for their intelligence. A man cannot be too careful in choosing his enemies." Here, this is a reversal of common logic at the time that held that friends should be chosen for their intelligence and companionship, while it would seem logical that one would not want intelligence in enemies. Today, the epigram is equally valid, as we still consider intelligence and companionship important qualities in a friend.

Another Lord otton…… [Read More]

Dorian Gray Falls From Grace

Is this 'good' or natural one might ask, if Basil is one of the moral characters of the book and defying nature and wishing for eternal youth is immoral? Henry's counsel to Dorian that Dorian yield to his every natural temptation and not bow down to societal morality could be seen as an endorsement of the natural, but Henry also celebrates youth to an unnatural, unchanging degree and he too falls in love with Dorian's image before Dorian. Also, Henry, like Basil, is clearly amoral and self-interested himself, as seen in his disapproval that Dorian's impulses do not conform to Henry's own when Dorian is attracted to a pretty young actress.

Henry is a tempting figure, like Mephistopheles, but Dorian easily outdoes him in 'evil' or transgressions and unnaturalness. Dorian's love of youth, spawned by Henry, takes on a life of its own, just like Faustus' taunting of nature and…… [Read More]

Dorian Gray the Perception of

He has tried to live a life of pure pleasure with no concern for others, but he cannot escape his own fear, because he knows all the wrongs he has done. The ultimate sin was killing the only person who ever saw true beauty in him.

For its time, this book was extremely well done, and the writing cannot be faulted in the light of Victorian English literature. The story, in fact, is still a good tale, but the long passages of exposition, even in the guise of conversation, makes it difficult for today's audience to read. It is so full of discussions of philosophy and morality that I have to suspect that it was intentionally done to point out the excessive moralizing in much Victorian literature. Nearly every rule of political correctness is broken by one or more of the characters. Yet the story underlying the whole is compelling.…… [Read More]

Picture of Dorian and the Rise of Aestheticism

picture of Dorian and the rise of Aestheticism

Oscar Wilde, despite having lived and died in the first half of the twentieth century, that is, in the year 1900, when he was just about 46 years old, remains, to this day in the twenty first century, a man whose intellectual witticisms and aestheticisms are well appreciated and even stay unparalleled today. In fact, it is often said that Oscar Wilde's life in itself was a veritable art form, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in his work 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. It is through this work that the author explores sensitive topics like the social classes and their behavior, the vanity and the narcissism that is inherent in these people, and the mortality that everyone has to face at one time or another during their own lifetimes. (Tanaka, 5)

The novel in its first published version appeared in…… [Read More]

Portrait of Dorian Gray the

This literary parallel also underlined in the final description of the portrait of what Dorian Gray has become at the end of the book, Chapter 20: "The thing was still loathsome -- more loathsome, if possible, than before -- and the scarlet dew that spotted the hand seemed brighter, and more like blood newly spilled. Then he trembled. Had it been merely vanity that had made him do his one good deed? Or the desire for a new sensation, as Lord Henry had hinted, with his mocking laugh?"

Again, there is scarlet, but this is the scarlet of blood letting, not an innocent blush of the young Dorian's lips. Once again, at the words of Lord Henry, even the older and more jaded Dorian is moved to tremble. He blanches at the sight of the picture, but for a different reason, because he can see the monster he has become,…… [Read More]

Greek Culture

Anatomy of an Aesthete

The Picture of Dorian Gray and the Rise of Aestheticism

Oscar ilde's the Picture of Dorian Gray is the manifesto of Late Victorian Aestheticism.

The Late Victorian Era was characterized by numerous artistic and literary movements that were reactions to the growing industrialization and homogenization of contemporary society. As trains, telephones, and factories rushed humankind headlong to an unknown future, many of the greatest lights of the Age looked back into the Past, and to a simpler, more clearly-defined time and place; a time and place with readily-recognized rules and standards. For centuries, the Classical orld of Ancient Greece and Rome had provided a model for modern Europeans. Artists, writers, philosophers, architects -- even musicians -- let themselves be guided by what they believed to be the Classical canons of behavior and taste. Until the dawn of the Industrial Age, Europe's intellectual class entertained no illusions…… [Read More]

Greek Culture and the Rise of Aestheticism in the Late Victorian Culture

aestheticism movement found, in Oscar ilde, its most eloquent and staunch supporter; consequently, his only novel, the Picture of Dorian Gray, is a monument to the notion that art is the pure manifestation of beauty and reveals ilde's particular reverence for classical western society's artistic achievements.

Oscar ilde fundamentally sought to dislodge art from morality within his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and in so doing, pay his respects to the beauty in Greek culture by viewing through this amoral lens. Its original publication in 1890 was met with severe criticism from many who perceived it to be utterly disgraceful and immoral; as a result, ilde attempted to answer his critics by revising the Picture of Dorian Gray and amending it with preface -- outlining his philosophical underpinnings -- in the following year. In short, ilde believed, "The sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct…… [Read More]

Queer Literary Studies

Queer Theory and Oscar Wilde

Analysis of "Queer Theory" by Annamarie Jagose in relation to Dorian Gray's character in "The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

In her discussion of "Queer theory," author Annamarie Jagose provides a distinction between the concepts 'queer' and the dichotomous relationship between 'lesbian' and 'gay.' Jagose argued in her discussion of this theory that queer was a concept that had politically evolved through the years in relation to the proliferation of gay and lesbian studies.

What makes the queer concept vital to the study of gays and lesbians, as well as issues of homosexuality and heterosexuality is that it provides a 'gray area' in which no distinctions between male and female and gay and lesbian are found. Queer appeals to the 20th century philosophers and social scientists simply because it offers an avenue through which gender and sex can be discussed without the political…… [Read More]

Religion and British Literature

role of religion in the history of European society is a tumultuous one. Christianity, from its obscure beginnings in the classical age, eventually took the reins as the centerpiece of philosophical, literary, and scientific thought. It is true that religion, often, tends to justify actions that might objectively be perceived as incongruous to the established faith. It has historically been the case that when traditional forms of worship become threatened, morally questionable methods are undertaken to strengthen the order. This is certainly the case with Christianity. Since the birth of the Catholic Church in the Roman Empire, Church officials have actively attempted to make their privileged positions in society impervious to assault -- this process has progressed for centuries and, indeed, tens of centuries. For many years this single faith dominated nearly every aspect of European society and was a strong force in maintaining the status quo. However, the many…… [Read More]

Homosexual Practices Might Have Begun in the

homosexual practices might have begun in the early centuries, the word "sodomy" was first used by a Catholic missionary, now a saint, Father Peter Damien around 1050. y sodomy, he meant masturbation and anal intercourse between men, a sin he condemned as the most perverse of sexual sins in his long letter to the Pope, entitled "the ook of Gomorrah." He emphasized that God designed sex exclusively for procreation and that the enjoyment of the sexual act outside this divine purpose was unnatural and therefore summarily grievously and wickedly sinful.

The unnaturalness of sodomy remained more or less the same through the centuries, till the 1700s when the so-called modern homosexual subcultures made themselves visible in London, Paris and Amsterdam. The rest soon perceived them as "sodomites (who were merely) ... constitutionally different from other men" (Wikholm 1999) and effeminate woman-haters who refused to have sex with women. Things were…… [Read More]

Playwright as Rock Star Art

It was also during this time that he started keeping a diary. The entry for that day is very relevant as to our attempt to understand what drove Orton to join the theater in hopes of an acting career. During the time he spent with the amateur theater company, Orton decided that he wanted to pursue a career in acting, and that his first step towards achieving this goal was to go to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art: "Last night sitting in the empty theatre watching the electricians flashing lights on and off, the empty stage waiting for rehearsal to begin, I suddenly knew that my ambition is, and always has been, to act." (Diary entry, April 13th, 1949: Joe Orton Online)

He quit the amateur acting company after his first role because he was not offered any other substantial roles. Although he got accepted into the Royal Academy…… [Read More]

Nature Imitates Art Imitating Nature

" (4) it is unclear how to understand "things are because we see them." Traditionally perception is conceived as a passive process: we open our eyes and receive input from the world. Kant suggests that perhaps it is not so passive: we "organize" the world into temporal and spatial dimensions, attribute cause and effect, etc. But what Wilde suggests here is even more radical. The "things are because" suggests a causal relationship, such that what we see exists as an effect of seeing. It would be as if looking "paints" the world. But this is completely absurd. Onto what would seeing "paint" the world? and, even weirder, notice that it wouldn't be that seeing paints the world so that we could then look at what was painted. Rather, it would be that seeing is painting, so that we always see and paint simultaneously, always just "creating" whatever we see, under…… [Read More]

Art and the Humanities

Visual Imagery and Qualitative Dimensions of Life & Consciousness in Visual Art

Throughout history all cultures have produced works of art. The impulse to create as a means of personal expression and to stimulate the imagination of viewers is universal and perpetual. In their various manifestations, the arts play an important role in defining culture by presenting intelligent viewpoints of our present state of being, and by serving as a record of our past. The visual arts are a repository of those qualitative dimensions of life, which enhance our consciousness through the use of visual imagery.

The most exquisite expression of the self is through art, be it literature, history theatre, painting, sculptor and so on. From the wondrous Egyptian pyramids to the majestic statue of liberty, from eloquent Greek writer Homer - who produced masterpieces like the Odyssey - to 20th century literati like Palestinian journalist Edward Said -…… [Read More]

Open & Unfair Hostility Towards Police

Law Enforcement Opinion

This report will cover a topic that has always been controversial. However, there have been some events as of late, most of them racially and otherwise socially charged, that have forced the argument the subject firmly back into the forefront. Of course, that topic would be law enforcement. While gun violence, politics and so forth are all the rage in the modern blogosphere and social media realms, the topic of law enforcement is high on the minds of many regular people and activists due to, among other things, the events and details surrounding what happened to people like Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown and so forth. There are plenty of talking heads that would paint the police as abusive and authoritarians. However, that is far from being the true picture that should be painted and this report shall aim to fill in the rest of the…… [Read More]

Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Specifically

Ultimately, Mrs. Dalloway's opinion of herself is highest when she is giving parties. Woolf writes, "Every time she gave a party she had this feeling of being something not herself, and that every one was unreal in one way; much more real in another" (Woolf 171). She knows she has a gift for bringing people together, and it is this gift that makes her life worthwhile. It is odd, because the entire reason for her being (at least to her) is superficial and another jab at English society by Woolf. The parties are the grounds for the wealthy to socialize and show off, while they are attended by the low-paid servants, the poor who form the backbone of English society. Ultimately, the novel condemns this society, and Clarissa Dalloway's simple character is at the forefront of this condemnation. Her simplicity and reliance on pleasing others represents all that is wrong…… [Read More]

Goblin Market - Christina Georgina

40"Lie close," Laura said, 41 Pricking up her golden head:

42"We must not look at goblin men, 43We must not buy their fruits:

Who knows upon what soil they fed

Their hungry thirsty roots?"

46"Come buy," call the goblins

Hobbling down the glen.

48"Oh," cried Lizzie, "Laura, Laura, 49 You should not peep at goblin men."

Lizzie cover'd up her eyes, 51 Cover'd close lest they should look;

Laura rear'd her glossy head, 53 and whisper'd like the restless brook:

54"Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie, 55 Down the glen tramp little men.

One hauls a basket, 57 One bears a plate, 58 One lugs a golden dish

Of many pounds weight.

How fair the vine must grow

Whose grapes are so luscious;

How warm the wind must blow

Through those fruit bushes."

64"No," said Lizzie, "No, no, no;

Their offers should not charm us, 66 Their evil gifts would harm us."…… [Read More]

Fiction and Non-Fiction in 19th Century England Example of the Grotesque

All without distinction were branded as fanatics and phantasts; not only those, whose wild and exorbitant imaginations had actually engendered only extravagant and grotesque phantasms, and whose productions were, for the most part, poor copies and gross caricatures of genuine inspiration; but the truly inspired likewise, the originals themselves. And this for no other reason, but because they were the unlearned, men of humble and obscure occupations. (Coleridge iographia IX)

To a certain extent, Coleridge's polemical point here is consistent with his early radical politics, and his emergence from the lively intellectual community of London's "dissenting academies" at a time when religious non-conformists (like the Unitarian Coleridge) were not permitted to attend Oxford or Cambridge: he is correct that science and philosophy were more active among "humble and obscure" persons, like Joseph Priestley or Anna Letitia arbauld, who had emerged from the dissenting academies because barred (by religion or gender)…… [Read More]