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NOVELS: The Picture of Dorian Grey |
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| The Picture of Dorian Grey is
a novel that follows the life of Dorian Grey. The
story begins when Dorian is introduced to a man
named Basil at a party. Basil falls in love with
Dorian and secretly paints a picture of him. Lord
Henry sees the painting and thinks it is
beautiful, but Basil is not satisfied with it and
stows it in the attic. Lord Henry negatively
influences and corrupts Dorian, who was at first
a good man, and eventually Dorian says he would
give anything, even his soul, for the picture to
grow old instead of him. Dorian gets his wish,
and in the deal he sells his soul. He continues
to lead a hedonistic lifestyle under the
influence of Lord Henry, while never aging, and
the picture, hidden in the attic, ages and shows
the corruption of his soul. One day, Basil takes
Dorian to the attic and he takes out the picture.
When Dorian sees how grotesque it has become, he
becomes furious and stabs Basil. He then takes
the painting and slashes it, thus stabbing
himself. The story ends with Dorian lying on the
ground, aged now, and the painting back to the
way it was in the beginning. This book has a moral to it. It shows us that you cannot run away from the consequences of your actions. Beauty is only skin deep, and cannot change the makeup of your soul. In the end of the book, everyone who aspired to beauty rather than morality ended up in ruin. This book is written in third person narrative, and takes place in London in the 1800’s. The structure of the book is almost like that of a fairy tale, aside from the fact that no one lives happily ever after. Oscar Wilde does this for a reason. He wrote this book to discuss the philosophy of morals and to provide one. The theme of this story is the corruption of Dorian’s soul in order to remain physically beautiful. The obvious symbol in this book is the picture, which is Dorian’s soul. It is the central part of the story, and is the reason for the corruption of Dorian. It shows how ugly his soul has become, and Dorian blames it for his misery. When he stabs it, he is symbolically stabbing himself. The book also contains paradoxes throughout the plot. Dorian is the one who begins his own downfall by making himself known to Basil at a party. And Basil paints the picture of Dorian because he is such a gentle and kind person. Basil end up hating Dorian because he has become mean and ugly. In the end, Dorian blames Basil for the corruption of his soul because of the painting.
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