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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. |