|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
... Wilde published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, before he reached the height of his fame. ... The Preface anticipates some of the criticism that might be leveled at the novel and answers critics who charge The Picture of Dorian Gray with being an immoral tale. ... Part gothic novel, part comedy of manners, part treatise on the relationship between art and morality, The Picture of Dorian Gray continues to present its readers with a puzzle to sort out. ... "In 189l, the same year that the second edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray was published, Wilde began a homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, an aspiring but rather untalented poet. ...
Plot Overview
In the stately London home of his aunt, Lady Agatha, the well-known artist Basil Hallward meets Dorian Gray. Dorian is a cultured, wealthy, and impossibly beautiful young man who immediately captures Basils artistic imagination. Dorian sits for several portraits, and Basil often depicts him as an ancient Greek hero or a mythological figure. When the novel opens, the artist is completing his first portrait of Dorian as he truly is, but, as he admits to his friend Lord Henry Wotton, the painting disappoints him because it reveals too much of his feeling for his subject. ... Dorian arrives at the studio, and Basil reluctantly introduces him to Lord Henry, who he fears will have a damaging influence on the impressionable, young Dorian. Basils fears are well founded; before the end of their first conversation, Lord Henry upsets Dorian with a speech about the transient nature of beauty and youth. Worried that these, his most impressive characteristics, are fading day by day, Dorian curses his portrait, which he believes will one day remind him of the beauty he will have lost. ... In an attempt to appease Dorian, Basil gives him the portrait.Over the next few weeks, Lord Henrys influence over Dorian grows stronger. ... He adores her acting; she, in turn, refers to him as "Prince Charming" and refuses to heed the warnings of her brother, James Vane, that Dorian is no good for her. Overcome by her emotions for Dorian, Sibyl decides that she can no longer act, wondering how she can pretend to love on the stage now that she has experienced the real thing. Dorian, who loves Sibyl because of her ability to act, cruelly breaks his engagement with her. ... At Lord Henrys urging, Dorian decides to consider her death a sort of artistic triumph—she personified tragedy—and to put the matter behind him. Meanwhile, Dorian hides his portrait in a remote upper room of his house, where no one other than he can watch its transformation.Lord Henry gives Dorian a book that describes the wicked exploits of a nineteenth-century Frenchman; it becomes Dorians bible as he sinks ever deeper into a life of sin and corruption. ... The two argue, and Dorian eventually offers Basil a look at his (Dorians) soul. ... Dorian claims it is too late for penance and kills Basil in a fit of rage.In order to dispose of the body, Dorian employs the help of an estranged friend, a doctor, whom he blackmails. The night after the murder, Dorian makes his way to an opium den, where he encounters James Vane, who attempts to avenge Sybils death. Dorian escapes to his country estate. ... When a hunting party accidentally shoots and kills Vane, Dorian feels safe again. ... In a fury, Dorian picks up the knife he used to stab Basil Hallward and attempts to destroy the painting. There is a crash, and his servants enter to find the portrait, unharmed, showing Dorian Gray as a beautiful young man. ...
Character List
Dorian Gray - A radiantly handsome, impressionable, and wealthy young gentleman, whose portrait the artist Basil Hallward paints. Under the influence of Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian becomes extremely concerned with the transience of his beauty and begins to pursue his own pleasure above all else. ...
At the opening of the novel, Dorian Gray exists as something of an ideal: he is the archetype of male youth and beauty. As such, he captures the imagination of Basil Hallward, a painter, and Lord Henry Wotton, a nobleman who imagines fashioning the impressionable Dorian into an unremitting pleasure-seeker. Dorian is exceptionally vain and becomes convinced, in the course of a brief conversation with Lord Henry, that his most salient characteristics—his youth and physical attractiveness—are ever waning. The thought of waking one day without these attributes sends Dorian into a tailspin: he curses his fate and pledges his soul if only he could live without bearing the physical burdens of aging and sinning. ... Dorian soon leaves Basils studio for Lord Henrys parlor, where he adopts the tenets of "the new Hedonism" and resolves to live his life as a pleasure-seeker with no regard for conventional morality. ... When he breaks Sybils heart and drives her to suicide, Dorian notices the first change in his portrait—evidence that his portrait is showing the effects of age and experience while his body remains ever youthful. Dorian experiences a moment of crisis, as he weighs his burdened conscience about his treatment of Sibyl against the freedom from guilt that Lord Henrys philosophy has promised. When Dorian decides to view Sibyls death as the achievement of an artistic ideal rather than a needless tragedy for which he is responsible, he starts down the very steep and slippery slope of his own demise. ... Dorian seems to lack a conscience, but the desire to repent that he eventually feels illustrates that he is indeed human. ... In the end, Dorian seems punished by his ability to be influenced: if the new social order celebrates individualism, as Lord Henry claims, Dorian falters because he fails to establish and live by his own moral code. ... Given the seductive way in which he leads conversation, it is little wonder that Dorian falls under his spell so completely. ... Because he does not change while Dorian and Basil clearly do, his philosophy seems amusing and enticing in the first half of the book, but improbable and shallow in the second. ... " But since the decadent book that Lord Henry lends Dorian facilitates Dorians downfall, it is difficult to accept what Lord Henry says as true. ... Unlike Dorian, he does not lead innocent youths to suicide or travel incognito to the citys most despised and desperate quarters. ... His claim that Dorian could never commit a murder because "crime belongs exclusively to the lower orders" demonstrates the limitations of his understanding of the human soul. ... Basil becomes obsessed with Dorian after meeting him at a party. He claims that Dorian possesses a beauty so rare that it has helped him realize a new kind of art; through Dorian, he finds "the lines of a fresh school." Dorian also helps Basil realize his artistic potential, as the portrait of Dorian that Basil paints proves to be his masterpiece. ... His love for Dorian Gray, which seems to reflect Oscar Wildes own affection for his young lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, changes the way he sees art; indeed, it defines a new school of expression for him. Basils portrait of Dorian marks a new phase of his career. Before he created this masterwork, he spent his time painting Dorian in the "veils" of antiquity—dressed as an ancient soldier or as various romantic figures from mythology. Once he has painted Dorian as he truly is, however, he fears that he has put too much of himself into the work.
Approximate Word count = 6175
Approximate Pages = 24.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|