...Intro to Fiction Sexuality in The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray alludes to homosexuality throughout the entirety of the novel. While homosexual relations between the characters are not directly discussed, the context and conversations between the characters points to homosexual relations between all of the male characters. Oscar Wilde, himself, was part of the Decadents movement at the end of the Victorian period. Decadents are known for undermining the mainstream Victorian ideals. There has been a significant change in society’s morals since the publication of the novel in 1891. A person reading The Picture of Dorian Gray in today’s culture may see nothing wrong about the context of the novel or the relationships between the characters within it but, at the time of publication, it was seen by society as an immoral book and even used in the trial against Oscar Wilde that resulted in two years imprisonment and hard labor. I will argue that using the characters of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, and Basil Hallward, Oscar Wilde supports the common Decadents belief that open sexuality in mainstream Victorian culture would make for a better, happier society. From the very beginning of the novel, homosexual relations are apparent through the conversation about Dorian Gray between Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. As Lord Henry questions Basil about the mysterious person in his painting, Basil’s odd obsession with Dorian becomes evident. He describes their...
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...The Picture of Dorian Gray? The novel’s contrasting settings do portray a gulf between social classes in Victorian society but also represents the dualism in The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Wilde specifically chooses to pick two opposite settings, the East End and the West End, and ignores the middle class areas of London. This is due to the suggestion that Wilde wanted to convey class indifference explicitly and clearly in the novel, but also the double aspects of Dorian and his life. Dorian comes from the West End of London, living in a very wealthy and prestigious “Grosvenor Square”, the wealth in the glamorous side of London is explicitly different to the “foul” East End, with its “grisly prostitutes, drunken brawls, and opium dens”. These two contrasting settings are very interesting as Dorian, a wealthy man likes to spend his time in the “darkest” London. Not only is Wilde portraying the gulf between these two social classes, he is representing Dorian; the glamorous West End acts as a mask for Dorian, whereas the “evil” East End is a true representation of the real Dorian Gray and his true nature. However the rest of high Victorian society would not tolerate such visits Dorian went on and Dorian would fact social ostrication, however as long as immorality was hidden it was fine. Rita Felski suggests that this portrays the “crass vulgarity of modern bourgeois society”. The specific places in the novel help portray a gulf between social classes. One example is Lord Henry’s...
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...first read The Picture of Dorian Gray, what struck me most, and what inspired me to write my essay, was the irony that Dorian exhibited in his life. In pursuing aestheticism—a philosophy based in the simplistic beauty of things—the pursuer may, in the end and without notice, emerge uglier than ever before. Dorian, the once wide-eyed innocent, buckles and caves in to depravity while practicing an aesthetic lifestyle, despite the beauty that such a life idea claims. I began to wonder what Oscar Wilde intended to convey with his portrayal of the Aesthetic Movement incarnate and its often harsh consequences, especially given the well-documented involvement of Wilde in promoting aestheticism in his contemporary society. The juxtaposition of Wilde’s support for the Aesthetic Movement with Dorian’s corruption at the hands of it provided a great jumping-off point and a lingering question with which to begin an essay. What exactly is Wilde’s view of aestheticism when one bears in mind the story of Dorian Gray? In writing my essay, I realized Wilde’s outlook is not as straightforward as it may first appear. Throughout the writing process, a difficult task I faced was to encapsulate the aesthetic position when the philosophy often meant different things to different people. In researching the movement, I found that the moral philosophies of various proponents of aestheticism often varied and, thus, it became difficult to nail down the aesthetic tenets and apply them to Dorian Gray. In retrospect...
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...Summary Published in 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only novel. An immediate and popular success, it has never been out of print. The story is set in London towards the end of the 19th century. Basil Hallward has painted a portrait of a handsome young man, Dorian Gray. Thrilled by the beauty of the painting, Dorian Gray wishes that he could always stay as young as his image in the picture. He gives up his soul to achieve this wish. Dorian sets out on a life of self-indulgence and evil. His behaviour seems to be reflected in the portrait and he realises that his wish has come true – the portrait is beginning to show a corrupted man while he remains unchanged physically. Frightened of what is happening, Dorian hides the picture in a locked room. The years pass and Dorian leads an increasingly depraved life, but the years have no effect on him; he looks as young and beautiful as ever. Then one evening he meets the artist once more and, after he has shown him the evil-looking portrait, Dorian kills him in a fit of hatred. Dorian tries to carry on with his immoral life but he is tormented by feelings of guilt and decides that the only way he can make up for what he has done is to destroy the painting. In the climax of the story Dorian tries to kill the man in the portrait, but kills himself in the process. Aestheticism was inspired by the principle of 'art for art's sake (art for the love for art) ...it had to simply create beauty. The Aesthete believed that...
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...artist can express everything." The artist’s instruments are thought and language. Vice and virtue are the materials of art. In terms of form, music is the epitome of all the arts. In terms of feeling, acting is the epitome of the arts. Art is both surface and symbol. People who try to go beneath the surface and those who try to read the symbols "do so at their own peril." Art imitates not life, but the spectator. When there is a diversity of opinion about a work of art, the art is good. "When critics disagree the artist is in accord with him [/her] self." The value of art is not in its usefulness. Art is useless. CHAPTER 1 In a richly decorated studio an artist, Basil Hallward talks with a guest, Lord Henry Wotton about a new portrait he has standing out. Lord Henry exclaims that it is the best of Hallward’s...
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...be found in Oscar Wilde ’s preface to his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book,” writes Wilde, “Books are well written or badly written. That is all.” His claim is that works of art are legitimate objects of aesthetic judgement, but not of moraljudgement. Wilde added this preface when the novel was reprinted a year after its initial publication in a literary magazine. The preface was Wilde’s considered response to various reviewers who had found his book to be immoral. The extent of this antagonism should not be exaggerated. Only a few reviewers had condemned the novel in these terms, and there was never any serious campaign for it to be banned. Wilde also replied separately, by letter, to each of the magazines and newspapers which had published these condemnatory reviews. These letters were collected together after his death and republished in a little volume entitled Art and Morality. (Today, they can be found more easily in the collected edition of Wilde’s correspondence.) It is worth our while to read and compare the various arguments he puts forward. He makes his first statement of the principle later enunciated in his preface in his letter to The St. James’s Gazette: “The sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct and separate.” However in a second letter to the same magazine he makes the surprising claim that “The public… will find that [Dorian Gray] is a story with a moral. And the moral is this: All...
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...Explore the ways in which Ibsen presents romantic relationships in the play “A Doll’s House,” and how this affects your understanding of the play. Compare the ways in which romantic relationships are presented by Wilde in the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” and by Ibsen in the play “A Doll’s House,” in light of the opinion that “all Victorian romantic relationships were superficial.” There are strong arguments that suggest that all Victorian romantic relationships were superficial in numerous ways, as presented by Ibsen in the play “A Doll’s House,” and Wilde in the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” In Ibsen’s play, all relationships are tainted by the theme of superficiality via the stereotypical roles of the sexes and appearances. In Wilde’s novel, superficiality is similarly portrayed through appearances and art, however more through physical aesthetics, rather than social appearances. A strong example of this idea is the marriage between Nora and Torvald in “A Doll’s House.” A major theme that runs throughout the play, is the idea of performance in marriage. Both Nora and Torvald put on a facade, to present themselves as an ideal husband/wife. One example is Torvald’s shallow role as a stereotypical male following the revelation of Nora’s secret; that she withdrew a loan from Krogstad in order to pay for a trip to heal Torvald’s illness. At the initial exposé he exclaims “you have ruined all my future,” establishing himself as the dominant man, as this expression is...
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...spiritual neglect, and materialism. Dorian Gray possesses true narcissism in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Narcissism is one of the main components that drive this novel. Dorian is willing to go to any length to preserve his youthful vitality. This novel also has a heavy focus on youth, beauty, and superficiality. Dorian Gray starts his narcissistic spiral downward when he first sees the portrait that Basil paints of him. It makes him realize that his beauty will fade as he grows older and does not want to accept that. Dorian says “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose?” (43) showing his envy for the painting. When Basil nearly destroys the painting, Dorian will not let him do it and says that he is in love with the painting and expresses that it is a part of himself (44). Dorian is similar to the character of Narcissus, both of which are completely consumed with themselves (Miller). Dorian loves his beauty enough to give up the very essence of his being, his soul. Lord Henry reinforces and encourages this kind of self-centeredness, knowing that he has a strong influence over Dorian. He enjoys the way he can shape Dorian’s young mind, saying that it was “like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every thrill of the bow.... There was nothing that one could not do with him” (23). Lord Henry inspires Dorian to do whatever he wants to for the sake...
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...OsWilde always created and maintained a deep connection between art and his characters. He focused on thoroughly examining the relationship between beauty, art, life, religion and morality. The picture of Dorian Gray is based on the same theme of love for art and art’s ability to depict life’s harshness. The picture of Dorian Gray.” It is a masterpiece, which not only represents Wilde’s brilliance in his writing, but also displays dark and personal aspects of his life. *****The story display the reflections of the author’s personality in the novel’s three main characters, Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton and Basil Hallward. Each character shows a kind of approach towards life which is similar in its philosophy to Oscar Wilde’s real life approach. **Oscar Wild says: “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be- in other ages, perhaps. Oscar has crafted Dorian Gray as a symbol of art which can truly be appreciated with no regard to morality and ethics.*** He is characterized by pure soul which was polluted by the vices in society and got transformed him into a selfish, who lives to seek pleasure. The author and the character mirror each other because, both had a pleasure seeking nature with no regards to ethics and morals in the society. . According to Oscar Wild Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. As you know Oscar Wild was homosexual and there was a man he loved, Alfred Duglas. I read several letter...
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...2012 The Power and Destruction of Vain Pursuits in the Picture of Dorian Gray “In fact, despite his power of rationalization and the continuing influence of Henry. Dorian is increasingly disturbed by doubts about his moral freedom and stung by the pangs of the conscience that will not die” (Liebman 10). Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is centered upon the effects of liberty of the soul and degradation that results from it. If one chooses to always act on inner desires and passions, ignoring ethical values, one’s life will be destroyed by vain pursuits. Dorian Gray a wealthy young man has been challenged to “embark upon a hedonistic life, after having feared it for so long, developing every intellectual, aesthetic and sensual appetite to the utmost. Despite the look of his innocent beauty...”(Magill Book Reviews 1) Dorian becomes very vain with the pursuit to simply fulfill his desperate desires without looking into the ethical importance of his actions and thus becomes hopeless and defenceless to his own desires. When one becomes aware of the fear to venture in life, one will pursue to fulfill every incomplete/unfulfilled passion without limits. This in turn leads to an amoral representation of one’s life. For once in his life, Dorian Gray was inspired. He was woken up to a world of freedom. Lord Henry Wotton opened his eyes to a world of hedonism saying “You, Mr. Gray... with your rose-red youth... and ... boyhood ... you have had...
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...from countertransference. Without being fully aware of ourselves, countertransference becomes hard to recognize. By understanding our own thoughts, feelings, and values, these issues can be recognized and resolved (Hepworth et al., 2013). As such, this reflective journal is an exercise in self-awareness, recognizing countertransference, and application of clinical practice. I will begin this journal with a summary of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in order to fully expound on the themes of mental illness existent in the novel. From there, I will present my assessment of the mental illness and describe the clinical approach that I would take to address these issues. A discussion on issues of countertransference that arose while reading will be included, followed by an exploration of field work experiences, and current events related to the novel. Summary The novel begins as painter Basil Hallward is near completion of what he believes to be his masterpiece. It is a portrait of a young and wealthy youth named Dorian Gray. It becomes evident rather quickly that Basil is obsessed with him, as he...
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...The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde This eBook was designed and published by Planet PDF. For more free eBooks visit our Web site at http://www.planetpdf.com/. To hear about our latest releases subscribe to the Planet PDF Newsletter. The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapter I The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pinkflowering thorn. From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as usual, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-colored blossoms of the laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid jade-faced painters who, in an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion. The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the black-crocketed spires of the early June hollyhocks, seemed to make the stillness 2 of 250 The Picture of Dorian Gray more oppressive...
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...Sparknotes – Dorian Gray • Written by Oscar Wilde in 1890. • Devoted to a school of thought and a mode of sensibility known as aestheticism, Wilde believed that art possesses an intrinsic value—that it is beautiful and therefore has worth, and thus needs serve no other purpose, be it moral or political. • Dorian is a cultured, wealthy, and impossibly beautiful young man who immediately captures Basil’s artistic imagination • Although Lord Henry is a self-proclaimed hedonist who advocates the equal pursuit of both moral and immoral experience, he lives a rather staid life. • The Victorians believed that art could be used as a tool for social education and moral enlightenment, as illustrated in works by writers such as Charles Dickens and George Gissing. The aestheticism movement, of which Wilde was a major proponent, sought to free art from this responsibility. • “We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us.” • The Picture of Dorian Gray has often been compared to the famous German legend of Faust. The legend tells of a learned doctor who sells his soul to the devil in return for knowledge and magical abilities. Although Dorian Gray never contracts with the devil, his sacrifice is similar: he trades his soul for the luxury of eternal youth. • He is the last Lord Kelso's grandson. His mother was a Devereux, Lady Margaret Devereaux. Poor chap was killed in a duel at Spa a few months after the marriage. They...
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...Министерство образования и науки Республики Казахстан Кокшетауский государственный университет им. Ш. Уалиханова An Outline of British Literature (from tradition to post modernism) Кокшетау 2011 УДК 802.0 – 5:20 ББК 81:432.1-923 № 39 Рекомендовано к печати кафедрой английского языка и МП КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, Ученым Советом филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, УМС КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова. Рецензенты: Баяндина С.Ж. доктор филологических наук, профессор, декан филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова Батаева Ф.А. кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры «Переводческое дело» Кокшетауского университета им. А. Мырзахметова Кожанова К.Т. преподаватель английского языка кафедры гуманитарного цикла ИПК и ПРО Акмолинской области An Outline of British Literature from tradition to post modernism (on specialties 050119 – “Foreign Language: Two Foreign Languages”, 050205 – “Foreign Philology” and 050207 – “Translation”): Учебное пособие / Сост. Немченко Н.Ф. – Кокшетау: Типография КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, 2010 – 170 с. ISBN 9965-19-350-9 Пособие представляет собой краткие очерки, характеризующие английскую литературу Великобритании, ее основные направления и тенденции. Все известные направления в литературе иллюстрированы примерами жизни и творчества авторов, вошедших в мировую литературу благодаря...
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