The Demon Effect

Addiction will always take more than what one is willing to give. It takes everything

away until there is nothing left except for a person’s identity, but even that will not last. Art and

literature are catalysts used to warn against the dangers of addiction on a person’s productivity,

identity and even family. Addiction itself changes priorities, identities and destroys relationships.

Even the slightest bit of addiction carries the ability to change a person’s priorities. It

influences one to neglect responsibilities and even his or her own health. In Christina Rossetti’s

“Goblin Market,” Lizzie revealed that “She (Jeanie) pined and pined away; sought them by night

and day … dwindled and grew grey then fell with the first snow,” it depicts …show more content…
Another example is when “She (Laura)

no more swept the house… brought water from the brook: But sat down listless in the chimney-

nook”. Laura no longer saw the importance of her chores and just as Jeanie did, she has also put

her cravings first before everything else and it has made her dull and inattentive.

Addiction corrupts identities by taking away peoples’ conscience. In Oscar Wilde’s “The

Picture of Dorian Gray” Dorian used opium dens as an escape from his problems. Dorian used

the opium den as a place where “(he) could buy oblivion… where memory of old sin could be

destroyed by the madness of sins that were new” (Wilde, 209). By being under the influence of

opium Dorian Gray loses the ability to feel remorse and this will certainly result in even more

wrongdoings thus repeating the need for more opium and the cycle of addiction continues.

Dorian’s addiction to pleasure has also taken a toll on himself, it has greatly changed his

personality and turned him from an innocent teen into “a man whom no pure-minded girl should

be allowed to know” (Wilde, 170). Dorian’s personality change made him a person that no