An Analytical Essay's The Picture Of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray leads a selfish and vain life. After his wish for eternal beauty is granted, Dorian’s vanity is fed by the admiration of his peers. In direct correlation of his increased ego, Dorian’s actions and treatment of others is self-serving. His vanity and selfish lifestyle begin to take root upon Dorian’s introduction to Lord Henry Wotton at Basil Hallward’s studio and grow until the abrupt end of Dorian’s life. The worship of Dorian’s beauty contributes to his increasingly selfish actions, by adding to Dorian’s flaming ego, his motives, and treatment of others are self-serving as shown initially at Basil’s studio, then later in Dorian’s treatment of Sybil Vane, Basil Hallward,
Truly, Dorian is not feeling the emotion of love, but that of infatuation and awe at Sybil’s appearance and ability to perform on stage. “…Imagine a girl, hardly seventeen years of age, with a little flower-like face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose.” Dorian is swept away by the youth and beauty of Sybil when he sees her on stage, but he is also swept away at her ability to act. Dorian is in love with the idea of the art Sybil portrays, not the girl herself, so when her acting suffers, Dorian's infatuation ends along with the relationship. His treatment of her at their separation is callous and harsh, "He thrust her back. ‘Don't touch me!' he cried…She crouched on the floor like a wounded thing, and Dorian Gray, with his beautiful eyes, looked down at her, and his chiseled lips curled in exquisite disdain…Her tears and sobs annoyed him." From this passage, one can infer that Dorian’s infatuation of Sybil is due to her ability to bring Dorian pleasure in the form of her acting as an art. He has no need or want of Sybil’s devotion or love; he just wants to possess her art. When she fails at her art, Dorian no longer has any need or use from her since she gave nothing to him, and he casts her aside. This is a
He only has his best interests in mind. Dorian allows his ego to be fed without checks or balances in place, making his more and more self-involved. His treatment of other is purely for self-gratification. The novel shows a progression of his character and how it progressively gets worse and worse. Even at he end, he takes no responsibility for his actions. Even his motives for stabbing the portrait are selfish. He is trying to get rid of the last bit of evidence that existed. "It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at