The Reconstruction of the south was not a complete failure, but it took to long for America to bring social and economic equality of opportunity to the former slaves.…
Dorian Gray’s characterization illustrates the theme throughout the story. At the beginning he is a charming, innocent young man who does not care so much about his looks. He then meets Lord Henry Wotton who severely influences his views and outlook on life. Lord Henry explains to Dorian that his looks are everything. Once he loses them, he will be and have nothing. Lord Henry tells him to live life to its fullest now and do things that pleasure him because once he has lost his looks, he will no longer have the opportunity. As Dorian examines the finished portrait of himself he realizes that Lord Henry is right about his looks and becomes resentful of the painting, angry that it will continue to look youthful while he slowly deteriorates. He pledges to sell his soul in order to stay beautiful while the painting takes on his altering features. Dorian then begins to…
youthfulness, naivety, and lack of experience. Dorian Gray listens to Lord Henry due to the lack of a…
‘Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I explores what it means to be an honest and honourable man.’…
In Oscar Wilde’s novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” one of the main characters Lord Henry Wotton is portrayed, as morally ambiguous. Wilde reveals Lord Henry’s ambiguous character through the way he talks, he has a more charming tone to him, but he leads a conversation in such a seducing way Dorian falls under his spell so fast. Lord Henry’s ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole because without Henry would Dorian of taken the same path that he took? Yes, in a way a lot of Henry’s words are open for interpretation, but he is the one who provoked Dorian to even have those ideas.…
In retrospect, Lord Henry Wotton seems to be a reflection of not only society itself, but teenagers as well. His values are much like that of American society. For example, Lord Henry’s obsession with youth, beauty, reputations, and overall appearances reflect what the media and television are always looking for in order to find “the next big thing.” In the same obsessive fashion, Lord Henry parallels the average teenage girl.…
Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is about a young, charming man that is in conflict with the cultural anxieties of living an extravagant, seductive, moralistic, and self-confident life style. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a fictional novel that reveals many aspects of cultural anxieties instilled in all the characters. The cultural anxieties complicate the virtues of every character in the novel. This leads each of their lives into the vices of their virtues. All the characters have the anxieties of living a great life and each character wants more than their role, place, and identity in society. The anxieties of the Late Victorian era were having “sexual restraints, low tolerance of crime and living a strict social code of conduct.” (Cenicola) However, no character can stay within an expected generous and moral lifestyle with the pressures of cultural anxieties that…
Having planted this seed, Sir Henry (more than a little enamored of Dorian’s beauty) imagines Dorian might embody a new hedonism, though I imagine it is a Dionysian hedonism that revels in youth and heightened senses. In describing his own regrets in losing his youth, Sir Henry effectively creates in Dorian a desire to remain…
For example, the philosophy that Lord Henry believes and says is based on his intellectual abilities, which relies on his observations and deductive reasoning. His foundation of his beliefs are not based on the physical application of them, and is merely just his perception on scenarios that he has not experienced first hand. This led to the ultimate change of Dorian, who has experienced corruption of sin, and has been greatly affected by the sin he indulged in. Dorian then began to have an obsession with youth because of Lord Henry, who told him that it has great importance to society and the world. With that, Dorian sold his soul to preserve his youth and beauty, and started to engage in grotesque behavior behavior he let the artificial sense of beauty cloud his thoughts and perception of himself and his own…
Oscar Wilde, author of The Picture of Dorian Gray, was an Irish author who lived from October 16, 1854 until his death, at the age of 46, on November 30, 1900. He attended the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and the Magdalene College in Oxford, England. Mr. Wilde was an active member of the aestheticism literary movement, during his day, although he lived during the Victorian Era. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, there are many passages or episodes that hold key meanings in the book as a whole, and without them; a large amount of the underlying tones and themes would be lost. In chapter two, there is a very significant key passage that has to do with the roles of Lord Henry and Dorian Gray and how they are going to affect each other. The key passage pushes Lord Henry under the role of the victimizer and Dorian Gray as the victim.…
A man with a copious amount of sin will collapse under the weight of his guilt just as a tortoise with a shell gilded in precious jewels and gold will collapse under the weight of it’s wealth. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and À Rebours (Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans explore similar ideas. Not only did À Rebours inspire Dorian Gray to leap into his life of sin in The Picture of Dorian Gray in the form of the ‘yellow book,’ but it was also said to have inspired Wilde’s only novel. In both works, the authors explore complementary ideas related to physical sensations, beauty, and art.…
Artist Basil Hallward sees Dorian and decides he wants to paint a portrait of this stunning example of a man, and Dorian consents. While sitting for the portrait at Basil’s studio, Dorian meets Basil’s dear friend, the socialite/philosopher Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry is an aesthete who whiles away his time by attending parties, going to the Club, supping and other such frivolities. He is a man of charisma, intelligence, sharp wit and “wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories” (Wilde 56). Lord Henry is immediately taken with Dorian and quickly becomes infatuated. Over the course of time, Lord Henry begins to play a very sinister game with Dorian’s life—he seduces Dorian into leading the life of an aesthete, like himself. A life of debauchery and evil where the pursuit of happiness is paramount and comes at the expense of everything and everyone else—morality be damned. Lord Henry has no particular motive for doing this except to amuse himself and to play the game of creation. Dorian slowly begins to change; Dorian, the beauty on the outside becomes Dorian, the monster on the inside. He transforms into a selfish, hedonist. His disregard for others directly causes the suicide of his fiancée. He participates in immoral acts. He seeks personal gratification with abandon. His creator, Lord Henry, does nothing to intervene and stop Dorian’s progression from young, naïve man to loathsome monster. In…
Lord Henry is considered a selfish aristocrat has the whole world at his fingertips. Nothing seems to have any meaning for Lord Henry except his own pleasure. For instance, Lord Henry proclaims, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame -- "Stop!" faltered Dorian Gray, "stop! you bewilder me. I don't know what to say” (Wilde 21). Lord Henry is a rationalist that only believes in logic, money object, and art. Lord Henry uses Dorian as a tool for pleasure and Dorian really puts his faith in Lord Henry to help him throughout his journey. For example, “Lord Henry went out to the garden and found Dorian Gray burying his face in the great cool lilac-blossoms, feverishly drinking in their perfume as if it had been wine. He came close to him and put his hand upon his shoulder. "You are quite right to do that," he murmured. "Nothing…
According to the feminist literary theory “The Male Gaze”, literary texts have a tendency to portray the world and women from a masculine point of view. These texts present women in terms of stereotypes and as objects of male pleasure. This usually occurs through the way males in a novel describe, talk about, and view women. In “The Male Gaze,” there is often one character, usually male, who is more extreme in his male gaze attitudes towards women than the other characters in the novel. This character often has a notable presence around the other characters of the novel. For the novel, A Picture of Dorian Gray, this influential character was undoubtedly Lord Henry Wotton.…
Mr. Gray allowed mere words to drain him. He let Henry's outlook on life and society affect who he was. In youth Henry glamorized Dorian; Dorian felt as though nothing would stand in his way. If Dorian fancied for anything he would complete any number of task to peruse what he desired. These…