Essay on Picture of Dorian Gray Discovering Wilde

Discovering Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray can be defined as a symbolic representation of a dialectic between two aspects of Wildes personality. Dorian is an archetypal image by which both aspects are fascinated. This suggests that his behaviour symbolizes Wildes unconscious (i.e. unacknowledged) attitudes. Dorian is characterized by his evasiveness and his obsession with objets dart. For example, when Basil comes to console him about Sibyls death, he is unwilling to discuss the matter. He does not want to admit the possibility that his behaviour was reprehensible. He tells his friend: If one doesnt talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression, as Harry says, that†¦show more content†¦It seems to me simply like a wonderful ending to a wonderful play. It has all the terrible beauty of a Greek tragedy, a tragedy in which I took a great part, but by which I have not been wounded. (100) He tells Basil: To become the spectator of ones own life, as Harry says, is to escape the suffering of life (110). Some eighteen years later, Dorian no longer even feels part of his own drama. He has become only a spectator, and what he sees is a projection of the grotesque shape that his own personality has assumed. He coldly watches Basil as the latter reacts to his now hideously deformed painting: The young man was leaning against the mantelshelf, watching him with that strange expression that one sees on the faces of those who are absorbed in a play when some great artist is acting. There was neither real sorrow in it nor real joy. There was simply the passion of the spectator, with perhaps a flicker of triumph in his eyes. (156) He is no longer watching himself only. He is watching another persons reaction to the callousness and cruelty which he does not want to recognize in himself. Throughout the novel, the mechanism whereby involvement is translated into aesthetic perspective is associated with fear. For example, when Dorian first meets Lord Henry, to distract him from the latters words, he turns to observe a bee: He watched it with that strange interest inShow MoreRelatedThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde1967 Words   |  8 Pages In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde disputes the role and conflicts between Aestheticism and morality. He exposes his contradictions and inner struggles throughout his three main characters: Lord Henry, a nobleman who criticizes the moralism and hypocrisy of Victorian society and openly expresses his Aesthetic thoughts, Dorian Gray, a handsome model influenced by Lord Henry’s views on beauty and morality, and Basil Hallward, an artist captivated by Dorian’s beauty. The novel mainly dealsRead MoreThe Period Called Romanticism: Representations of Terror in Literature2051 Words   |  9 Pagesbelieved individualism as being the most important feature; they valued subjectivity, imagination, and the expression of emotions over rational thought as a true source of aesthetic experience. Before the 18th Century, few writers were concerned with discovering their own individual identities and feelings but the changing economy of the industrial revolution helped to wides pread the interest for individualism, creating a deep shift in the attitudes to art and human creativity, transforming not onlyRead MoreVictorian Novel9605 Words   |  39 Pagesone transcending aspect to Victorian England life and society, that aspect is change. Nearly every institution of society was affected by rapid and unforeseeable changes.  As some writers greeted them with fear and others embraced the progress, this essay will guide a reader through an important era in English literary history and introduce with the voices that influenced its shape and development. It was the novel that was the leading form of literature in the 19th century England. The term ‘novel’