The Picture of Dorian Gray By-Oscar Wide

The Picture of Dorian Gray and Character Looks

Viktoriya Kuz 8-316

P. S. /I.S. 104 Viktoriya Kuz 8-316 November 19, 2010 The Picture of Dorian Gray and Characters Looks When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memories of your past will make more bitter than defeat. Said by Lord Henry Wotton, Oscar Wilde states that youthful looks can save you as well as kill you at the same time. Because Dorian Gray is enchanted by these words and feels that they are true, he says something without thinking that keeps his youth, and shows his age only on his portrait. Basically, he and the portrait switched places. This causes him joy, but also weakness and eventually leads him to suicide. Dorian Gray is not obsessed with keeping his youth while he communicates with Basil Hallward, a painter. However, it begins when he listens to Lord Henry Wotton for the very first time. Something in his mind changes and he begins to brood over his portrait, painted by Basil Hallward. Her states with horror, I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that- I would give everything! Somehow, this plea is heard and this comes true. No one understands why he seems to stay youthful throughout the book, but he does not show the portrait to anyone. I believe that Dorian may have wanted his words to be true so much, that he started to believe it. I t may have been his imagination that was taking over-insanity. Dorian believes that Basil Hallward caused his life pain and misery because he painted his portrait. We see his hatred is real when he kills Basil after showing him his aging portrait after many, many years. He tells Basil that this is the secret of his youth, but then he regrets telling him and he stabs Basil in the heart. He does not regret it. The narrator

states, Dorian Gray glanced at the picture and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him, as though it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas. This proves that Dorians words in the beginning of the book about the portrait were correct, when he said that the portrait would mock him someday. His aging portrait made him panic and kill Basil. In the beginning, Dorian falls in love with an actress, Sibyl Vane. He is captivated by her acting, and they get engaged. However, the next time he sees her act, she does not do well at all. She says this is because she is too in love with Dorian to be able to act like she loves someone or something else. This makes Dorian dislike her, ad he calls off their engagement. She is heartbroken, and therefore, commits suicide. After Dorian realizes that he can still love her, he decides to take her back, but finds out she killed herself. He is sad, but doesnt think it is his fault, and forgets about Sibyl Vane. Later in the book, James Vane, her brother, finds Dorian Gray after many years and attempts to kill him. He has never seen him before; however, he heard someone call him by the pet name Sibyl used to call him. Her death is at your door. I swore I would kill you in return. For years I sought you. I had no clue, no trace. I knew nothing of you but the pet name she used to call you, James Vane bitterly remarks to Dorian. When James is about to kill him, Dorian suddenly asks him how long it has been since his sister committed suicide, and James answers, Eighteen years. Dorian shows him his face, which holds the youth of a 20 year old boy. James realizes he made a mistake, because that man must now be atleast forty years old by now. Youth and beauty save Dorian for a while , until James finds out that it is actually him, but before James has another chance to kill Dorian, James somehow dies and Dorian is satisfied that he is safe forever more. Dorian enters the room with his portrait in it and he begins to dwell upon it. It that kept him awake at night. When he had been away, he had been filled with terror lest other eyes should look upon it Yes, it had been conscience. He would destroy it. He takes the knife that he killed Basil Hallward with, and goes to stab the portrait. However, we

hear a loud crash and cry. When people enter the room, the original portrait that Basil Hallward painted, of the young Dorian Gray is hanging on the wall, and an old unrecognizable man is dead on the floor, with a knife in his heart. This further supports my theory of Dorians imagination and taking over. He went to stab his aging self in the portrait, and killed himself, because it was him that was aging, inside. The portrait, in the end, had not aged, but went back to its original self. He had evidently killed his age to keep his beauty in the portrait, not knowing that he would do so. The youth of Dorian leads to him being happy, and it saves his life a few times. It also brings forth terrible doings and thoughts, including the murder of Basil Hallward. It makes Dorian go insane, leading to his unintentional suicide. These two effects of characters looks make The Picture of Dorian Gray a powerful text.