“The content of the writing brings you directly into the author’s mind.”
In the novel, Dorian Gray, the author, Oscar Wilde, related the values during
the 19th century through his characters. His personality and view of life is
expressed through his novel-"Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord
Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be” On the
surface, Dorian Gray is an example of a typical ideal aristocrat during the time
which Oscar Wilde lived in. Throughout the novel, Dorian goes through stages in
his life that leads to his self-absorbed and corrupted character. His curiosity
of life strives him to explore these stages. Even till this day there are
examples of “Dorians” in our society. They believe they are living in an age
of continual crisis and are searching for ways to put meaning back to their
lives. At the beginning, Basil paints a portrait of Dorian Gray that people see
as an appreciation of Dorian’s beauty. Dorian is so pure and innocent-he
doesn’t know anything about the anxiety of life. He has all the beauty of a
child in him, but then Lord Henry enters into the picture with his influential
goal for life and its meaning. “Don’t spoil him. Don’t try to influence
him. Your influence would be bad.” Lord Henry taunts Dorian and continues to
remind him of all the sin that is building up and that even though his body is
not aging, his soul is deteriorating fast. Lord Henry is the beginning of his
corruption, but he isn’t the entire reason for this development. Sibyl
Vane’s death happened on the verge of his transformation. She is the entire
innocence, beauty, and purity that are in him. When she dies, she takes his
whole childhood away. He feels empty without his innocence and he filled this
emptiness by answering to his corrupted transformation. It is after her death
that he recognizes his sins-he realizes how horrible he had treated her on the
night she confesses her undying love for him. The most important thing is that
it is his choice to go along with Lord Henry and his luring thoughts. From this
point on, he starts ruining his life and soul. He gets a bad reputation in
society, murders Basil, and starts taking opium. Even his last hope for
salvation-Hetty-doesn’t save his soul from the shadow, which has suppressed
all that is shameful in his life. As a result, he stabs the painting. The
painting is all of Dorian's hate, fear, and sadness reduced onto a canvass. He
gives up his soul over his body, and ends up losing it all. His body is only a
shell that protects him from showing his shameful self. His shell is his
superficial self; it is the soul underneath this shell that he finds his true
self. Without his soul, he has nothing and no meaning in life. The value of true
beauty relates to both the novel and the 19th century. In the novel, Oscar Wilde
emphasizes on the value of beauty. “Beauty is a form of Genius-is higher,
indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation.” However, both Dorian and the
19th century lack true beauty. Dorian Gray “sold himself to the devil for a
pretty face”. They’re both empty on the inside, with no religion at all,
which leads to Nietzsche and his philosophy that “God is dead”. In the
novel, Basil acts as God, Lord Henry as Nietzsche, and Dorian as the 19th
century. During the Renaissance, people used to be really faithful to God like
Dorian and Basil used to be friends. Then, along came Lord Henry who influences
us with his corrupted thoughts. Eventually, we lose our image of God and even
“kill him”. We cover this emptiness with a thin superficial shield.
Personalities like Dorian are seen in our society today. Modern Dorians might be
slightly different, but they all value beauty. Movie stars are all examples of
modern Dorians. They take advantage of their appearances-you don’t usually see
ugly people in movies do you? Most of us know their them as their superficial
self but not who they really are. Models nowadays start working when they’re
sixteen and when they reach their late twenties, they’re forced to quit. They
are treated like little toys that entertain us the first few weeks when it’s
out but when it gets old we don’t even bother to look at it. Women wear
shoulder pads to look more masculine and confident. We care so much about image
and we always treat people according to who they are and what they look like.
Lots of the students in school attend classes, complete their homework, or
participate in class because of their grades and only for their grades. They
don’t care what we’ve learned. That’s exactly like Dorian, looking good
with the good grades but never really adding any knowledge inside. With our high
A.Q., we are always reaching for the top and experiencing change and growth. We
are always willing to reach for the top and always have the desire to be better
than others are. False beauty is expressed many times throughout the century. It
always overcomes us and we lose sense of our true beauty or even worst, our
soul. We can’t always blame ourselves for desiring to choose our bodies over
our souls. One of the biggest reasons for the outcome of “modern Dorians” is
because of our expectations as a society. We expect so much of people that we
sometimes change to meet others’ or even our own expectations.