The Picture of Dorian Gray
I believe a great deal of thought went into the writing of this book. It is very detailed and in addition, it is very hard to sustain an allegory throughout. The Picture of Dorian Gray has many thought provoking phrases and paragraphs. There are many different literary techniques used such as foreshadowing in the first two chapters in very subtle undertones. Also used was a great amount of detail, which sets the mood for certain scenes, such as when, during the painting of Dorian Gray's portrait, Dorian and Lord Henry Wotton go into Basil Hallward's garden and converse. The author wrote the book as an attack on the British Aristocracy. It shows how the upper-crust citizen cared about what showed on the outside and that they wanted to stay ignorant to their souls. There are many, many hints as to this meaning in the book, for example: Lord Henry's line in paragraph 15 of page 206, " I admit that I think it is
better to be beautiful than to be good. At first, I was confused, I didn't know what the author was trying to say and it frustrated me. This is what every upper-classed person would have loved. Even the personal meaning of the corruption of Dorian Gray comes down to this one point. On one level, I realized the portrait was of his other side, his soul, just as his persona represented the outer trappings of the British high society and, in another light, the portrait represented the inner realism and decay of their culture. I was trying too hard in the beginning, and I looked at in the wrong "light". After the portrait began to change, Dorian Gray only wanted to have fun. He saw the horrible things that were happening to people who were around him, and he understood that all their problems/deaths could be ascribed to him. The whole reason James Vane went after Dorian Gray was because of his sister, Sibyl. I was trying to find the meaning of the portrait's changing, and how it fit in with a story about a man named Dorian Gray. I have to be honest, I had a very hard time with this book in the beginning, which is stressed in my journal.
Common topics in this essay:
Dorian Gray,
Lord Henry's,
Sibyl Vane,
British Aristocracy,
,
James Vane,
Basil Hallward's,
dorian gray,
Era British,
Carpe- Diem,
Dorian Gray's,
james vane,
british society,
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Acceptance Essays
