Jesse Menendez 3/20/2001
             In almost all of the reading you encounter in your adult life you come across many characters that basically think or act the same. They feel the same way about certain situations that occur in life. They are so mentally or physically attached to something they can't let go. For examples we are using the characters Dorian Gray from the novel Picture of Dorian Gray and Tom Ripley from the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley. There are striking similarities in the values and attitudes of Dorian Gray and Tom Ripley.
             Tom Ripley was thought to be a calm and gentle man when by the end of the book his true side was full and flourishing. His mission was to intervene with the life of a man called Dickey Greenleaf and try and make him come back to America. Tom was way too attached to Dickey and totally forgot about his mission. He began to obsess over everything about Dickeys lifestyle. He didn't just admire Dickey he wanted to be Dickey, and that's how the murders started. Tom ended up killing Dickey and taking over his lifestyle by actually having a split personality. Tom has a serious mental problem that has probably been haunting him his entire life. He feels that the body he was born in and was given from god isn't good enough. Instead he admires other people and tries to be like them hiding his own personality and lifestyles from the outside world.
             Dorian Grays mindset is indeed very parallel to that of Tom Ripley. The only difference in Dorian is that he doesn't only admire himself, other people admire him. Basil Hallward is an artist that is completely obsessed with Dorian. Basil is the creator of the painting that later reveals Dorians sins and eventually destroys him. Another character that admires Dorian is Lord Henry Watton. Lord Henry feels that Dorian is what every human should be or strive to be. He feels that a system of new hedonism (or only
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