Essay/Term paper: The picture of dorian gray: evil

Essay, term paper, research paper:  College Essays

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Evil


The Picture Of Dorian Gray is yet another novel portraying evil. The
theme is very much reflected by the book's setting, plot structure and
characterisation. It shows how individuals can slowly deteriorate because of
the evil lying within themselves. The evil of this book is the evil created by
one's self and thrusted upon one's self. The power of greed and selfishness
take over Dorian Gray and create an ugly evil side to him.

The mid eighteenth century was a very influential era, specially in
England. This period judged much upon appearance and status. Dorian was a very
wealthy, intelligent man with a very high status. He knew the very influential
and rich people in his town as well. His beauty charmed the world. Basil was
inspired to draw his portrait in order to preserve his beauty and youth.
Dorian recognised that as long as he remained young he would be handsome. He
dreaded the day that he would age slightly and start to form wrinkles and such
ugly (in Dorian's opinion) ugly things. He believed that that day would deprive
him of triumphs that would result in him being miserable.

The degree of evil within Dorian increases as the plot develops. By
trading his soul for his youth, Dorian rids of the good inside of himself. The
plot proves to us that evil does actually lie within an individual. From the
moment that he becomes forever young he begins to deteriorate. Even once he
reached his epiphany and saw his evil through the portrait he simply denied
seeing it and continued his malicious deeds.

The characterisation of the book is one of the most important elements
of this book. Dorian begins by being a very naïve lad. He is very easily
influenced by others especially his two new good friends; Basil and Lord Henry.
Basil, the painter of the portrait, influenced Dorian in more of a good, honest
way. While Lord Henry, although not being evil himself, gave him a more evil
insight on life. Both of them changed his life forever. How little they both
knew what went on inside that man.

Basil does not have any real direct influence on the youngster; without
him the lad would have never been caught in his evil destiny. Basil was an
inspired artist when he first met Dorian. He admitted that his picture of
Dorian was the best picture he ever painted. To him it was more than a painting,
it was as if he created another life. He put himself into it. He did not know
that he was creating his own murder when he made the painting. He was always a
good friend to Dorian. When Dorian talked about ageing being such a dreadful
thing, something worth killing yourself for, Basil tried to calm him down.

At the same time, Lord Henry was more of a directly harmful influence on
Dorian. Within the couple of minutes in which he lectured Dorian about youth
and living, he developed a whole other side to him. He had such a big cynical
impact on Dorian and yet he did not realise it. It was because of him that Mr.
Dorian Gray decided that he would like to remain young and exquisite. He is
also the one who brings out Dorian's first bad deed with Sibyl Vane.

With a multitude of different influences around Dorian Gray, he is still
the one to blame for all his wrong doings. His character is a tragic one, much
like Macbeth's. His flaw was excessive ambition. Even once he knew he was
doing something wrong he could not control himself. He even yearned for self
reformation but could not make it possible.

He started off as one of the kindest, most modest and innocent men ever.
That all changed once he traded his soul for his youth with the painting. He
entered a life of gradual dissipation. It became easier and easier for him to
sin because he always had a maginot line; that he does not have a soul. In my
opinion that was a poor excuse because his greediness and selfishness began
before he abandoned his soul. His first act of covetousness was when he craved
to be infinitely young. He wanted to be different, to be superior to others, to
have something that the whole world would be envious of. He believed that to
live a simple life was merely to live at all.

When he first started his life of debauchery his uneasy conscious made
him avoid those he knew. Although once he became regulated to a life of
degradation he no longer cared what others thought of him. This is one of the
biggest ironies of the story; that he no longer cared what people think of him.
He originally wanted to stay young and lovely so others would recognise his
greatness so he may still be able to do audacious things. His pride of
individualism was half of his fascination of evil.

The author was very successful in finding the right means to represent
the evil in this book. The different aspects of the book made this possible.
In Dorian's attempt to redeem himself he must terminate his life. The book ends
on more of a good note than a bad; that there is hope in stopping evil, we just
have to have a want for it.