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TEXT: The Picture of Dorian Gray p306, TEXT: Dorian kills the painting and…
TEXT: The Picture of Dorian Gray p306
CHARACTERS
Dorian Gray:
Young, beautiful, naive, easily influenced, obsessed with youth and appearance.
Lord Henry Wotton
: Charming, witty, persuasive, promotes Hedonism, values beauty and pleasure above morality.
Basil Hallward
: Sincere, moral, admires Dorian’s beauty, represents conscience.
THEMES
Youth and beauty
are precious but
temporary
Vanity
and influence can lead to
moral corruption
Hedonism
emphasizes
pleasure over duty
or morality
Mortality and aging are inevitable
, causing fear and obsession
LANGUAGE
Metaphor
Personification
Hyperbole
Imagery
Symbolism
KEY IDEAS
Beauty commands admiration and power
Youth is temporary; old age brings loss and suffering
Dorian is strongly influenced by Lord Henry
Appearance can hide moral decay
The pursuit of pleasure can conflict with conscience and morality
TEXT: Dorian kills the painting and himself
PLOT
Dorian returns home and looks at the portrait.
It shows all the evil he has done.
He wants to destroy it to free himself from his sins.
Dorian takes a knife and stabs the painting.
The portrait becomes young and beautiful again, while Dorian instantly dies.
Servants find an old, horrible man on the floor and only the rings reveal that it is Dorian.
THEMES
duality
(appearance vs reality)
corruption and sin
fear of ageing
art vs life
SYMBOLS
portrait
= conscience / sin / hidden self
youth
= illusion
knife
= self-destruction
TONE
dark, tense, mysterious
death, silence, fear
MESSAGE
you can’t escape your sins
art is eternal, humans are not
beauty without morality destroys
physical beauty cannot hide moral corruption.