Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” explores the contrast between illusion and reality, the debate of the mortality of beauty and youth, and the dangerous influences between character dynamics through the use of motifs and irony. This achieves the goal of demonstrating the effects that impending doom and fear of death can have on an individual’s worldview.

Quotes

Sir Geoffrey put his gun to his shoulder, but there was something in the animal’s grace of movement that strangely charmed Dorian Gray, and he cried out at once, ‘Don’t shoot it, Geoffrey. Let it live.’

Oscar Wilde’s skillfully employs slight irony to portray Dorian Gray having a sharp change within his perception of life, demonstrating how an impending fear of doom and death can affect the way an individual perceives the world. Dorian in the past years had been slowly succumbing to Lord Henry’s influence, where he had cared less and less about the value of life. This notably stems from Lord Henry convincing Dorian after Sibyl’s suicide that the loss of such a life was simply evidence of Dorian’s beauty. However, in this scenario, where Dorian spoke out against a hare being killed, shows a sharp contrast to his behavior. Firstly, a hare is an extremely insignificant life form that has little to no relevance. Especially in the context of going out to hunt, it was abnormal that Dorian decided to yell out against killing it. But even further, it is apparent that Dorian has a prominent change in behavior. The irony in this is that not only is it considered ridiculous to consider protecting a lowly hare’s life, but it is also coming from Dorian, which is completely out of character given the context. His sudden and seemingly random concern about the hare’s life could perhaps be attributed to his fear of his own death in this chapter (which had previously been eliminated because of his lack of aging), and has reconnected him with the real world and his morals. However, this abnormal behavior of Dorian only continues until when James Vane is killed. After this, the imminent threat of death is lifted, and Dorian returns to his previous infatuation and paranoia with his beauty and appearances, which eventually leads to his suicide in the later chapters. As a whole, Wilde’s employment of irony to portray the sharp change in behavior and perception of the world that Dorian undergoes when under the imminent threat of death depicts how facing a threat can act as an influence in the behavior of a character.

A cry of joy broke from his lips. The man who had been shot in the thicket was James Vane. He stood there for some minutes looking at the dead body. As he rode home, his eyes were full of tears, for he knew he was safe.

In this quote, Dorian Gray has just discovered that the man Sir Geoffrey accidentally killed while hunting is James Vane. This massive burden of imminent death has just been relieved from Dorian, which is why Wilde depicts him as standing next to James’ dead body for some minutes, and crying tears of joy on his way home. The way that Wilde portrays him to be crying tears of joy at the fact that James has died is, in fact, a key sign that Dorian has descended into darkness and has lost touch with all his morals and the real world. He has, once again, lost all his groundedness and morals again because the imminent threat of death is lifted. The way that Wilde portrays this moment in the story makes it clear that Dorian thinks he has escaped the consequences of his past actions, and that it is a turning point. Ironically, however, it foreshadows the moral decay and consequences that will haunt him even later in the story, emphasizing Wilde’s belief of the inescapability of one’s actions. Although the threat of James killing Dorian is eliminated, the true threat to Dorian’s future, is Dorian himself.

I have no terror of death. It is the coming of death that terrifies me. Its monstrous wings seem to wheel in the leaden air around me. Good heavens! don’t you see a man moving behind the trees there, watching me, waiting for me?

In this quote, Wilde employs metaphorical language to describe Dorian’s escalating paranoia and terror towards the threat of imminent death coming from James Vane, as well as how this escalating dread of impending doom affects him psychologically. Dorian’s downwards spiral up until this point has rendered him paranoid. As someone who leaves a trail of death and destruction behind him, it is also ironic that he himself fears dying, when he has brought it upon so many people, such as indirectly killing Sibyl and flat out murdering Basil. In a way, the “man” that Dorian refers to in this quote is not just the literal James Vane following him and wanting to kill him, but also, on a deeper level, his conscience. He shows no remorse for his actions, partly because of what Lord Henry tells him but also partly because he simply is obsessed with his own physical appearance and nothing else. Because of this, his conscience is greatly affected and this is reflected through James Vane acting as a threat. Deep down, Dorian’s inherent morals are coming through and reflects the inner guilt that he has buried for murdering Basil and causing Sybil to take her own life. Wilde’s portrayal of the inner conflict between the inherent morals that Dorian has versus the heavy influence that Lord Henry planted and has taken over Dorian is evident in this quote as he becomes increasingly paranoid about the threat of imminent death.

Oh! In what a wild hour of madness he had killed his friend! How ghastly the mere memory of the scene! He saw it all again. Each hideous detail came back to him with added horror. Out of the black cave of Time, terrible and swathed in scarlet, rose the image of his sin.

Oscar Wilde writes this directly after describing how Dorian is paranoid about James killing him. The direct link between how Dorian is affected by the fear of imminent death, while simultaenously being haunted by the memory of murdering Basil, creates a comparison where he presents Dorian’s haunting memory of killing Basil as something weighing on his conscience, which is perhaps why his disproportionate fear of James Vane killing him also reflects Dorian’s morals and inherent guilt for murdering his friend, even if it is buried deep down. Wilde’s portrayal of Dorian recounting “each hideous detail”, but this time with “added horror”, which depicts Dorian's gradual realistiation of the severity of what he's done -- nonetheless, it's too late. The metaphor that Wilde utilises to compare time to a black cave wrapped in scarlet red, of which this sin rises, portrays how traumatised and haunted Dorian is by him killing his friend, which is where he gradually begins to realise how obsessed and paranoid he is about his beauty.

The theme of mortality of beauty and youth is prominent throughout the book, but Wilde highlights this theme in chapter 18 through portraying the death of the hare as a key motif throughout the chapter. Wilde portrays the hare as being a “graceful” creature as it darts through the woods, but Sir Geoffrey kills it without hesitation. However, as he kills the hare, he simulatenously kills James Vane. James being killed as a cause of the hare being hunted indicates that his own animal, natural characteristics are shot down and rejected by Dorain’s superficial ideologies that were influenced by Lord Henry. Dorian's obsession with youth and beauty is what eventually leads to his moral decay, illustrating Wilde's critique of societal values that prioritize superficial qualities over inner virtues.

Theme I. Mortality of Beauty and Youth

Theme I. Creative Response

Picture of Dorian Gray Film Final.mov

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kAMPIEjTC4D7nj0lVDPkMlkh9k2dN8i2/view?usp=sharing

How To Live (Original Film)

In this short film, I wanted to explore the idea of how our childhood and youth are slipping away and is essentially dying. In Hangzhou, academic pressure is increased because of peer pressure and results in us missing opportunities to take our advantage of our year here. Rather than playing outside with our friends, we spend our time working on school assignments. I think that sharing a montage of my peers’ dreams and aspirations doesn’t only help them consider what they want to do, but also for the viewers to consider this question for themselves. It also responds to the theme of “mortality of beauty and youth” in chapter 18 of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, since I aim to convey the sense of urgency in that we should grasp the last of our childhood before we grow up and lose this. Rather than focusing on the short-term satisfactions of temporary acheivements purely through numerical grades, or pursuing superficial acheivements, having long-term fulfillment and happiness through having a fulfilling youth is what I want to advocate for and convey through my film.

Theme I. Contemporary Connection

Breaking Bad (2008)

In the modern TV show “Breaking Bad”, the chemistry professor Walter White undergoes a transformation from a mild high-school chemistry teacher to a major drug lord. Following his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer, he is greatly influenced by his fear of death, which causes him to slowly descend into the drug trade. Initially, he intentionally tries to keep his life in the drug trade separate from his personal life, but as it progresses, the line between his personal life and his life in the drug trade is completely blurred. His entire persona, even in his personal life, becomes a violent, crueler, and vindictive version of him. At the end of the show, there is a stark difference: not only did his physical appearance change, but more significantly, his psychological traits became darker and more violent. Furthermore, the transformation that Walter undergoes finds intriguing parallels with the narrative depicted in chapter 18 of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Dorian initially is aware that he is being influenced by Lord Henry, as he consciously worries about his perfect physical appearance deteriorating. However, as time goes on, he descends into madness and into a toxic obsession over his physical appearance. Walter White's transformation from a chemistry professor to a drug lord is driven by his fear of death and desire for control over his life, which is comparable to Dorian's descent into moral decay. Both characters' actions reflect their inner turmoil and fear of mortality.

Theme II. Surfaces, Objects, and Appearances

Lord Henry establishes his belief that life is a series of repetitions, and that art is an imitation of life early on within the novel. His stance on this generally remains static, and he continuously imposes this upon Dorian. In Chapter 18, Henry advises everyone to avoid the appearance of a scandal. He simply cannot fathom that Dorian, who has the perfect “surface” (or appearance), can have anything wrong or unlucky in his life. To Henry, Dorian having the supposedly perfect appearance should be enough to make him happy, but this chapter not only reveals to the audience how there are numerous ways in which these two elements contrast, but also to Lord Henry. Furthermore, Lord Henry and the Duchess are portrayed by Wilde as covering their real feelings with artfulness of expression, which doesn’t reveal what or who they are influenced by. On the other hand, however, Dorian is commonly described by superficial terms such as through the picture or as an object, the audience is exposed to his inner conflict and turmoil throughout the novel, but especially in the climax of the story in chapter 18. The object that is the portrait of Dorian gray serves as a constant symbol of Dorian's internal corruption, hidden behind his unchanging, constant, outward appearance. In a way, the duplicitous nature of Dorian's inner vs. outer self also reflects Wilde's commentary on the duplicitous nature of Victorian nature itself.

Theme II. Creative Response

Jacques-Louis David's The Anger of Achilles, Oil-on-Canvas, 1819.

Achilles, a key character within Greek mythology, was the son of Thetis, a war hero of the Trojan war. In mythology, his mother had supposedly brought him to the River Styx as an infant to bring him powers of invulnerability. But because she held him by the heel, his one and only point of flaw on his entire body, also happened to be the fatal one. He grew up to be a famed hero that won many tremendous battles, but his heel, known as Achilles’ heel, resulted in his downfall and death during the war. In modern language, the phrase “Achilles’ heel” as already expanded to include any fatal flaw that an individual has. The connection that the story of Achilles’ heel has with Dorian Gray is that I can identify, in a sense, that apart from the painting being an obvious flaw of Dorian, the impending threat of James Vane swearing to kill Dorian Gray if he ever hurt Sibyl is, in itself, Dorian’s Achilles’ Heel. Dorian is fully aware that he had hurt Sibyl and played a crucial role in her taking her own life, and knowing that James Vane would kill him for this, Dorian Gray now has an Achilles’ Heel where he fears for his life. Previously, the imminent threat of death was not serious due to his lack of apparent aging, but the impending doom of death suggests that he has to reconnect with his mortality, which is also his Achilles’ Heel. However, when Dorian Gray gallops to the barn and sees the deceased body of James Vane, this Achilles’ Heel is immediately released Dorian of his burden. However, I would argue that Dorian’s Achilles’ Heel being released was, in fact, a detriment towards him. Although he was under the imminent danger of being killed by James Vane, the few days where he was in the face of death was the last days of his existing shreds of morality. It was at this time when he interacted with living beings without being particularly fixated on his appearance. He was able to regain his morals and perceive the value of life, yet when he discovered that James Vane was killed and that he was no longer facing the imminent threat of death, this stress was release and he returned to the over-obsession and toxic infatuation and paranoia with his appearance.

Theme II. Contemporary Connection

Instant Gratification

In a contemporary setting, people have been tailored by capitalism’s various aspects into always pursuing instant gratification. For example, things like online shopping, streaming services, and instant messaging apps have been so normalized and are ubiquitous in most societies to the point where anything that requires patience and delayed gratification is immediately a challenge for the majority of the population. However, this often also translates to a lack of long-term fulfillment. When people are so consumed with things that provide them with short-lived instant gratification, this prevents individuals from achieving long-term happiness and fulfillment. Similarly, in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Dorian becomes obsessed with having an undying beauty in terms of his physical appearance. As Dorian indulges in vices and immoral acts, this is reflected in his portrait and inner self. He himself becomes enamored with superficial beauty and worldly possessions, neglecting deeper values and morals. Thus, he is unable to pursue long-term happiness and fulfillment, such as leaving Sybil because of her acting or killing Basil because he saw his portrait. In both cases, it is extremely detrimental to their happiness, fulfillment, and well-being in the long term.

Theme III. Influence

Theme III. Creative Response

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)

Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” depicts the story of a soldier in the Spanish Civil War who struggles with internal conflict. The main conflict revolves around his responsibilities on the battlefield: being brave, courageous, fighting for his country and never backing down, but simultaneously, his inner child’s instinctive response to back away: Essentially, whether or not he should do what he wishes to, or what he is obligated to do. On a larger scale, however, I think that this also echoes the bigger question of whether individuals should follow societal rules or to follow our own instincts. The connection that this makes to Chapter 18 of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is in the sense that individuals face the largest internal conflicts in the face of imminent threats: In both the case of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, the threat is, of course, death. When Robert Jordan, the main character, joins a guerilla group to blow up a bridge, he is faced with the impending doom of death. Although Robert Jordan and Dorian Gray face the threat of death in two contrasting ways, they both experience severe emotional turmoil as a result of it. The conflict that they face between individual desires and societal expectations, as well as the two characters’ responses to their impending doom and imminent death, reveal their true selves as they progress.

Theme III. Contemporary Connection

Influencers and Social Media

As social media becomes an integral part of everyone’s everyday lives, “leaders” unavoidably emerge from such platforms: influencers. As these influencers have access to throw out content to people of all ages and from all walks of life, it can be observed that they have a powerful influence over a large sector of society. However, this isn’t the inherent problem: the inherent problem is that as these influencers constantly compete with each other, they try to paint themselves as being “perfect”, which thus translates to a lack of authenticity and transparency; because at the end of the day, no one is truly perfect. They promote unrealistic standards for beauty, relationships, health, education, wealth, which also means that their audience feel inferior and constantly compare themselves to these influencers, who realistically aren’t achieving what they portray themselves to be, either. Comparably, chapter 18 of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” exhibits the manipulation of values where Lord Henry encourages Dorian to prioritize pleasure, hedonism, and the pursuit of physical beauty above all else. Dorian tries to portray himself as being perfect, having an unchanging physical appearance, but his portrait symbolises his true, morally corrupted self, just like how social media influencers try to portray themselves as being perfect.

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