Literature Analysis #3 - The Picture of Dorian Gray by: Oscar Wilde

1. Dorian Gray is a man in his early twenties who has lived his life as a relatively innocent soul. After Basil, one of his best friends, paints a portrait of him that ages instead of his body, he becomes self-centered and starts listening to the ideas of a man named Lord Henry. Lord Henry is a close friend of Basil that has captured Dorian’s fascination because of his insightful, witty responses and original outlooks on life.  Through Henry’s influence, Dorian finds Basil annoying and blames him for the guilty conscience he now has because of the painting. Lord Henry knew the power he had over Dorian and continued to take advantage of him by feeding him dark outlooks on life that appeared to make perfect sense to him. Dorian then kills Basil and unknowingly takes his own life by stabbing his portrait.

2.  The universal theme of this story is to not let the influence of others and society ultimately mold the person you truly are. Everyone is placed in a unique body for a reason; embrace the purest form of your soul and those who accept you for the truth are really the only ones who matter.  

3.  This particular book had a very ominous tone to it. The reader often feels every character is a pessimist at times and there seems to be a remarkable lack of positive incidents with a surplus of malicious actions. For instance, Dorian not only dies but he also murders the one person who actually cared for him. There is not one positive incident that I can think of while reflecting on the story, which gives validity to the ominous tone.

4. - Wilde uses irony by allowing Dorian's gift of endless youth to save himself from James Vane, but it turned out to be the one thing that killed him in the end.
- Dorian's portrait was actually very hideous because it symbolized the nature of his soul.
- Oscar Wilde also foreshadowed the death of Dorian when he decided to murder Basil Hallward. 
- The setting of this book takes place in London, which is very gloomy and always raining (adding to the ominous tone).

 5. The syntax seemed to remain the same throughout the book as both the descriptions were lengthy as well as the dialogue between the characters. The diction, however, became more sophisticated when the members of the elite social class spoke to reflect the major gap between the classes.

6. The protagonist, Dorian Gray, is both dynamic and round because of his vast change in character. At the inception of the book he was an innocent man with an optimistic view on life, but that all changed once he met Lord Henry. He went from a humble, good-looking, young man to an arrogant jerk who turned on every person that showed him even the simplest forms of love. 

7. After finishing this story I felt as if I had met Dorian Gray in the flesh. The book gave much insight into his thoughts and feelings and also showed us the timeline from his heroic glory days until the day he died as a villain. I was very angry with him as I watched him transform into a monster and turn on innocent Basil because he felt like a man I knew in reality.