Literary Analysis of Dorian Gray Essay

To describe the walking dead tot exclusivelyy of the undermentioned apply soulless, insatiable hunger, actions based purely on instinct these qualities combined, with or without the rotting flesh, make a living dead besides also post be readily applied to the main character of The Picture of Dorian antique by Oscar Wilde. The novel analyzes the value of kayo and pleasure and poses a very interesting contradiction between the traditional cods of object lessonity and smell of spiritedness. Dorian, an aesthetic young military man beings, is tempted into vice, thus selling his soul for eternal peach. In the late 19th century, Saul Kripke a philosopher, proposed the idea of philosophical zombies. His theory proposed a creature visually and behaviorally the same as a tender being that lacks qualia, soul and sentience (Kirk 2). While it is easy for readers to simply issue Dorians worsening acts of societally rejected behaviors as immoral, it can be argued that the protagoni st had no concept of morals to begin with, and thus learns the realitys immoral as moral and vice versa. In the antecede of the novel, Wilde asserts that There is no such amour as a moral or immoral book. Books are hale written, or badly written. That is all (3).This is a statement that is good to be unbroken in object when analyzing the main characters actions. Subtly, through a number of literary devices namely characterization, archetypes, and motivations Wilde forces the reader to experience life in all its exult as well as shame through a zombies eyes. To properly analyze the character of Dorian Gray it mustiness first be understood that there is a distinct deflection between someone who lacks morals and someone that is immoral the first is unequal in the qualia that crumble the concepts of right or wrong, and the second is someone who knows the departure and chooses to act immorally. Dorian Gray is the prior. Upon meeting Dorian, schoolmaster Henry at present ob serves All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youths passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder common basil Hallward worshipped him (Wilde 17), the most principal(prenominal) word being purity.Dorian does not have a wiz of right or wrong at the beginning of the novelbecause he simply looks onto the world. It is not reflected on him in anyway because Dorian is, in short, in capable of perceiving on his own, missing the sentience to do so. He simply does, drifting from (presumably) male figure to male figure seeking some sort of attention and guidance he does not act, he only responds to the world around him. Basil Hallward, a painter, admires Dorian for his beauty plainly it is neither the scarlet lips nor the golden hair that attracts him but quite the blankness of his soul, and that is the first hint that our protagonist is, in fact, as zombie. Basil tells Lord Henry, Dorian Gray is to me simply a motive in art. You office see nothing in him. I see everything in him. He is never more present in my work than when no understand of him is there (Wilde 13). Henry will see nothing because nothing is present. He is a walking piece of art, thoughtless, though responding as human efficiency and that is what attracts both Basil Hallward and Lord Henry to Dorian like moths to light. His spirit is something that cannot be comprehended by either man, because it lacks the components of personality to begin with.However, as all great novels require a plot, Henry seeks to color the male childs snow light mind with qualia of the darkest shades, and while doing so, readers begin describe the distinct difference between Dorian and his human friends. This novel is wide of archetypes. From inanimate ones, such as the winding staircase in Dorians home that represents the journey of life or the tower in which the protagonist hides his decaying portrait that represents the depth of the human soul, to living a rchetypes, such as Basil Hallward who illustrates Victorian morals and Lord Henry who is the direct opposition. Meanwhile, Dorian simply is. He sits between two extremes, Basil, who believes people are intrinsically kind and, Henry, who believes that all people live their lives ab detection from sin until they inevitably give in. Constantly, their views of right and wrong are imposed on him, ultimately enigmatic him. His original close friend cautions him from living the way Henry tells him to, but the artist did not impose his own qualia on him from the start.The first views Dorian internalizes are from Henry, the very same man who believes that experience holds no honorable value (Wilde 54) and, likes persons with no principles most of all (11). Lord Henry detaches himself from feelings, preferring to be an observer of the limitations of human beings. He tries to see just how much unforgiving paint he can smear acrossBasils blank canvas of a boy, symbolizing the battle of good and diabolic an external conscience rather than an internal one. In the end, Dorian is smeared from ear to toe in what society views as sin, solidified when he takes Basils life. At this point, he has live thirty-eight years, with roughly 18 of them being influenced by hedonism. Dorian takes those ideas and develops a sense of right and wrong, beauty being the basis for his moral code. The color white is a motif that is repeated throughout the text, from Basils first description of Dorian (Wilde 4) to his final plea, Though your sins be scarlet, I will make them white as snow (140). It is Basils savor (the running writer of homoeroticism in the novel) for Dorian that leads him to appeal for his life one more, but god does not fit into Dorians personal view of morality.Pleasures of the flesh, good times and aesthetics are the basis of his virtue and love a weak and vulnerable emotion, is a dastardly sin. He kills Basil, staining his hands for the first time with real blood. L ater he muses on how if it had been Basil, not Lord Henry, who had imposed his views on his blank self that his life may have gone differently, but he does not dwell. He gets rid of the body and continues as though it is nothing at all, because mop up does not fall under his perception of immoral. Dorian has a gift, or a curse, to be indifferent to the world once his soul is lost, master copy Henrys views being the qualia he internalizes before selling his soul. He does not age, he does not feel he thrives off of corporal stimuli, namely opium and sex, and the pretty things in life alone. When struck, he cries out, when frustrated, he complains Dorian Gray functions like a human being, but unlike his friends, the slipway of the world do not affect him on an emotional take aim forever young, forever beautiful, life is a series of physical responses to out of doors stimulus, none of it truly being internalized.Oscar Wilde was known to be a man that challenged the conventions o f Victorian society. He never goes into detail about the unscrupulous things that Dorian does throughout the text, and this literary decision spares the readers of sensibilities but also illustrates Dorians lack of cognizance. If anything, the protagonist simply records life, rather than earnestly feeling anything at all. Given that he is the opposite of a rotting corpse, Dorian Gray still exists as a zombie a creature lacking qualia, sentience, and a soul, and Wilde illuminates this very interesting condition through his use ofcharacterization, motifs and emblematic archetypes. The great playwright reminds readers beginning the novel, There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or poorly written. That is all (4), and the same is true of the books protagonist. He is not immoral, but rather lacking in morals, borrow the ideas of Lord Henry before ultimately giving up on functioning without the ability to feel. Through Dorians nave treading of what is principally accepted as immoral waters, Wilde contests society with many bold statements, dispute the reader to read the pages without bias. A zombie in a humans world, Dorian ultimately succumbs to stress, but not without painting a beautiful allegory that has stood the test of time.Works CitedKirk, Robert. Zombies, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), universal resource locator = http//plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/zombies/ Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. London Ward, Lock & Company, 1891. Print.