The Nature of Beauty in Oscar Wildes Picture of Dorian Gray - Essay Example

The Nature of Beauty in Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" Introduction Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" book, a complicated but simple tale, is a story of a man’s undying wish for permanent youth; it talks of our egotism and playfulness, and of the risks of going against the principals of life. The author talks of Dorian Gray, a young, enticing and beautiful character with a shallow philosophy and a high self-esteem. Basil Hallward, a friend to the Dorian, designs a portrait of Dorian Gray. When Gray comes across this outstanding picture, he makes a wish that he could maintain his youthful looks as the picture and avoid the aging effects on his beauty. At the studio of the painter, Basil, was Lord Henry who heard Dorian’s wish to remain youthful and grants him the wish (Wilde 26). Lord Henry Wotton uses sweet words to lure Dorian Gray into retaining his youth and beauty by exchanging the aging effects with the portrait made by the painter Basil. This fascination Gray receives from Basil makes him jump into a life of falsification. Many characters in the book are shown to admire the beauty of Dorian Gray. He does not age but instead the portrait painted by Basil is the one that changes and fringes in place of Gray. Due to this falsified beauty, Dorian wins the love of an actress called Sybil whom he dumps after learning that she has stopped acting. The story outlines how beauty is adorned in times of Wilde by the characters of the book. The nature of beauty is that it cannot be preserved in other things such as art. To this the adoration of youthfulness and beauty continues to define the lives of many who risk for their lives and morals in the name of beauty as it is depicted in the theme of the book. First, the nature of beauty is demonstrated through art in the book. From the title of the story, “Picture of Dorian” it is evident how art plays a major role in building the theme of the story. The author begins the preface of the story by acknowledging “the artist is the creator of beautiful things”. The author describes those who find ugliness in the art to be corrupt and terms those who acknowledge art to be cultivated. At the preface of the book, Oscar also argues the notion that art is used to express morality and values of humanity as it were taken in the Hellenistic age, however he acknowledges that art is for beauty and the artists do not necessarily have morals and the ethics while designing the arts. This symbolically associates art with beauty as whatever the artist creates will be beautiful. Basil admires the beauty of Dorian and even tells him “I worshiped you”. “I grew jealous of everyone to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you" Basil tells Dorian (Wilde 26). He does all this out of the admiration he has for the beauty of Dorian Gray. As a result, Basil has no better way of appreciating how much he adores the beauty of Dorian other than through art, and he goes ahead and paints a picture of Dorian. The author clearly elaborates the distinctions between art and real life. Dorian admires the painting of Basil and associates it with beauty and regrets that he is going to frown with age, but the picture will remain beautiful as it is. He continues to regret that the portrait will be reminding him of the beauty that he had during his youthful stage. As he regrets, Lord Henry, a noble man in those times who admired the beauty of Dorian Gray, offers to make Gray’s wish to come true (Wilde 26). He persuades and lures Gray into accepting his charm and retain his youth and beauty forever. Lord Henry through his charming talk and brilliant wit as described in the story tricks Dorian to suspending the aging effect into the portrait and he remains beautiful. Henry wants the young beautiful man to live his life as if he was a piece of art. This is symbolic of how the nature of beauty was believed to be found in art. In contrast, the book views life as the contrast of beauty. Dorian admires to be like the picture which will remain the same with age and wishes that it takes the aging effect from him. Life is viewed as shapelessness and ugliness because when people start aging, the beauty they had slowly fades away and shapelessness and ugliness comes. Basil the artist behind the picture of Dorian has the thoughts that the nature of beauty is that when one is beautiful in the outside, it is automatic that that person is beautiful in the soul. Basil sees Dorian outward beauty and believes that his soul is also beautiful. He does not care about the morality of Dorian. Even though with this philosophy, Basil understands the significance of moral values and not just the physical beauty. This is different for Dorian and Lord Henry as they had the notion that what matters a lot is the physical beauty and not the inner moral character. They are determined to do anything including immoral things just to preserve what matters to them most, beauty. As a result of this, the author tries to expose how the nature and the art of beauty have made mankind engage in the most of sinful and immoral acts only in the name of preserving the beauty. This is evident to today’s life as most of us adore and admire to remain beautiful for the rest of our lives. People have engaged in various activities regardless of their morality and societal ethics but only for one goal of maintaining beauty. Beauty has made the young and naive Dorian develop a thoughtful and proud nature which lastly leads to his cruel character. This adoration of beauty is evident as Lord Henry puts it “Beauty is a form of the genius-[it ] is higher, indeed, than genius as it needs no explanation. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.” He goes ahead and belittles the soul by saying that the real world’s mystery is in things that can be seen and not things that are not visible (Wilde 26). This is where Dorian is overwhelmed with vanity of which Henry describes as a point where Dorian enjoys the topmost height of existence. Dorian exposes his vanity by killing the lady Sybil who had fallen in love with him. He also kills the brother of Sybil in his house. However, Lord Henry lets Dorian understand that it is the nature of beauty to be short lived. He tells him, “but what the gods ‘give they can quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. Live! Live that wonderful life that is in you. Be afraid of nothing.” (Wilde 26). This nature of beauty as explained to Dorian by the brilliant wit, Lord Henry, instills fear in Dorian. Dorian fears that his beauty will fade as he ages. He then decides at all costs to do anything at his disposal to retain his beauty and in the process he ends up losing the sense of what is moral and what is not. Dorian is successfully influenced by Lord Henry’s deceitful brilliant words which completely change the character of Gray to a proud one (Wilde 26). As the author develops the story, the rudeness of Dorian’s soul starts to be evident while his moral values and ethics slowly fade away. Due to the nature of his beauty remaining the same as he ages, Dorian becomes less concerned about the people close to him and demonstrates his heartlessness. Due to his outstanding beauty in his time, he seeks to associate with a cohort of an equivalent his class of beauty. This desire is fulfilled when Dorian meets Sybil who also admires the beauty of Dorian, as well. However, the attraction of Sybil to Dorian is different because Sybil has a much profound attraction to the beauty of Gray (Wilde 26). She openly confesses to her mother that she loves Dorian and that she gets Gray’s persona to be amiable. Dorian engages with Sybil destined for marriage, but his darkened soul comes evident when the author reveals that Dorian is only attracted to Sybil for her talent as an actress and her beauty. Dorian is dismayed when Sybil mentions the soul in her words to him. Sybil says “You came—oh my beautiful love—and you freed my soul from prison. You taught me what reality really is.” (Wilde 26). As told by Lord Henry, Dorian believes that the nature of the beauty of the soul is that it is for wicked minded people. Dorian then goes ahead and tells Sybil that she has made his love for him die. This is seen in his words to her when he says, “You used to stir my imagination,” he laments, “now you do not even stir my curiosity. You are shallow and stupid.” (Wilde 26). These cruel and heartbreaking words stub the heart of Sybil which makes her commit suicide. According to the author, the nature of beauty is that it is not eternal and when we do evil even our beauty. Unaware of Sybil death, Dorian takes a look at his hidden portrait and discovers how the portrait has been affected by the aging effect. He is shocked to discover a vulgar face on his portrait. It is believed that his beauty has been stained by his unkindness to Sybil. Lord Henry tells Dorian about Sybil’s suicidal death which makes Dorian confounded. However, Lord Henry never lacks ways of convincing Dorian about the nature of his beauty. He explains to Dorian that it is because of the adoration of his beauty and attractiveness that made Sybil commit suicide. Lord Henry tells him that her suicidal death is out of her love for him, and this acts as the authentication of his attractiveness and beauty. Dorian accepts Lord Henry’s way of thinking and accepts his self-indulgent philosophy. He decides to live a life self-centeredness, beauty adoration, pride and he shadows “eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasure subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins—he was to have all of these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame.” (Wilde 26). This demonstrates how the soul of Dorian has been darkened and how ugly his soul is regardless of his outer beauty. The story attempts to bring out the nature of beauty as put out by Lord Henry, that beauty is just and even suicide as a result of beauty is not wrong, but it is justified. Conclusion The nature of beauty is that it is not long lived because as one grows older it gradually and slowly fades away. However, mankind has tried hard not to come to terms with this nature of beauty, and this has made them do all manner of things regardless of their moral and ethical values just to retain their beauty for a longer time. Picture of Dorian is a book that tries to explain this determination of preserving the beauty through Dorian who wishes away the aging effects to a portrait painted by his friend Basil. This wish is granted to him by a noble brilliant wit, Lord Henry, who uses fascinating words to lure Dorian to live as if he was a piece of art that remains beautiful even as age increases. The book shows the vanity part of the nature of beauty as Dorian he murders the girl who was in love with him. From Wilde work, we learn that it is the nature of beauty to last for short period, and it cannot be extended as one gets older. The author shows that the inner beauty of the soul is more important than the physical beauty because it lasts longer. Work Cited Wilde , Oscar. The Picture of Dorian. New York: Magic Wagon; Reprint edition, 2011. 26. Print. Read More