The Loneliness of Vanity: the Deaths of Dorian Gray
Within Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the title character Dorian Gray begins as a beautiful and innocent young man. However, as he comes to meet Lord Henry, the naive boy twists into a vain being, one who believes that his youth is the key to popularity. This desperate wish of beauty and fame is granted, but it comes with the clause of Dorian Grays’ death - both socially and literally. Dorian Gray’s journey through high class society is meant to teach that although one may believe they are best off beautiful, they can still live a life that leaves them alone in the end.
Born into high society, Dorian Gray is first talked about as a beautiful boy - both in his looks and his personality. While true that he is innocent, so much so that he can be seen as naive, Dorian Gray is said to have done volunteer work, earning him a good reputation. He is a kind soul, and Basil Hallward (among others) praises him greatly for his good social standing. It is upon meeting Lord Henry Wotton that the boy is then influenced, told that his youthfulness is what is full of worth in their society, that when his beauty runs out, so will his worth. It is in their first talk that Lord Henry is able to easily influence the younger's thoughts, and it is upon the sight of his portrait that Dorian Gray sees his beauty and wishes to keep it, to never grow older. Within this scene, Gray discovers what vanity is, and with this newfound knowledge, comes his new eternal youth. As the years pass by, Gray stays as young as the day the portrait that captured his looks was finished. However, that innocent look is regulated only to his body, and Dorian Gray’s mind becomes twisted and bitter with the passing years. And it is with this bitterness, the messed up mindset, that Gray’s social downfall is caused. Whilst Lord Henry was not necessarily wrong about the value of beautiful looks, he was incorrect in saying that they were what were most valued by those around them. Rather, Dorian Gray’s reputation is shown to have become as stained as his values. Instead of being famous for his kindness and acts around the community, Gray’s vanity and high regard of beautiful items make the man infamous, known for having a terrible reputation which only grows and destroys others close to him. It is because of who he has become that Dorian Gray turns into an outcast amongst the high class society that he wished to fit in with. It is Gray’s vanity that causes him to end up alone, without anyone who feels they can safely befriend him.
Not only do Dorian Gray’s vain ideals cause his social death, but they eventually cause his literal death as well. The portrait that was painted by Basil Hallward once captured the youth of Dorian Gray, but it was the one that grew old in place of the man. Because of its ageing, Dorian Gray grew to resent the portrait, he hated how it revealed his true nature - an old man whose hands were bloody and eyes were devilish. Really, everything that Gray refused to admit about himself was what was shown in the painting. When first created, the painting was meant to represent everything that was beautiful about Dorian Gray. If one considers Lord Henry’s speech about youth and beauty to be what loaded the gun of Gray’s mind, then the painting was the trigger, the painting was what caused Dorian Gray to fully embrace the older man’s vain ideals, as he craved to stay how the portrait portrayed him. However, this meant that his eternal youth was tied to the portrait. So, when he finally seemed to realize what kind of life his twisted ideals led him to, Dorian Gray destroys the painting that he adored and resented wholeheartedly. While he didn’t necessarily have a change of heart for the right reasons, Gray did come to realize that his attempt to stay forever famous had backfired greatly once he saw the dead body of James Vane, killed in a hunting accident, but was the man who had sworn revenge on Dorian Gray for causing the death of Sibyl Vane, his younger sister who took her own life after Gray rejected her like the day after claiming to love her. The body shows Gray just how awful he has been while trying to be a popular gentleman in his high society life. After this revelation, Dorian Gray swears that he will change, become a better man. He never gets a chance to though, as when he goes back to his home, Gray goes to the portrait and slashes it with the letter opener he had used to kill Basil Hallward. In this action, Dorian Gray has murdered the painter, the portrait, and the muse all with the same weapons. The letter opener and his own vanity. In this action, Dorian Gray withers up, his youthful prison withering away into the old man that the portrait revealed him to be. The vanity that haunted his life was torn away, but in his realisation of his mistakes, Dorian Gray also lost his life, alone on the floor in front of the beautiful portrait.
Using his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde creates a cautionary tale of how vanity can lead to a lonely life and a tragic death. While Dorian Gray started out as an innocent soul who was kind in his beauty, he was twisted until he could no longer be seen as someone who could be trusted by the public. The beautiful soul that once existed seemed to be stained by the darkest paints, ruining who could have been a successful and loved man. No matter how wealthy or how many beautiful items he had, nor how youthful and innocent Dorian Gray appeared, nothing could stop his vain nature from scaring others away from him.
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