Oscar Wilde: Obraz Doriana Graye – charakteristika hlavní postavy anglicky

Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray. The description of the main character

Dorian Gray represents the best example of an unspoiled young man, whose innocence resembles that of a child. Naive of his own good looks, pure in his visions, he poses an ideal challenge to show the possibility how to spoil all this youth’s passionate purity. To the artist Basil Hallward, in the painter’s idealistic world, Dorian epitomizes a worshipped icon.

While sitting for a portrait in Basil’s studio, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, whose voice and thoughts enchants him. Lord Henry convinces young man that his look pictures the most important virtue. The philosophy about youth, death and impossibility of returning the time enchants Dorian’s heart. He desires for Lord’s opinions. Watching his finished portrait, the sense of Dorian’s own beauty falls on him like a discovery. Dorian curses the portrait, which he believes will remind him of the lost beauty one day. In an attack of distress, he promises if only the portrait could bear the burden of age and shame, allowing him to stay forever young. To satisfy Dorian’s wish, Basil gives him the portrait. It supports the feeling of Dorian’s originality and brightness.

Because of Lord Henry, Dorian becomes increasingly heartless, indulging in every kind of pleasure, whether moral or immoral. He seems to be in love with a young actress Sibyl Vane, who, overcome by her emotions for Dorian, decides that she can no longer act, wondering how she can pretend to love on the stage now that she has experienced the real thing. However, Dorian cruelly breaks his engagement with her, and notices his face in Basil’s portrait has changed into a grin. The same night, Sibyl destroys herself. In fact, this is the first real sin of Dorian – or caused by him, to be more precise.

Frightened his wish for the likeness in the portrait to bear terrible effects of his behaviour has come true, panic-stricken his sins will be recorded on the painting, Dorian resolves to visit Sibyl the next day. Nevertheless, Lord Henry brings him news about Sibyl’s suicide. The “better side” of Dorian’s soul is shaken. However, Lord Henry persuades Dorian that her death impersonates a sort of artistic triumph. In his view, Dorian stops thinking about the tragedy; but yet he hides his portrait in a secret place in his house, because he knows he is really guilty since that day.

In the course of time, the portrait ages and spoils instead of Dorian, who continues to live in a shocking lifestyle. Dorian’s old friend Basil dies while trying to help the sinner. After showing the old work to the artist, Dorian picks up a knife and murders his only close companion. This represents the second murder in Dorian’s life – on the opposite to the first one, this is caused personally by the sinner.

The hands on the picture are covered by blood. Dorian determines to hide forever this monstrous mirror of his soul. Perhaps qualms of conscience, perhaps sackcloth and ashes causes that – at last – Dorian realises he was wrong to have followed Lord Henry’s lore. He decides to make amends and to raise above all the cynicism that cut the beauty of life to pieces. The answer to this decision is cunning appearance of the portrait. It proves Dorian’s attempts at reform were shallow in fact. Dorian intends to rid himself of his terrible sins by destroying the portrait and he stabs the canvas. In that moment, all the gruesomeness of the portrait returns into the body of Dorian, whose heart is transfixed…

Basil described Dorian as “a simple and beautiful nature”, as an agreeable and charming man, who also could be thoughtless. Sometimes, Dorian takes pleasure in hurting his feelings and has a great ability for vanity. Dorian’s desire to keep his youth is partly a result of Lord Henry’s dominant influence on him, and as an effect of that, Dorian decides to follow a hedonistic lifestyle. He seems to be able to sacrifice almost everything to continue his hedonistic acts, ruining others’ lives by driving them mad, and hindering all sights of his repulsive portrait. After that, like all seemingly beautiful yet wrong things, he destroys himself; focusing all emphasis on himself for the ridiculous number of years after Sibyl’s death, cheating death by his own dishonest means, he finally kills himself.

Sources:

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray

– http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/horror/ThePictureofDorianGray/Chap0.html