The Dorian Gray Assignment

Cries of the Conscience


The picture of Dorian Gray seems to embody more than the portrait of the young man, part of his soul is intertwined with the canvas. A pure youth is gazing out of the painting. No maladies or blemishes reside on the unpolluted face of Dorian Gray. This will soon change. As Lord Henry Wotton begins to speak, the untainted mind of Dorian Gray absorbs his words just as a sponge absorbs the sullied spills that are left behind. Dorian begins to wander the dark allies of London during the nights. There he finds his love Sybil Vane. He proceeds to use the young woman that he loves and then writes her a scathing letter full of hurtful words. She kills herself because of this. Dorian moves on rather quickly and is still quite youthful. His portrait however, is not. Lines appear on the face and this is just the beginning of horrid marks that will reside on the face.

Dorian continues with his wicked ways and hedonistic pleasures. The young Gladys is madly in love with him, and soon he accepts her offers. She sees no evil in him, but Sybil’s brother is wiser. He begins to hunt Dorian. This seems to trigger a change and Dorian remorse’s about his past transgressions. He returns to London and vows to destroy the painting. As he gazes upon the portrait for the last time, he sees a kindness still present in its eyes, in himself. He stabs the painting in the heart, but dies himself. The soul that was contained in the portrait was also his own, one in the same. As he lay dying, he prays for forgiveness, but he is not spared his good looks. The portrait transforms back to its original state and he becomes what the picture portrayed.

Dorian Gray’s entire outlook upon life was transformed by Lord Henry in part of the opening scene. Lord Henry begins to refer to the pleasures of life and how they should be seized as he tries to do the same to a butterfly. The freedom and beauty of the butterfly represents the conscience of Dorian as an innocent youth. Just as the butterfly was captured and imprisoned, so was Dorian’s soul and conscience by the terrible influence Lord Henry’s words had on Dorian. The want for youth seems to be extremely prevalent in Dorian’s mind. To lose his youth would seem to him to lose himself. If only he could stay young forever he ponders. This greed for something as pure as youth begins Dorian on his path of demise.

The butterfly is now static as a specimen for Lord Henry. This fate is the same for Dorian. His youth persists and so does his selfishness that is often seen in the young. He seems frozen in time, unchanged. Nothing seems to affect Dorian. His despicable deeds go without repentance and his soul becomes more mangled. The only action that seems to affect him is the act of being hunted. He flees like the butterfly but cannot escape the reality of his sins. He is captured by his own conscience and realizes his must destroy the part of him that Lord Henry uncovered so long ago. He resides to break free, as the butterfly could not, but his attempt is futile. Just as the butterfly struggled to be free and failed, Dorian stabbed the painting in the heart that both he and the image shared. One can never hide from the cries of the conscience and neither could Dorian Gray.