How is Dorian Gray narcissistic?

By objectifying Dorian as a work of art and appropriating his looks on the canvas, Basil sparked Dorian’s narcissism. Dorian cannot help but feel forever captivated by his own beauty, much like he captivated Basil with it, and now dreads the temporality of beauty.

What lesson does the picture of Dorian Gray teach?

Wilde himself admits, in a letter to the St. James’s Gazette, that Dorian Gray “is a story with a moral. And the moral is this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment” (Wilde 248).

What does the picture of Dorian Gray represent?

The portrait is the main symbol at work here. It’s a kind of living allegory, a visible interpretation of Dorian’s soul. Basically, the picture represents Dorian’s inner self, which becomes uglier with each passing hour and with every crime he commits.

How is Dorian Gray similar to Narcissus?

Dorian Gray and Narcissus are both obsessed with their beauty and are too self involved with themselves. They both fell in love with their beauty and youth, which lead them both to their deaths. Dorian Gray is the modern Narcissus because of their obsession with their beauty and they are both too self involved.

Was Wilde a narcissist?

Wilde’s narcissism is, for Berman, pathological, and ultimately points to the “cause” of Wilde’s sexual object-choice (the “cause” being for Berman, like most psychoanalysts, both discernible and of paramount importance).

Is Dorian Gray a modern Narcissus?

Dorian Gray is in fact a more modern retelling of the ancient myth of Narcissus. They share the similar outlook on beauty, love, vengeance, death and narcissism. Their love for beauty had corrupted their lives, as well as other characters that they were close to.

Who turned Narcissus into a flower?

One of them, Echo, was so upset by his rejection that she withdrew from the world to waste away. All that was left of her was a whisper. It was heard by the goddess Nemesis, who, in response, made Narcissus fall in love with his own reflection, at which he stared until he died. A narcissus flowered in his absence.

Is Lord Henry a narcissist?

Lord Henry’s narcissism is epitomised through his egoistic hedonistic world-view in which he believes all people, art and money as tools of his own pleasure, following Aristippus’s theory that pleasure is the highest good.

What type of novel is The Picture of Dorian Gray?

Gothic fiction
Philosophical fiction
The Picture of Dorian Gray/Genres

Is The Picture of Dorian Gray cursed?

Dorian Christopher Gray is the lead character of The Confessions of Dorian Gray series. Cursed by unknown forces with immortality at the age of eighteen his physical, spiritual, and moral wounds and degradation are transferred from his body to his cursed portrait.

Who was Narcissus Greek mythology?

Narcissus, in Greek mythology, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was distinguished for his beauty. According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book III, Narcissus’s mother was told by the blind seer Tiresias that he would have a long life, provided he never recognized himself.

When did Oscar Wilde write the picture of Dorian Gray?

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella length version published complete in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. A longer version was published as a book in April 1891. It was Wilde’s only novel.

Are the characters of Dorian Gray reflections of themselves?

Oscar Wilde said that, in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), three of the characters were reflections of himself: Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me: Dorian is what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.

How did censorship affect the picture of Dorian Gray?

Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press,…

How does Dorian’s narcissism lead to his downfall?

Dorian’s narcissism had already guaranteed his fall: he ushers up an unholy prayer that the portrait should age and bear the scars of his moral turpitude, while his physical self would forever look young and innocent.