In, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," the main character Dorian acquires a thirst for youth that eventually dominates his life. ... Like Narcissus, the portrait represents an image of him, but unlike his Greek counterpart, the picture presents Dorian with a microscope to the quite horrific reality of his inner self. ... Finally, if anything, The Picture of Dorian Gray proves to its readers that the need to be beautiful is a recurring concept of life. ... The desperation to do anything in order to retain beauty not only presents itself in Dorian gray but in today's society as well, allowing be...

• Word Count: 849
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde which expresses the desire for eternal beauty and youth, which is a representation of today's society and its fixation on appearance. ... This is an example of how The Picture of Dorian Gray represents modern day obsessions with beauty and how vain people can become when the realisation of their own physical attractiveness becomes aware to them. ... This example shows the current selfishness in comparison to that used and examined in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The last concept that is used in Dorian Gray and is a modern-day issue is...

• Word Count: 1090
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

After analyzing both Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is quite apparent that Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Gray's narcissism cause much evil, death, and destruction. ... His narcissistic concentrations on his own superficial and materialistic qualities, coupled with the lack of ethics are part of the cause of his evil and destruction (Gillespie, Ethics and Aesthetics in The Picture of Dorian Gray). It may seem that in Wilde's, The Picture of Dorian Gray, there is only one man who causes evil through his narcissistic actions, th...

• Word Count: 1962
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Society throughout history has influenced people and behavior, in the novel "The Picture of Dorian Grey," by Oscar Wilde we find this most prevalent. ... To the aesthete, the ideal life mimics art; it is beautiful, but quite useless beyond its beauty, concerned only with the individual living it" (Duggan, The Conflict Between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray). ... Duggan also explains, "Rather than an advocate for pure aestheticism, then, Dorian Gray is a cautionary tale in which Wilde illustrates the dangers of the aesthetic philosophy ...

• Word Count: 1387
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate