ENGLISH HOMEWORK
DeeQeew
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Rachel Thomas Professor A. Harrison QS 115 16 November 2014
Dorian Gray’s Bad Decisions ! The human ability of decision making is a beautiful, yet dangerous gift. If someone does
not know the difference between bad and good, or does and still chooses the wrong answer, the
consequences can be devastating. External influences can also change someones choices
immensely, for better or for worse. A fictional character who perfectly portrays poor decision
making skills is Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray is a notoriously handsome young man, who is
unfortunately, easily molded by other’s influences. The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar
Wilde features a main character, Dorian Gray, who through a series of poor life choices as
influenced by Lord Henry Wotton, sends himself through a downward spiral of agony and
suffering. His close friendship with Lord Henry Wotton, his relationship with Sybil Vane, and his
fit of rage that killed Basil Hallward are his three greatest mistakes.
Dorian’s first bad choice in his life is his gradually growing relationship with Lord Henry
Wotton. Lord Henry is a manipulative, selfish dandy who does what he wants, with who he
wants, when he wants. Unfortunately for Dorian, when the two meet, Wotton already has an idea
of who Dorian is based off of Basil’s descriptions; and after meeting him in person, Henry takes
a strong liking to Dorian. Lord Henry’s attraction to Dorian can be explained through Henry’s
liking of beautiful people and his pure, seemingly unstained mind and soul. Although Dorian is
supposedly pure, he was born into a broken world, as his father was murdered by order of his
mother’s father, later ending in his mother’s dead, leaving Dorian to be raised by a “loveless”
grandfather. In a sense, Gray was born tainted, but raised pure. As Basil explains the man in the
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portrait, Dorian, Henry’s interest in who Dorian is continues to grow until the two meet. Both
men, at first glance of one another, feel an unexplainable, potentially homoerotic attraction as
noted though Gray’s blush when he sees Henry. One of the first definitive moments where Wilde
clearly states Dorian’s interest Lord Henry is when Basil sits down to continue painting his
portrait of Gray “Dorian Gray stepped up on the dais with the air of a young Greek martyr, and
made a little moue of discontent to Lord Henry, to whom he had rather taken a fancy.” (Wilde
20). As Basil finishes the painting, Dorian looks at it and recalls his discussion with Henry about
youth and beauty and how it all fades at some point in their lives. Gray’s easily moldable mind
begins to accept and believe Lord Henry’s ideas and he curses the portrait, wanting it to age
rather than him. Dorian’s seemingly untouched soul begins to waver here as he becomes
insecure, open up his vulnerability to Lord Henry, where Henry begins to shape Dorian lead his
life in the never ending quest for pleasure and a frivolous lifestyle. In chapter ten, Lord Henry
sends a book to Dorian that follows the life of a nineteenth century Frenchman who spent his
time trying to find all the passions of life. Very quickly, Dorian finds himself entranced by the
yellow book, and for years “…could not free himself from the influence of this book.” (Wilde
127). Wilde shows the reader the Gray is beginning to become enveloped by Lord Henry’s
charms, and throughout the following chapters, their relationship continues to build and Gray’s
corruption quickly ensues.
Dorian Gray’s relationship with Sybil Vane is his second large mistake that sends him
further down path of despair. Dorian first meets Sybil when following Lord Henry’s advice to
learn more about life. When wandering the streets of London, he enters a theatre and becomes
infatuated with an actress on stage by the name of Sybil Vane. He feels she is the best actress he
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has ever seen and once they eventually meet, she becomes ensnared in a cliche case of love at
first sight and decides to refer to Dorian as her “Prince Charming”. The two fall deeply in love
with one another over a very short period of time and become engaged. In Dorian’s blinding,
superficial love for Sybil, the reader finds a faint moment of retraction from Lord Henry’s selfish
ways as Dorian denounces Henry’s words about life and pleasure. Later on, Lord Henry, out of
interest in Dorian’s new love affair, joins Basil and Dorian to go watch Sybil’s performance of
Romeo and Juliet. Sybil decides acting out emotions of love in impossible for her after finding
true love, and tanks her performance, upsetting Dorian. After the show, he finds Sybil and breaks
off the engagement, as he was only interested in her for her previously incredibly acting skills.
This decision was most likely at least partially influenced by Henry’s grasp on Dorian, as Dorian
was not overly selfish before meeting Henry, yet afterwards, he has become more conscious and
favors the superficial things in life. Once Dorian arrived home, he looked at the portrait of
himself Basil has painted, and realized a small change, a “…cruelty round the mouth as clearly
as if he and been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing.” (Wilde 91).
Dorian suddenly remembered the wish he had made back in Basil’s studio: that he would retain
his youth in beauty, and in return, all of his age and sins would be portrayed though the painting.
Each time he looked at it, the disappointed grin appeared a little worse. In this moment, the
reader hopes that Dorian would repent his ways, deny Lord Henry, and go back to his pure ways.
Looking at the portrait, Dorian decides to find Sybil the next morning and resume his
engagement with her in hope of fixing the painting. Although it may be morally a little unjust, he
makes a positive decision. Unfortunately for him, he is too late, as the next morning, Lord Henry
delivers news that Sybil committed suicide the night of the performance. Henry encourages
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Dorian to believe that her death was not his fault, rather it was an act of undying love. Henry’s
seductive words convince him, and Dorian goes about his day, dismissing Sybil’s death. The
reader can surmise that before meeting Wotton, perhaps Gray would have felt more responsible
and grieved Sybil’s death. Gray’s two bad decisions in this fatal relationship was his initial
choice to end the engagement for superficial reasons, and his choice to believe Henry and
dismiss Sybil Vane’s death.
The last significantly poor choice Dorian Gray makes in this book is long after he has
been completely corrupted by Lord Henry, where his mental sanity snaps and he accidentally
kills Basil Hallward. At this point in the story, Basil has seen his once good and clean friend
become warped into an evil and heartless human. Both Basil and the audience begin to see a
clear correlation between Dorian’s decisions and who is influencing them: Lord Henry Wotton.
As stated by Basil when he hears Dorian’s indifferent reaction to Sybil’s death “You were the
most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don’t know what has come over you. You
talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you. It’s all Harry’s influence, I see that.” (Wilde 109).
Chapter twelve contains a conversation between Basil and Dorian years later about how bad
rumors are being spread across London of Dorian’s negative impacts on other people’s lives.
Dorian explains the truth, that he has has a negative impact on several young people, and Basil
detests him saying he does not recognize him as the man he once knew. Basil Hallward’s
character accurately portrays the questions of readers about Gray’s continuously poor choice
making. One after another, Dorian chooses the answer that sends him further into despair and
further taints his soul, as shown through his portrait. During Basil’s and Dorian’s conversation,
Basil says that he wishes he could see Dorian’s soul, and Dorian decides to take Basil to see his
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old painting. Dorian removes that cloth the covers the painting and reveals the image of his
corrupted and twisted soul. Basil, horrified, questions how it is possible, and Dorian explains the
wish he made eighteen years ago. Basil begins to beg for Dorian’s repentance, yet Gray says it is
too late, and makes yet another horrible decision. “Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and
suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him, as though it had
been suggested to him by the image on the canvas…” (Wilde 157). Dorian’s corrupted soul was
too far gone. He noticed a knife on the opposite end of the room, sauntered towards it, picked it
up, and stabbed Basil Hallward several times out of an unexplained hatred. He felt no remorse
for his actions, rather a strange calmness. Maybe there was another answer to Dorian’s sudden
wave of anger, either way, he made the horrendous decision to murder his poor old friend Basil.
As this point in the novel, Gray is so far down a path wretchedness, that any hope of him
returning back to his original, pure self, is gone. Each of his bad decisions stem back to the
influence Lord Henry had on his once wavering and young mind. Readers may debate over
whether or not Dorian Gray’s choices were really his own. Ultimately, each choice was his own
to make, however, each major choice made in the book had some level of external influence,
most notably from Lord Henry Wotton. In the beginning of the book, it took more time to sway
Dorian to do what Henry wanted, yet as time went on and their relationship grew stronger, so did
Henry’s grasp on Dorian. Granted, Henry never told Dorian to start murdering people. However,
his motto of seeking life’s pleasures and dismissing the bad instilled Gray with misconceptions
about right from wrong, especially through the yellow book about the nineteenth century
Frenchman. In the end, it was Dorian’s choice to dismiss Sybil Vane’s death, to destroy several
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people’s reputations, and to kill Basil Hallward, but by then, his purity was so incredibly
blackened by Lord Henry’s evil inspiration, that it was not truly him making the decision.
Dorian Gray is the main character of The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde,
who is highly influenced by Lord Henry Wotton to make poor life choices, and as a result sends
himself down a path of hatred and suffering. His three greatest mistakes include forming a close
friendship with Lord Henry Wotton, his relationship with Sybil Vane, and his sudden flash of
anger that killed Basil Hallward. The external influences that surrounded Dorian at every
significant decision making moment made him teeter on the precipice of right versus wrong.
Unfortunately, he always chose wrong. If Dorian never met Lord Henry, he would have remained
his unstained, good self. At the same time, the audience would not have a story to read if Dorian
was unchanged.
! Word Count: 1,825