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So, a subtle idea in the Picture of Dorian gray is dorian being completely conscience of his death. Not his true death, but the death of his pure, youthful character which is portrayed in the image. Mankind goes through 5 stages while grieving the loss of a loved one. Dorian goes through these 5 stages throughout the book, leading me to believe that ever since he met Lord Henry, he knew that his pure character was dirtied and he would never be his innocent, beautiful self again.

He starts with denial, denying the ideas that Henry first instills in him in their first conversation, thinking henry is bizarre for his ideals.

He then goes through isolation, isolates himself and wishes to not be influenced by henrys ideas because they scare him at first.

He then experiences anger. This is masked by Sibyl, on how dorians anger appears to be because of her lack of talent, but he is also deeply angered because of his changing character due to henry. His first reaction is some form of sadness, but then he completely accepts her death, and I think when he looks back on that, he’s angry about the man he became.

Theres also some other stages he goes through but I’m running out of time. Dorian is portrayed throughout the whole book as kinda ignorant and oblivious to his own destruction. I think he knows whats going on the whole time tho. He just can’t reverse whats happening. Even when he tries at the end of the book, he still can’t. Sad stuff, but he knew what was happening and knew that his true self died ever since he met henry.

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Every character in the novel has failed to reap the fruit of success in their pursuit of love. This possibly shows how each character is too focused on something else to really be able to love another.

Examples:

Dorian→Sibyl & Hetty

Sibyl→Dorian

Lord Henry→his wife

Basil→Dorian

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 Porygon: One theme that goes a little unnoticed is the divide between women and men. Although Lord Henry often does criticize women there are many moments where we see inequality between genders in the story. The fact that there is not one woman character other than Sibyl who has a sufficient amount of lines in the novel shows the divide between the two genders.

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 Porygon: One theme that goes a little unnoticed is the divide between women and men. Although Lord Henry often does criticize women there are many moments where we see inequality between genders in the story. The fact that there is not one woman character other than Sibyl who has a sufficient amount of lines in the novel shows the divide between the two genders.

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Henry dominates friendships for his own personal satisfaction of distilling his morals and beliefs in someone else and is careless toward their actual feelings or thoughts

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Dorian does not take into consideration how powerful his influence is which is why many of his “friends” have terrible lives because of him.

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Dorian and Henry are indifferent in influencing people. They often disregard their morality in attempt to portray their status of being superior.

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Innocence cannot survive in society. With Dorian, he was once innocent before Lord Henry tainted his mind. When Sibyl fell in love, her innocence was tainted when Dorian left her because she didn’t perform gracefully as usual. Then there’s Basil, who wanted to believe that Dorian was not actually the cause of many people’s downfall. In the end, he was killed by Dorian.

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The entire book is based on “self-development.” One of the first things Lord Henry says to Dorian in their first ever conversation is “The aim of life is self-development” (Part 1, Pg 12). This idea of self development is prevalent throughout the entirety of the novel as we watch Dorian learn about different aspects of life, reach his peak point (in both good and bad), and fall down miserably. This can be portrayed through an abundance presence of butterflies in the film that we’re about to make, as butterflies are the symbol of “self-development.” The caterpillar can be shown when Dorian first meets Henry, and as Dorian learns to develop himself, the caterpillar will as well, and become a butterfly and fly away as Dorian commits suicide in the ultimate end.

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Dorians appearance as perfectly innocent, when combined with his despicable actions, shows that there is no such thing as pure innocence. Even with Sibyl, who appeared to be perfectly innocent as well, could be said to have been corrupted by dorian, like how dorian was corrupted by Henry.

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Throughout the novel, Dorian makes these deep connection between physical objects and his life/ own being. The painting, the book, etc. Dorian tends to connect himself with these objects and, almost, places himself into them. Like when he says that the painting was a part of him and that the book Lord Henry gave him was basically the story of his life.

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Dorian shows that “life is a stage” because he puts on the performance of a lifetime in losing his identity to mold to a more intriguing character and by pursuing pivotal actions that make the "play" more interesting.

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The use of art in the novel communicates a great point in the novel which can be best described as a way to offer beauty as well as hide the dark reality of the world. The art is a superficial way to preserve beauty that is so important to the characters of the novel. Art unlike the real world, is able to mask the sins and horrors that one has committed by making the image beautiful. An example would be the painting of Dorian.

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Lord Henry allowed for Dorian to enter a land of fantasy with no responsibilities where Dorian feels guiltless and blameless for any actions he committed.

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Dorian always seems to be connected to death, even though he is afraid of it. He does not see death as a problem for others, but when it comes to his own demise, he is terrified.

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Dorian’s love for Sibyl led him into a fantasy/fake life that he couldn’t get out of which leads to him committing his deeds such as killing Basil

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Art is like the matrix; people that are disillusioned don’t think anything is wrong with art and people that face reality see the truth in the art.

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Different forms of art are used throughout the novel as a method of expression by different characters. Example: Basil has painting; Sibyl has theatre; etc

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Poliwhirl: I believe that a subtle theme in the novel is the idea of sound or noise; i believe that ambiance plays a huge role in creating a scene and I believe that a subtle clue to the theme of beauty is the type of noise present. For example, there is soft melodious music in the happy beginning, harsh cacophony of the opium den, and harsh notes of the finale.

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Basil said, “ ugly people don’t have to worry about social pressure” so when Dorian does immoral things, he turn ugly leading him to no longer have social pressure. But while he is beautiful everyone is trying to influence him, such as Lord Henry with his views on life, and Basil with his moral views. After the death of Basil, Dorian's souls turns ugly and seems to not care whose life he ruins.

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It be that Opera, because it represents unachievable ideals. Like when Dory has that relationship with Sybil, he is believing in her ideal form, rather than who she really be: just an actress

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Aight, Dorian has a false sense of innocence and youth, and tries to use this false sense to escape the wrongs he has done. Dorian continually falls back on the philosophies on Lord Henry to justify his wrongdoings.