Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on The Picture of Dorian Gray. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A thirteen page paper which considers the reaction of the Victorian audience to the publication of Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, with specific reference to societal conventions of the time and Wilde's perspective on aestheticism as expounded in the narrative. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
13 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLdorgray.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
been the subject of literary debate and discussion ever since, especially in terms of the way in which it both espouses and criticises Victorian moral parameters.
The novel, which has been described as a variant of the Faust legend and compared
(unfavourably, for the most part, in Victorian times) with Stevensons Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, deals with a number of skilfully interwoven themes, including Epicurean hedonism, the nature of sin
and depravity, the concept of action and consequence, and the way in which conventional morality aligns itself with superficial appearance rather than the practice of ethical behaviour. The framework of
the narrative is deceptively simple: Dorian is able to separate part of his essential being into a portrait of himself, which allows him to behave in as dissolute a manner
as he pleases without the repercussions of such behaviour affecting his physical appearance: the signs of depravity appear instead on the face of the portrait.
Dawson (2003) comments that Dorians prayer for eternal youth echoes aspects of the god Dionysos, who
is described by Ovid as having unending youth, eternal boyhood: however, one of the points which Wilde is making is that Dorian is anything but godlike. His flaws and vices
are significantly human, and his eventual fate demonstrates most graphically his subjection to the passage of time, and the dictates of mortality, despite his success in evading these for so
long. Dionysos combines his appearance of youthfulness with a full acceptance of his own power and self-awareness: as we see in The Bacchae, he stands outside conventional human morality, and
...