Explain the Fall from Innocence Dorian in the Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray is innocent and inexperienced young man at the beginning of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray’s personality, however, changes throughout chapters 1-4. He begins corrupt under Lord Henry’s influence. Lord Henry starts his seduction of Dorian by saying this: “Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.”(Pg. 22) At this point, Dorian is like a child exposed to the hopelessness of the world and is overcome by cruelty, and that is just the reality. He is shocked by what Lord Henry says, and Basil notices a new look in Dorian’s face for the first time. Lord Henry follows Dorian to the garden, and telling him that he should value his youth and beauty. He explains that beauty is the most important and valuable thing in the world. When they get back to the studio, Dorian is overjoyed by his own beauty. Then, the extreme change in Dorian’s personality comes because of Basil’s picture. Dorian explains his sadness in seeing the beauty of the portrait. He cannot believe that he will be getting old every day, but the painting will never age. And then he is becoming increasingly angry, saying that the day he is old and ugly, he will kill himself. Basil is horrified, and blames Henry for this change in Dorian. Thus, Lord Henry’s seduction and the creation of the portrait directly relates to Dorian’s fall from innocence. (284