Corruption In The Picture Of Dorian Gray

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“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes,” Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde shows us how these mistakes can be used as symbol within the novel. The Dorians mistakes cause his life to be destroyed and his soul to be completely corrupted. The portrait that Basil Hallward made of Dorian captures all of Dorian’s “experiences” throughout his life as he continues to make wrong decisions. As Dorian commits more and more of the seven deadly sins, the portrait becomes distorted and hideous. The degradation of the portrait is a symbol of how Dorian’s soul is corrupted throughout the book. The deadly sin of sloth affects the portrait the least in the novel. Sloth is mainly defined as not doing the things that one's self should do. Dorian commits the sin of sloth in a simple way and that is that he has a butler to do stuff for him. “Finally his bell sounded, and Victor came in softly with a cup of tea and a pile of letters on a small tray of old Sevres china, and drew back the olive-satin curtains…,” (Wilde, 83). Making somebody come up and …show more content…
Pride is what lead to Dorian committing all the other sins. Pride can lead to arrogance, overconfidence, and narcissism if it gets out of hand. Dorian is treated like a God because of his looks, charm, wealth, and his other qualities that people adore him for. This raises Dorian’s ego to the point where he thinks he can get away with anything and this leads to his overall demise. “Ah! In what a monstrous moment of pride and passion he had prayed that the portrait should bear the burden of his days, and he keep the unsullied splendor of eternal youth! All his failure had been due to that,” (Wilde, 185). This quote from the book is when Dorian realizes that his pride had lead him down the path of mistakes and regret. This sin destroyed Dorian’s soul while distorting the portrait the

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