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So,, uh,,,

this was a school project?? that i didn’t expect to get seen?? i’m glad you all like the memes!

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Lord Henry Wotton Character Profile

Lord Henry is extremely charismatic and hedonistic. He tries so hard to sound deep whenever he speaks, but in reality he doesn’t remember half the things he says after he says them. He sees Dorian as merely an experiment in influence in one breath, and calls him a friend in another. He is a true hedonist. Henry never thinks about his actions, or anything else negative for that matter because it makes him upset. Even when his wife leaves him, he never allows himself enough connection with the woman to feel anything when she leaves him. However Henry does have an epiphany near the end of the book when he hears the phrase, “what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” He realizes that all this time he has been trading his life for temporary pleasure.

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Basil Hallward Character Profile

Basil is a character that doesn’t really change much. He’s a romantic and is practically obsessed with Dorian. He puts his whole self and emotions into the art he creates, and so when Dorian drifts away, he is absolutely devastated. We even hear from Henry that his art took a turn for the worse around that same time. He lost his passion. When Dorian falls in love, Basil feels his own heart break. Dorian says that he doesn’t like talking to Basil because he gives good advice. When Basil tries to save Dorian late in the book, he tries so hard to appeal to Dorian’s morals, but it is clear that Dorian is too far gone. Despite this, Basil tries until the very end to help because of his deep love for Dorian.While he is kind and moral, like many in the book, he is blinded by beauty and can’t see the real person underneath.

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Dorian Gray Character Profile

In the beginning of the book, Dorian is handsome, extremely impressionable and very pure. After meeting Lord Henry, Dorian had a drastic change. Due to the manipulation he faced, Dorian became obsessed with his appearance. He wanted nothing more than to live for pleasure and to keep his youth. He discovered love and became infatuated by everything that moved before tossing the thing away. In his mind, moral and immoral started to blend together and he ruined everyone he came across. Even when obviously faced with the consequences of his actions, he was able to rationalize and continue on as he had before. When the guilt finally creeps in, Dorian Gray is so stricken by fear that he resolves to do something, but even then it doesn’t fully click in his mind that his actions are the issue, and those actions don’t go away.

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What if The Picture Of Dorian Gray happened today?

I know the whole “vapid influencer that really has a terrible personality” thing is usually ascribed to Dorian anyway, but

Could you imagine?

- He probably would have every social media account under the sun to get that sweet sweet validation

- He’d probably also be cancelled about a dozen times over but keeps coming back due to some adoring fans like Basil that wouldn’t be able to believe any of the accusations despite mounting evidence.

- Basil would have taken an ~aesthetic~ photo of Dorian that he had printed instead of a painting 

- Henry would probably be even more insufferable than he is now and get in a lot of twitter fights

What’s clear is that the idea that beauty runs the world is certainly still true today in some ways and that would carry over.

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Did The Picture of Dorian Gray need all that misogyny?

Like, I get that Lord Henry is a terrible person, but at some point the views of the characters start to reflect the views of the author.

It was just. So much.

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This is such a good cause!!!! Make sure to sign!

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Can we just take a moment to think about the end to The Picture of Dorian Gray? Like really? 

The painting. Deep down he knows he is linked to this thing. It’s a reminder of everything he has ever done wrong and he is both terrified and fascinated by it. And at first I didn’t get it. Why did he just sit there and continue to do these horrible things while the painting remained a physical reminder?

I realized that its not just hedonism- it’s like watching a fire, or a trainwreck. Something about that destruction is entrancing.

Up until the very end, he watches it change because of his actions. But he’s so mesmerized by the fire that he doesn’t care that it’s killing him. He is the painting- he knows he’s hurting himself and those around him, but he doesn’t care.

So when he tries to destroy the thing that is so closely tied to himself, I think he did realize what he was doing. He knew that by destroying his sins, his actions, he was essentially destroying himself. 

His psyche was the last piece of evidence that could have been used against him. So he got rid of it.

Killing himself in the process.

And that is the coolest thing I have ever read.

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Basil: I feel devastated that Dorian Gray has fallen for a woman. I have lost a part of myself I shall never recover. 

Readers in the 1800s: in a friend way right 

Basil: I have loved you for so long, Dorian. You were my everything. 

Readers: IN A FRIEND WAY RIGHT

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A Summary of The Picture Of Dorian Gray Using Only Memes