Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is one of the best novels that portrays a morally ambiguous character. Dorian starts out as a good and innocent young man. After his influences of Lord Henry, Dorian is no longer the naive young man anymore. HE is not all bad, at this point, but he is not morally perfect either. When he meets this actress named Sybil Vane, he is smitten and the two become engaged. Some events happen that were very minor to the readers point of view, but apparently it was a very major event to Dorian and he leaves Sybil in a very teary scene. After going to his house that night, he realizes that the picture that Basil painted of him has some lines around the mouth and the fingers, like someone who has spent their entire lives frowning or scowling and clenching their fists in anger. Dorian realizes the physical impacts of his emotional explosion on Sybil through the painting and he doesn't like it at all. All Dorian has been told from his new-found friend is that beauty and youth are the only things that a person has to hold on to, but that will eventually dissipate over time; and consequently sells his soul to the painting so he never ages, but the painting will show the sins of Dorian's soul. So Dorian decides that he is going to repent for all of the bad things that he did to Sybil and ask her to take him back and become the good, loving husband that he promised Sybil he would be. That morning Henry comes to Dorian's house to inform him that Sybil had died that night.
This is the first time that we see the ambiguousness of Dorian's character. He really truly wants to repent and become good, but the thing he wants to repent for is gone so all of that goes out of the window. I am sure that if Sybil had not killed herself ,though it was officially ruled as "death by misadventure", Dorian would have turned himself around and been a decent human being. But as soon as the criminal investigation where Dorian was a suspect was over, he was back to his old ways and even more morally wrong deeds. The reader starts to give Dorian redemption points, and then that goes out the window. We pick back up with Dorian doing all sort of bad things; including opium, visiting bars and whorehouses in the not-so-nice parts of the back alleys, and then in the morning returning to the aristocracy brunch and cocktails. He puts this facade of being this well mannered upper-class gentleman to the society, and then in the night becoming a regular low-class opium addict. This double life only makes the reader want to smack Dorian in the face. He had every opportunity for himself to be a great person, he never ages! He could have lived for a very, very long time and still had a pretty clean soul; but he threw it all away.
Dorian has another possible redemption moment in the last part of the book. Sybil's brother, James, is on the hunt for Dorian, wanting to kill him for causing all of the pain in his sister's short life. Fortunately for Dorian, due to a freak hunting accident, James is killed while on Dorian's property stalking him. Dorian has another bout of wanting to bee good, but here comes Lord Henry, King of Corruption, to Dorian's rescue. This is the point where the reader sort of feels sorry because you realize that Dorian has spent this whole time tring to emulate all of the B.A. things that Henry personifies, sort of a very early age sex, drugs and rock n' roll vibe, only to get shot down by Henry saying that Dorian's life is perfect and good and nice and he doesn't need to be anymore perfect. Dorian finally gets tired of his life and stabs the painting, in return killing himself.
Dorian had a few moments of possible redemption that made his character defined as having ambiguous morals we cannot perfectly define Dorian as completely bad or good,because he was a little of both. But in the end the bad got to be too much.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is one of the best novels that portrays a morally ambiguous character. Dorian starts out as a good and innocent young man. After his influences of Lord Henry, Dorian is no longer the naive young man anymore. HE is not all bad, at this point, but he is not morally perfect either. When he meets this actress named Sybil Vane, he is smitten and the two become engaged. Some events happen that were very minor to the readers point of view, but apparently it was a very major event to Dorian and he leaves Sybil in a very teary scene. After going to his house that night, he realizes that the picture that Basil painted of him has some lines around the mouth and the fingers, like someone who has spent their entire lives frowning or scowling and clenching their fists in anger. Dorian realizes the physical impacts of his emotional explosion on Sybil through the painting and he doesn't like it at all. All Dorian has been told from his new-found friend is that beauty and youth are the only things that a person has to hold on to, but that will eventually dissipate over time; and consequently sells his soul to the painting so he never ages, but the painting will show the sins of Dorian's soul. So Dorian decides that he is going to repent for all of the bad things that he did to Sybil and ask her to take him back and become the good, loving husband that he promised Sybil he would be. That morning Henry comes to Dorian's house to inform him that Sybil had died that night.
This is the first time that we see the ambiguousness of Dorian's character. He really truly wants to repent and become good, but the thing he wants to repent for is gone so all of that goes out of the window. I am sure that if Sybil had not killed herself ,though it was officially ruled as "death by misadventure", Dorian would have turned himself around and been a decent human being. But as soon as the criminal investigation where Dorian was a suspect was over, he was back to his old ways and even more morally wrong deeds. The reader starts to give Dorian redemption points, and then that goes out the window. We pick back up with Dorian doing all sort of bad things; including opium, visiting bars and whorehouses in the not-so-nice parts of the back alleys, and then in the morning returning to the aristocracy brunch and cocktails. He puts this facade of being this well mannered upper-class gentleman to the society, and then in the night becoming a regular low-class opium addict. This double life only makes the reader want to smack Dorian in the face. He had every opportunity for himself to be a great person, he never ages! He could have lived for a very, very long time and still had a pretty clean soul; but he threw it all away.
Dorian has another possible redemption moment in the last part of the book. Sybil's brother, James, is on the hunt for Dorian, wanting to kill him for causing all of the pain in his sister's short life. Fortunately for Dorian, due to a freak hunting accident, James is killed while on Dorian's property stalking him. Dorian has another bout of wanting to bee good, but here comes Lord Henry, King of Corruption, to Dorian's rescue. This is the point where the reader sort of feels sorry because you realize that Dorian has spent this whole time tring to emulate all of the B.A. things that Henry personifies, sort of a very early age sex, drugs and rock n' roll vibe, only to get shot down by Henry saying that Dorian's life is perfect and good and nice and he doesn't need to be anymore perfect. Dorian finally gets tired of his life and stabs the painting, in return killing himself.
Dorian had a few moments of possible redemption that made his character defined as having ambiguous morals we cannot perfectly define Dorian as completely bad or good,because he was a little of both. But in the end the bad got to be too much.
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