Elements of a Gothic novel in The Picture of Dorian Gray – Notes
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PEARSON (PEARSON)
English Literature 2015
Unit 2 - Prose
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H/W 18th September 2017
What examples of beauty and horror can you find in the narrative of pages one to three?
Explain any ideas with analysis of the ‘Writer’s Craft’
The first chapter of the book ‘Dorian Gray’ is one that is filled with foreshadowing and vast
amounts of description, including many that relate to Dorian himself, as well as beauty and horror;
these all come to light and make sense with hindsight of reading the whole book but the first three
pages of the novel give an insight into what is to come.
One example of beauty and horror from the beginning three pages of ‘Dorian Gray’ includes the
line ‘whose tremendous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of beauty’ which is
explained by how beauty is a gift that is hard to deal with; the idea that beauty is something that is
more of a curse than a gift is implied through the use of the word ‘burden’, defined as a task given to
someone that is difficult to carry out. This is linked to a line further into the chapter, ‘he sought to
imprison within his brain some curious dream from which he feared he might awake’ suggests that
Basil was in a pleasant state of mind and was being pulled away from it – this is an example of the
beauty of dreams and wishes, contrasting to the horror of waking up and facing reality, which again
foreshadows the world and life of Dorian Gray throughout the book, as he tries to keep himself in his
dream world where he forever beautiful, and yet slowly wakes up and faces the reality of him
becoming corrupt and ugly (both in the metaphorical and physical way); the use of the word
‘imprison’ suggests that despite the beauty of the dream, it is still nothing good or something that
would be worthwhile, however the idea that it would bring fear to awaken from also suggests that
neither of the options are beautiful, and are instead different degrees of horror.
Another example is ‘intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any
face’ which is said by Henry to Basil; this line implies that intellect is a destructive implement harms
the face, which is implied as something worthy of beauty. The juxtaposition of this is that
intelligence is seen as beautiful, and in the Victorian era if you were educated is implied that you
were wealthy, therefore was not something of horror. This is then followed by the line ‘how
perfectly hideous they are!’ which is another juxtaposition, as it’s implied that something hideous is
perfect at being so; to be hideous is to be horrible, and to be perfect is to be beautiful – the idea that
something is beautifully horrible is a theme that follows Dorian Gray closely throughout the book.
‘He is some brainless, beautiful creature’ gives further evidence of beauty contrasting to intelligence,
as this implies that to be beautiful you must brainless, and vice versa. The word ‘creature’ also
suggests that a beautiful, unintelligent person is lesser and inferior to someone who is clever, which
is a term also given to an animal that is evil or horrid, emphasising the horror of beauty.
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