![]() ![]() Dorian hides his vices, such as drugs and taboo sex, under the guise of his painting. Dorian and the painting cannot be seen as two separate entities. "That hideous thing" (Wilde) as Dorian describes his portrait, is also, he acknowledges, "the face of my soul" (Wilde). The portrait then can be seen as depicting, as well as being a part of, Dorian's soul.ĭorian's immoral actions are not separate from his own personality, as the painting and him are the same person. Basil confesses that in the portrait he has revealed "the secret of my own soul" (Wilde) thus defining art as a union of soul and body. In Dorian Gray the painting shows explicitly Dorian's evil self, whilst his actual face shows his alleged good self. Jekyll confesses that he himself has difficulty in separating the two characters. Hyde cannot be seen as the "other" of Dr. Hyde, who is in fact inseparable from Dr. The horror of the monster coming from within is reflected through this transgressive figure of Mr. Putting the monster and the civilized into one removes the concept of a separate "other". Hyde is fuelled with fears surrounding the instabilities of identity. Neither of the main protagonist's in the texts are absolutely good or bad, so are more like multiples. The distancing of the "other" from the "self" becomes narrower. ![]() Dorian remarks that "each of us has the Heaven and Hell in him" (Wilde) and this is shown explicitly in both these texts through the characters' different sides of their personality. The double dramatizes the inner struggle and vacillation between choices of good and evil in the individual. He makes it clear that the double, or the monster, are one and the same as the original character, and cannot be separated. His numerous sins, coupled with his love for endless youth, make him afraid of his double in the portrait, and death.ĭavid Punter argues that "to be the monster is also to be the monster's victim." (Punter). Dorian reasons that "there was a God who called upon men to tell their sins" (Wilde), and that the portrait is a confession of all his sins. It develops a thing of terror, as emphasises through Dorian's fear that the portrait will be discovered. However, after being an assurance of immortality, the double then becomes an "uncanny harbinger of death" (Freud). This can be seen in Dorian Gray, as the portrait allows Dorian to remain healthy in physical terms. Otto Rank asserts that the immortal soul was the first double of the body. The form and structure of both novels act as a double to the contents of the novels, by highlighting the importance of themes that are reiterated. ![]() The gap between the person and their "other" is narrowed as definitions of good and evil become more ambiguous. It also reveals the hidden secrets of society, such as the use of drugs, child prostitution and homosexuality. The monster signifies the moral degeneration that Victorian Britain was afraid of. Hyde (1886) and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), represents the monster in the protagonist's personality. The double in Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. ![]()
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