dorians narcissistic love Flashcards
at beginning, dorians self love is innocent as he’s unaware of his own beauty
visible change in personality after seeing painting of himself
dorian becomes aware of people’s admiration for his looks. compares himself to bronze figures, an ivory hermès and a silver faun
only noticed and complimented for his appearance
shows he only cared for sibyl vane as someone who could portray timeless heroines after breaking engagement off
sibyl gained worth in that she too, even for a short while, froze time to present the timeless historical heroines
dorian becomes the person henry himself dreams of being
dorian first blames sibyl for changes in picture but realizes it’s his own doing
constantly puts blame on others. also blames basil saying that if he’d not created the painting dorian’s soul would still be safe
his self love can be compared to narcissus
dorian and narcissus are overly in love with themselves and hold pride in their beauty
dorian and narcissus are in love with their reflections: dorians being his portrait and narcissus being his face reflected in the water
dorian and narcissus both kill themselves, dorian because of his obsession with the painting and narcissus because he can’t obtain the object of his desire
wilde focuses on art as a mirror to false and true images of the self
a moder day narcissus, dorian exchanges his “original self”/soul
yellow book given by lord henry symbolizes henry’s narcissistic perspective on art and life which dorian gets influenced by and drawn into
not horrified or emotionally shaken by basils death, what horrified him is the changes the painting underwent
dorian refers to basils corpse as a “thing”. “there was a horrible smell of nitric acid in the room. but the thing that had been sitting at the table was gone”
by end of novel dorian resents his youth and starts seeing it as negative and repulsive
dorians self love is based on his narcissism that ultimately proves fatal as it provides an image of the self and what it’s not. it distorts as it reflects
his attempt to annihilate his true image and its visible emblem results in his own annihilating , a cracked looking glass of the self