Dorian Gray Character Description

Rossi, 1

Michael Rossi
March 28, 2010
Advanced Placement English/ Mr. George

No Love from Lady Luck

The beauty and opportunity that the world had given to Dorian proved to be a fool’s gamble.
Dorian Gray has exhibited only stupidity and imprudence with his beauty and position of aristocracy. Dorian was blessed with the opportunity of having Lord Henry around who could aid Dorian in his intellectual development. A master’s teaching is ultimately adopted or denied in relation to a student’s understanding. Dorian blindly accepted almost every word that escaped from Lord Henry’s mouth: “Pleasure is Nature’s test, her sign of approval” (Wilde 82). Dorian did not even analyze his new mantra before assimilating it into his own philosophy: “I have never searched for happiness. Who wants happiness? I have searched for pleasure” (Wilde 202). Lord Henry never acted upon his witticisms, but was rather fascinated by them in their emptiness. It was Dorian who had put this ideology to the test by lusting after opium only to brush shoulders with death.
Dorian is as worthless as a gamble. Dorian rolls the dice of destiny and blindly continues gambling away his innocence, ignorant of the fact that the three dice landed straight sixes. Dorian flushes every penny of his soul down the toilet of self-destruction and is drowned in debt. In the end, Dorian did not have enough moral capital in the bank to make a life saving withdrawal and suffered from his moral insolvency.
Dorian and Paris Hilton both abused their beauty and wealth throughout life only to lose their innocence in the process.
Rossi, 2

Works Cited

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2003.