The picture of Drorian Gray and Imagination

The Picture of Dorian Gray and Imagination

            Imagination is a common thing we used every day. And without the imagination, we cannot do anything. Because we face a branch of new problems every day, we have to use our imagination to solve the problems. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a good example to explain how imaginations influence our life. But in some aspect, if you use your imagination excessively, it will destroy your whole life. And Dorian Gray’s whole life is damaged by the portrait. No matter what happens in the portrait, I think is Dorian’s imagination and not reality.

The Dorian’s portrait draw by Basil is the most important thing to effect Dorian’s behavior and thought in his life. When that day, Dorian sees the picture and he realizes he really has a beautiful face. And Dorian begins to think beauty is the only worthwhile aspect of life, the only thing left to pursue and he wants to keep his beauty face forever. He thinks the face on the portrait bear the burden of his passions and his sins. So he wishes that the portrait Basil is painting would grow old in his place. After the day he breaks up with Sibyl the girl he wants to get marry. He finds out his portrait has changed. He realizes his wish has came true that the portrait now bears the burden of his passions and his sins , whilst his own appearance remains unchanged.

I am a realist. I believe no matter what kind of strange things happen, it can be explained by the scientific method. So in my opinion, the portrait was changed by Dorian’s wish that will be impossible for me to believe. All I think why the picture will be changed? Because of Dorian’s imagination. He pays more attention on his beauty and he imagines day after day his beauty appearance will never be changed forever. So he becomes sensitive about his beauty. Also that day, he has a hard conversation with Sibyl and his logical thinking becomes messy. It is easy for him to create an illusion through his imagination. So when he saw the picture again, he thought his wish came true. But he didn’t notice all the things are his imagination. Like what I said before, if you use your imagination imagine something excessively or you imagine something in a wrong way, you will become mad. Like the movie- A Beautiful Mind, we saw last week. John is a genius in mathematics, but he becomes mad after he gets his reputation. He imagines a guy hires him to take a task because of his talent in mathematics. His terrible imagination begins to mess up his life.

 This type of person, like Dorian and John, they imagine one thing excessively and an illusion come into being makes them become mad. We may consider this type of person have Paranoia. While Dorian realized the picture was changed becomes a turning point in the book. He tries to hide the picture and don’t let anybody to see it. After one day of a few years, he leads Basil to see the portrait again. Unfortunately, Basil finds out his secret and he kills Basil unexpectedly. The most ridiculous thing for me is he killed Basil because he saw  the picture imply him to kill Basil. The book mentions it as well: “Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him. The mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him and the loathed anything who was seated at the table, more than he had ever loathed anything in his whole life” (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 84). I don’t believe one picture will has such powerful energy to drive Dorian to kill Basil. What I think is he imagines that picture has an connection to him. And he thinks the picture is important to keep his beauty forever so he just follows the implication and do it. In the end of the story, Dorian wants to make a new life and he doesn’t want to be controlled by the picture any more. So he decides to destroy the picture. But when he picks up a knife and plunges it into the picture. He actually plunges into his heart not the picture. He was killed by himself. I think his imagination kills him. Also he didn’t know he killed himself not the picture when he died in the last minute.

The life of Dorian Gray, I think it is a tragedy. His whole life has a strong connection with the portrait. And his imagination puzzles him all the times. It makes him lose his reputation and becomes corruption in his life. Even though he loses everything in his life, he still doesn’t feel shamed. Even he didn’t find out everything is fake. His imagination creates everything and makes him deeply associate with the picture. Imagination can be good or bad. Dorian is an example of bad imagination how influence one’s life.