The "hero" in the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, is Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray is described as being the pure image of male beauty and youth. "Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair"(Wilde, page 18, paragraph 4). Dorian is also known for being vain and extremely self-centered. Dorian accomplishes few things in this book. The first thing he wants to accomplish is eternal youth and beauty which he achieves through his pathetic plea at the beginning of the book. Later, towards the end of the book Dorian's new goal is to start new by becoming "good". "A new life! That was what he wanted. That was what he was waiting for" (Wilde, page 227. paragraph 2). His weak and rather clueless act of kindness consists of breaking up with Hetty Merton, a girl who had fallen for him and believed the lie that he was poor. After his attempt at being "good", Dorian is curious and hopeful that maybe the self-portrait of himself has become less ugly. When he discovers that is worse than he could ever imagine, he forms a new goal: to destroy it. Dorian accomplishes this goal by stabbing the picture with the knife he murdered Basil with, but in return, his life, along with his beauty and youth, is lost. Dorian Gray represents an abstract idea of evil and vanity.
Wilde,Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print.
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