Dorian Gray Blog #1

Dorian Gray is a young man who is the product of a broken family. Through Basil's artistic portrayal of him, one would think he is not only a beautiful, but a strong, independent, and mysterious man. This is not the case. Because of the lack of an influential role model in his life, Dorian has grown to be very naive and easily influenced. These are not good qualities to have, especially when dealing with a character such as Lord Henry. Lord Henry is a manipulative man who, from the start, attempted to take advantage of Dorian and his passive personality. Due to this passiveness, Lord Henry did not only attempt, but succeed in winning over Dorian's attention. Dorian had met many people in his life, but "they had not influenced his nature. Then had come Lord Henry Wotton with his strange panegyric on youth, his terrible warning of its brevity. That had stirred him at the time, and now, as he stood gazing at the shadow of his own loveliness, the full reality of the description flashed across him" (Wilde 27). This goes to show that Dorian had let Henry's opinions influence him after only knowing him for a short amount of time, proving that he will quickly turn out to be a product of Lord Henry's influence.