Sunhills Valley School

Literature, 12B
June 12th, 2015.
Estefana Cruz lvarez
Rita Prez Zrate

There is not such thing as good influence

Dorian was an innocent man who knew nothing about life and who had never been
influenced by people from the outside until Lord Henry came into his life, turning my point of
view and also the whole story into

a the story of moral corruption by the means of

aestheticism. When i first started reading The Picture of Dorian Gray and heard the name
of Dorian, the first word that came to my mind was "naive". He was a 19-year-old young man,
who lost his parents, stayed just with his grandfather and was home-schooled his whole life.
So what he knew about life was just as far as a book could tell him, which made him an easy
target.
Dorian was someone without malice, with an uncontaminated mind and ideas, without
influence from anyone else. That was what Basil saw in him every time he painted a part of
Dorian's portrait. For all the right reasons Basil did not want Lord Henry to get to know him,
He has a simple and a beautiful nature. Your aunt was quite right in what she said of him.
Don't spoil him. Don't try to influence him. Your influence would be bad. The world is wide,
and has many marvelous people in it. Don't take away from me the one person who gives to
my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him. Mind, Harry, I trust
you. Besides the obvious special affection he felt for him, he knew exactly the effect that
Lord Henry had on his acquaintances and friends. But, of course, this was something that did
not bother Lord Henry at all, and he managed to meet Dorian.
It all started that day, when Lord Henry got a chance to talk with Dorian, even though Basil
had warned Dorian about Lord Henry He has a very bad influence over all his friends, with
the single exception of myself. Despite Basil's warnings, Lord Henry started talking and
questioning Dorian, and with just the first comment of Lord Henry, Dorian started to change...
Just turn your head a little more to the right, Dorian, like a good boy," said the painter, deep
in his work and conscious only that a look had come into the lad's face that he had never
seen there before."
Since the beginning, how Dorian thinks is not the only thing that changed, because after
conversing for quite a while with cynical Lord Henry, Dorian made a wish which dreadfully

affected his life forever. I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will
remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only
the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!
For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not
give! I would give my soul for that! This not only came true, but affected his life forever in a
way he would not even imagine! And this was just the beginning of the end of the "naive
Dorian".
Dorian continued to lead a life of sensuality which he learned about in a book given to him by
Lord Henry. Dorians unethical devotion to pleasure became his way of life. There was a
contrast in that of age and youth to good vs. evil. Dorian Gray's life went back and forth of
moral and immoral perspectives. Dorian Gray's lifestyle and mind was corrupted as a result
of a sinful life. And, of course, the society in which he live did not help at all. It was all
conventions from fidelity in marriage to charity towards the poor. He ridiculed the goals of
philanthropy and he was swept away by this logic.
The entire novel, since the beginning when I saw the path Dorian was going to go through, I
was expecting that something might change him, maybe love from Sybil or friendship, but he
ended all by himself , I really dont know how or what would make him change, but I thought
it was possible. Then I definitely lost all hope when he murdered his dearest friend or more
like his only friend. After that, all I expected for the end of the novel was to discover who was
going to kill Dorian. Even though I was really expecting Lord Henry to discover the monster
he had created and then kill him, I was pretty surprised by the end.
The portrait imitated the life of Dorian Gray by a distorted face expression. It's aimed as a
mirror of his sins. It is also direct internal moral perspective of his conscience. Dorian Gray
tried to run from this ugliness of age and sin throughout the novel, but resulted in his death.
So in the end, no one killed him, but himself. He received the punishment of death by the
person he and I least expected, reminding us that everything we in life, whether good or bad,
will come back to us sooner or later, and how far influence in people can go, especially if they
do not have well delimitated the line between good and bad, moral and immoral. How
important is it to know what kind of person you would like to be, what you are, and what you
are willing to do to achieve it.