There is no doubt that Oscar Wilde wants to pass on the goodness and kindness in heart instead of the darkness or the hopelessness though he describes so many images of death to leave everyone a sense of disappointment。论文网

Chapter One Expressing Despair through Death Images of Flowers

Tragedy is to break the best things into pieces, which is the direct feeling for readers about The Picture of Dorian Gray。 Although Oscar Wilde shows us an extremely wonderful scene, as well as makes Dorian Gray throughout the whole novel at the beginning of this novel, the novel itself predicts the tragic ending of the story in a certain extent for the intentional avoidance of any defect。 The three flowers are arranged by the developmental stages。 Daisy is the stage when Gray is a teenager who is innocent and kind to everyone; rose is to modify Gray when he is an adult; poppy is the moment when he has been influenced into an evil。 However, the three beautiful flowers all belong to images of death if we take them into consideration carefully。

1。1 Daisy Expressing the Death of Goodness

The image daisy has appeared several times at the beginning of this novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, especially when Basil Hallward introduces Dorian Gray to Lord Henry Wotton。 After Lord Henry mentions his absurd married life, he goes out into the garden with Basil Hallward together

“The two young men went out into the garden together and ensconced them on a long bamboo seat that stood in the shade of a tall laurel bush。 The sunlight slipped over the polished leaves。 In the grass, white daisies were tremulous。”(Wilde 3)

When introduced Dorian Gray, Lord Henry shows great interest to him。 He is appealed by Dorian Gray’s picture and determines to have a look。 A faint blush colored Dorian Gray’s cheeks for a moment when he caught sight of Lord Henry。 

We can easily draw a conclusion that daisy is the symbol of Dorian Gray, who is like the daisy in summer。 He is handsome, innocent and the embodiment of art。 However, Dorian Gray is gradually affected by Lord Henry’s ideas after getting in touch with Lord Henry。 Also, Lord Henry himself has a preference for daisies as in his house, on a tiny satinwood table stood a statuette by Clodion, and beside it laid a copy of Les Cent Nouvelles, bound for Margaret of Valois by Clovis Eve and powdered with the gilt daisies that Queen had selected for her device。 This implies Lord Henry has decorous art sentiments。 As a result, Dorian Gray is so perfect that has no defects, which is contradictory with common senses, so there is no doubt that Dorian Gray has a tragic ending unfortunately。

1。2 Rose Expressing the Death of Love

The image of rose is absolutely common in western literary works, especially relating to love descriptions。 There are two main meanings of the image rose in The Picture of Dorian Gray: youth and love。 Lord Henry was totally attracted by the appearance of Dorian Gray for the first time, “He was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair。”(Wilde 10) There was something in his face that made one trust him at once。 All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity。 Lord Henry describes his youth as “rose-red” (Wilde 12) one, also boyhood as “rose-white” (Wilde 12) when Henry conveys his thoughts to Dorian Gray。 

Another general meaning of rose is love。 This image appears for several times when Dorian Gray falls in love with Sibyl Vane。 At first, in Dorian Gray’s eyes, Sibyl Vane is a seventeenth girl。 

“With a little, flowerlike face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose。 She was the loveliest thing I had ever seen in my life。”(Wilde 35)