Necessary Roughness?

Simple, natural, and affectionate. These kind words don’t seem to describe the face of a killer, but this would be proven wrong as the character of Dorian Gray would end up living a violent and scandalous life. Scenes of violence not only make a work of literary merit all the more interesting, but they give the characters of the novel a new dimension to the readers that can’t always be seen by other characters as illustrated in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Dorian’s first scene of violence in the novel can be depicted when he calls out Sibyl Vane for her bad acting. Dorian had fallen in love with Sibyl strictly because of the beauty of her presence on the stage that she brought through her acting. On the night that Dorian invited Lord Henry and Basil Hallward to watch Sibyl act; she was off in her performance because all of her focus was now on her love for Dorian. As Sibyl frantically tried to win back Dorian’s affection for her after he shunned her for bad acting, he thrust her aside saying that he wanted nothing to do with her. Although he didn’t physically hurt Sibyl, he injured her emotional state of mind to the extent where she killed herself. This scene shows the beginning of Dorian’s change in character which turns into a violent life, one of which can only be seen by the readers.

The next of Dorian’s violent scenes Basil approaches him to discuss the matters of the rumors that were going around town about Dorian’s lifestyle. When Basil confronted him about it and asked Dorian to deny all of the accusations, Dorian suggested to Basil that he see his soul. When Dorian uncovered the painting, Basil saw the monstrous painting which contained all of Dorian’s sins as well as his age. Basil was horrified at the sight of the creation that he made and immediately sought to repent for what they had both done. Dorian’s evil side emerged once again as he saw a knife glimmer out of the corner of his eye and stabbed Basil to death from