The Picture Of Dorian Gray And Richard Cory Analysis

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth,” wrote Oscar Wilde, alluding to the fact that people conceal themselves by nature. When we speak of ourselves, we hide away parts of our character we do not wish to reveal, whether purposely or accidentally. Although both Wilde in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and Edward Arlington Robinson in his poem “Richard Cory” explore the concept of the figurative masks worn to conceal parts of oneself, Robinson’s poem is about choosing to hide, while Wilde’s novel describes being forced to do the same. Both of these stories discuss the ways an individual hides from others. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian hides the literal scars on his
Richard Cory was the subject of the town’s jealousy; with good looks, good schooling, and plentiful wealth - no one saw behind the front he put up. “And he was rich—yes, richer than a king— / And admirably schooled in every grace: / In fine, we thought that he was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place” (Robinson 9-12). The townspeople are too busy wishing they had Richard Cory’s life and fortunes to truly understand him. He lives distantly from the townsfolk, not uncommon for those of higher status, so there is even less reason for townspeople to suspect something is wrong. “Whenever Richard Cory went down town, we people on the pavement looked at him” (Robinson 1-2). This implies that Richard Cory only deigns to go to town every once in a while, and that he attracts a lot of attention when he did, proving that he was of too high of a status to associate with townspeople. When something interesting happens in the aristocratic world, the working class is too distant to notice. The “calm summer night” (Robinson 15), is just an ordinary night for the townsfolk; they are not close enough to him or any of his ilk to know that this night is the night he kills himself. Richard Cory may have revealed his true character to someone close to him, but he chooses to leave that part of himself largely
The portrait physically reveals all the corrupt parts of Dorian’s soul which are usually effortlessly concealed within a person. After Dorian harshly rejected Sibyl and broke off their engagement, the portrait changed for the first time to look cruel. “There was no doubt that the whole expression had altered. It was not a mere fancy of his own. The thing was horribly apparent” (Wilde 66). The portrait shows Dorian’s cruelty plainly, putting him in the awkward position of having his wickedness displayed constantly. After Dorian murdered Basil and drove an old friend to suicide, he visited the picture for the last time. “He saw the face of his portrait leering in the sunlight . . . What was that loathsome red dew that gleamed, wet and glistening, on one of the hands, as though the canvas had sweated blood?” (Wilde 127). The portrait shows physical crimes as well as psychological ones, and anyone who came across the picture and understood that it portrayed Dorian as he truly is, could easily divine what he had done. The material evidence of the worst of Dorian’s character drives him to hide his character in a very literal way. It is difficult for Dorian to accept the picture, because anyone could happen to see his twisted soul whether or not he revealed it, and he struggles with this forced vulnerability. “‘It would not interest you, Mr.