{"id":337,"date":"2016-03-30T03:20:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T03:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=337"},"modified":"2018-09-02T22:05:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T22:05:24","slug":"dorian-gray-across-mediums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2016\/03\/30\/dorian-gray-across-mediums\/","title":{"rendered":"Dorian Gray Across Mediums"},"content":{"rendered":"

When reading\u00a0The picture of Dorian Gray<\/em>, I couldn’t help but compare his character to the only other version of him which I had seen prior to reading the novel. \u00a0In the movie\u00a0The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen<\/em>,\u00a0the character Dorian Gray makes an appearance as one of the main characters, although he is drastically different in this story.\u00a0 Instead of being the pleasure seeking high society socialite Wilde writes him as, Dorian takes the role of a dangerous gentleman figure in the movie, being shown instead as a capable fighter and ever confident character.\u00a0 The greatest similarities revolve, of course, around the painting of Dorian, which in both works serves as his both his greatest strength and weakness at the same time.<\/p>\n

While the creators of the movie clearly wished to make use of the creative supernatural circumstances regarding Dorian Gray\u2019s youthful secrets, they obviously chose to ignore other parts of his character as well.\u00a0 Even his physical appearance was altered in the movie.\u00a0 Instead of a youthful figure with short, well-kept blonde hair, the movie adaptation of Dorian Gray possesses a long mane of immaculately brushed and styled dark brown locks.\u00a0 This decision seems rather innocuous, and forces me to wonder as to why he was so changed.\u00a0 The physical appearance never really becomes a plot point of importance, and there are other characters with short hair throughout the movie who also show themselves as refined gentlemen in much the same way as Dorian.\u00a0 The only real usage of his hair, it seems, is that it stays styled even during his fight scenes- another change from Wilde\u2019s character.\u00a0 While Dorian Gray certainly murders in Wilde\u2019s story, it is not a result of a refined combat confrontation, but rather a passionate and spur of the moment stabbing, devoid of the emotionless grace the movie Dorian exhibits.\u00a0 Really, the only character trait seemingly retained from Wilde\u2019s character is Dorian\u2019s inclination to seek out beauty.\u00a0 In the movie, Dorian seems drawn to the fatally attractive vampire Mina Harker, making his inclination to beauty a sort of nod to the original Dorian\u2019s pursuit of sensory bliss rather than a defining character trait.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, there seems to be little to no themes of homo eroticism in the movie as well, which makes the dynamics of romance almost entirely between men and women.\u00a0 After looking at this almost entirely reimagined character, it seems that the movie sought only to capitalize on the immortal painting aspect of Wilde\u2019s work, not caring whether or not they stayed true to the character in the slightest- and even with the painting a few key details were altered.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Dorian\u2019s method of death is altered in the movie.\u00a0 In the novel, Dorian becomes unhappy with what the painting shows him to be, and finally attempts to destroy it.\u00a0 In Wilde\u2019s depiction, Dorian\u2019s death doesn\u2019t appear to be intended- he attempts only to destroy the representation of himself, perhaps in the hope that no one will ever be able to see the degenerated picture again.\u00a0 However, he doesn\u2019t take into account the reverse of the link to the picture, and damage to it applies to him instead, leaving him dead and decrepit.\u00a0 In the movie adaptation, there is no need to stab the painting.\u00a0 The mechanics of how it shows his consequences functions quite differently, with Dorian being unable to even gaze upon the picture without his life ending.\u00a0 This mechanic is the largest difference between Wilde\u2019s painting and the movie\u2019s reimagining, and makes no sense at all.\u00a0 There is no rule established which implies sight of the degeneration leads to Dorian taking its effects upon himself, and it makes no sense narratively.\u00a0 Even in respect to Wilde\u2019s novel, there is no indication that the effects become reversed until the painting is destroyed.\u00a0 The movie could quite easily have required some sort of damage be done to the picture, as its reveal occurs during a fight scene between Dorian and Mina.\u00a0 Looked at in sum, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen<\/em> seems to pay no heed to the character of Dorian Gray as envisioned by Oscar Wilde, and instead simply hijacks his creative supernatural element for their own usage.\u00a0 Nearly none of the defining traits are carried over, many of which could have made the character more engaging and interesting throughout the movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When reading\u00a0The picture of Dorian Gray, I couldn’t help but compare his character to the only other version of him which I had seen prior to reading the novel. \u00a0In the movie\u00a0The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,\u00a0the character Dorian Gray makes an appearance as one of the main characters, although he is drastically different in this … Continue reading Dorian Gray Across Mediums<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3043,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3043"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}