it's just a job

Jacklyn 2022-03-24 09:02:29

The three images of Dorian Gray, Bashir and Lord Henry in the film are absolute. Dorian Gray leans toward absolute hedonicity, Bashir leans toward absolute purity, and Lord Henry has the absolute restraint of a fusion of the two characters. Until I saw Wilde's letter to admirer Ralph Pena when I was looking for film materials, "Basil is my image of myself, Dorian Gray is my desired image, and Lord Henry is the world. My image in the eyes". It was discovered that these three images can actually be analyzed from the perspective of the concept of ego, ego, and superego proposed by Freud in the analysis of personality structure, so I have a deeper understanding of the film.
The id in "Dorian Gray" represents Dorian Gray, who never controls his own desires and eventually perishes. The superego in this film is Siebel, a painter who sees art as his life with integrity. The ego between the id and the superego is the sophisticated and utilitarian Lord Henry who has a high social status but ultimately contributed to his destruction.
Wilde said that the three figures represented his different personalities. The whole movie is the history of Dorian Gray's depravity. The pure and kind Dorian Gray, led by Lord Henry, went step by step to the hedonistic Dorian Gray, reaching the bottom of the degeneration, and finally to self-destruction. This is a dynamic process, with different performances in different periods. Lord Henry is the representative of the ugly forces in capitalist society. But his abstinence became more apparent with age, as Wilde said, "Lord Henry is my image in the eyes of the world." In old age, Lord Henry begins to remorse, which is the embodiment of redemption in the Western cultural system. And "Bashir is the image of myself in my heart" reveals that no matter who looks at them, there is an instinct to hope for their own purity. "Dorian Gray is the image I want", this is not only Wilde, but also the life of each of us fighting against desire. While we must admit our yearning for good, we can't deny the desire in our hearts that can't be concealed forever.
The whole movie expresses the "ego id superego" in the character setting and plot direction respectively. In the middle of the story, Dorian Gray personally destroyed his superego. At the end of the story, Dorian Gray was freed by death and destroyed his id. In the end, only Lord Henry, who represented the ego, was still alive. It is revealed that "the id, the ego, and the superego constitute a person's complete personality. The ego exists forever, and the superego and the id are almost permanently opposed. In order to coordinate the contradiction between the id and the superego, the ego need to be adjusted".

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Extended Reading
  • Ashtyn 2022-03-24 09:02:29

    This change makes people feel embarrassed. The characters will become bloody if the plot is made up. This is the truth that has remained unchanged for thousands of years.

  • Katherine 2022-01-02 08:02:19

    It is not easy to tell this story for nearly 2 hours, so adding a lot of erotic shots to drag time, the scale is really wide enough. Oscar Wilde, his old man, saw his gay desires that he didn't dare to express explicitly, and he was so excited that he might come alive, and then he was furious again after watching the movie~

Dorian Gray quotes

  • [last lines]

    Lord Henry Wotton: Poor boy. Who can bear to look at you now?

  • Lord Henry Wotton: The only way to get rid of a temptation, is to yield to it.