There’s clearly a lot of thought and creativity put into The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The story and its details could reference The Bible, myths and history from the past, and a lot on human characteristics and psychology, which show a lot of work and a lot of imagination from the author. Imagination is a combination of experiences stored in a person’s memory along with thought and creativity to reach a specific goal or issue that the person may want to overcome. Imagination plays a huge part in the story and it also gives us a big role to understand it more after a little analytical review. The theme of imagination is very powerful and through Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian Gray we can see how it can change lives, especially through the portrait drawn by Basil himself; however, imaginations true power can be seen and experienced by the readers themselves when we speculate and try to explain the events occurring in the book. Without our imagination this is just another story and Basil's painting of Dorian Gray is just another portrait, but because of many different backgrounds and beliefs we can see that there’s more to these objects. For example: Dorian Gray lives a simple life until two things enter his life, Lord Henry and the portrait. It's left ambiguous what corrupts Dorian the most, is it the portrait being magical, or is that just superstition and it’s really just Lord Henry’s bad influence that makes him believe somethings changing about the picture, as if his mind was playing tricks on him?
Some may believe that it’s ..(superstition or mind playing tricks) but I believe its .. ( the opposite.) because I can’t imagine it any other way.
-or-
This story is a great example of the power of imagination, it has a lot of ideas for us to take in, but also requires us to put in a lot more to answer questions like these
I see you are having a difficult time picking a specific topic. I feel this has a lot to do with the fact that you are somewhat intertwining ideas. All of your ideas are good but in order to simply write a three page paper, you will need to stick to one simple idea and expand it. Although I do like the idea of the reader’s use of imagination, I find it way too general because that is something that is not necessarily tied with “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Therefore I would go with the concept of imagination influencing the ideas we have and the decisions we make in life as shown throughout the story. I would suggest touching upon how exactly both Lord Henry and the portrait helped in provoking Dorian’s imagination. How are the ideas presented throughout the story helpful in presenting this idea? Imagination is not just simply a combination of stored experiences within someone’s mind; it can also be defined as a form of creative. It can be seen that Lord Henry has quite a creative way of thinking that is often shown through his theories. Lord Henry’s imagination plays a huge role in swaying Dorian in the path he will wish to choose. It is the use of Lord Henry’s imagination that feeds ideas and thoughts into Dorian’s imagination. The use of this idea can then be extended by the introducing of the portrait. The portrait can be said to be the actual depiction of Dorian’s imagination or thoughts. The alteration of the picture is not only the actions Dorian commits but also the evil or cruel ideas he has within his mind. This idea can also be used to write a paper on the changing of the picture as in Dorian’s portrait being beautiful, prior to haven met Lord Henry and then the horrible thing it becomes, after meeting Lord Henry. With the use of these ideas I feel you will have no problems in finding details and text to support it.
ReplyDelete1. It is not clear where your intro paragraph ends and the body paragraphs follow. For the reader to better understand your ideas, make more of an effort separating your intro from the rest of the essay. The first sentence isn't very attention grabbing. Perhaps, instead of stating an opinion, make an objective statement.
ReplyDelete2. Its difficult for me to identify the thesis statement. Be more clear with your ideas.
3. There is no real structure to the essay. I realize you aren't finished with it, but when you continue to work on it, try to be more organized with your ideas. I can tell that Imagination is the main topic of the writing. You do a good job staying focused on the theme within the story. To improve the essay, elaborate more on the topic and give concrete examples from the book.
4. You do a great job with spelling and punctuation. I was a bit distracted about the part you write about the reader's imagination and the part it plays. No real grammar issues I can detect either.
5. You do not list or cite any sources.
6. You need to elaborate more on the central theme of imagination. The structure of the paper needs work as well(Separate intro from body paragraphs and conclusion as well). Your spelling, and punctuation are great. You also stay focused on the theme.
I love the fact that you mentioned , us using our imagination to understand this novel. I believe that this is the main reason why we all should be able to write a well written essay by thingking on our own as well. However, we have to get truly deeper into the story to lengthen our essay..
ReplyDelete