The Picture of Dorian Gray"I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I lose?... Oh, if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now!" Dorian Gray (Wilde Page 20) Dorian starts The Picture of Dorian Gray as vain, but otherwise pure in morality. Dorian's evolution throughout the novel, with this in mind, must focus on how Dorian becomes conflicted and how his pure nature is tarnished. Through Lord Henry's influence, Dorian explores social taboos, but, unlike Lord Henry, Dorian becomes quickly consumed in his obsessions.
The Breaking Point Where, exactly then, does Dorian reach his breaking point?
The answer can be found in Sibyl Vane's death. Without this death, Dorian has a chance for redeeming himself and, thereby, staying pure as a character, but upon his refusal, or lack of ability, to grieve for her he damns his soul and morality. "Why should he trouble about Sibyl Vane? She was nothing to him now. But the picture? What was he to say of that? It held the secret of his life, and told his story. It had taught him to love his own beauty." (Wilde Page 67) Dorian's obsession with his picture and his understanding of his beauty as eternal leads to him to be conflicted: should he keep his moral purity despite how he feels and marry Sibyl or should he grow morally impure with the knowledge that his beauty will not be impacted?
Sibyl's death makes this an easy choice and leads Dorian to a life of both decadence and evil. |
Breaking Bad Walter begins Breaking Bad, as Ana puts it, as a "bumbly old chemistry teacher." His evolution then must focus on how to get this particular character to transform into the ultimate villain. This begins with Walter's cancer diagnosis; in this moment, Walter understands that, as a chemistry teacher, he cannot survive as an individual while having cancer.
The Breaking Point Where is Walter's point-of-no-return? Some would argue it is when he makes his first batch of meth with Jesse, but I believe, at this point, Walter still has a chance to turn back and avoid the true depth of his descent into evil altogether.
Walter's point-of-no-return, then, must be a moral point of no return. It is when Walter first kills for the industry, a point which, afterwards, he cannot merely ignore the severity of his crimes and that real human consequences become attached to the industry. With this first murder behind him, Walter dives deeper into the industry and creates an identity that he desires to use as a means of becoming a legend: Heisenberg. |