The Picture of Dorian Gray"Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him, as though it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas, whispered into his ear by those grinning lips." (Wilde, Page 115) Dorian's descent into evil comes, primarily, from the murder of Basil. Dorian's physical appearance, however, is untarnished and pure; only the painting reflects his decaying morality. This parallels, in many ways, Walter's descent; he uses the Heisenberg persona to take all of his evil acts while Walter White remains pure, just as Dorian's portrait absorbs all of the evil while his body remains pure. From this passage, we can see that the portrait carries a significant level of influence over Dorian and he will go to any lengths to defend his beauty.
"All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is a crime. It is not in you, Dorian, to commit a murder." Lord Henry (Wilde, Page 157) Lord Henry's assertion, then, represents a critical moment for Dorian: Dorian cannot face his past on a bodily level or his atrocities because of the very thing that keeps him alive, a presumed purity. In this final confrontation with Lord Henry, Dorian's primary influence to become evil, Dorian realizes that he cannot atone for his sins, and he has gone far past the point of no moral return.
"No, Harry, I have done too many dreadful things in my life." (Wilde, Page 157) Dorian realizes that, despite the fact that the painting has absorbed all of his evil, including the deaths of Sibyl Vane, James Vane, and Basil Hallward, he is truly the one responsible for the crimes. His beauty is encapsulated in his body, but his purity in the painting when, in reality, the reverse should be true. It is the reversal at the start of the novel that creates this shift.
Dorian's quest for beauty then must end in one clear way: self-destruction. He understands that he is not truly beautiful, due to his immorality. By attempting to stab the portrait at the end of the novel, Dorian shows that he is lunging for what he sees as ugly: his soul as manifested in the painting. What this ends up manifesting, however, is a self-inflicted stab wound into Dorian's heart, the true bearer of his evil soul before his deal at the start of the novel shifts the beauty of the portrait with his internal beauty. |
Breaking Bad Walter's ascent into the meth drug empire cements itself with one final action: the death of the primary threat to Walter's safety, Gustavo Fring.
Similarly, Walter's descent begins with an assumption of his Heisenberg persona. He no longer tries to hide the difference between Walter White and Heisenberg, but instead makes it clear: they are, at last, the same person. But what about Walter's intentions? Initially, Walter's motivation is to be self-sufficient and to survive, but, once he realizes that he is the best meth cook in the US, his motivations change to be wholly about his pride. He wants to be remembered as a creator and, given the failure of his legally legitimate scientific endeavors, he chooses meth as his outlet for creation.
For his descent to be complete though, Walter must confront his primary influence at last. Jesse Pinkman is the Lord Henry to Walter's Dorian, an initial spark to Walter's descent into evil. By recognizing that he has far surpassed his influence and confronting Jesse one final time, Walter has final tied up the loose ends of his life.
Walter looks over the lab for the final time before dying; similar to Dorian stabbing the painting. It’s a personal recognition of what lead to their personal downfalls ending with their own deaths from different self-inflicted wounds. Though both men become entirely evil by the end of their stories, they also defend the things most important to them: beauty and pride, respectively. Dorian's portrait remains as a testament of what he once was and Walter's legacy in New Mexico as Heisenberg becomes legendary, giving Walter the recognition he finally desired.
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How do The Picture of Dorian Gray and Breaking Bad parallel?
The Picture of Dorian Gray and Breaking Bad have the same premise for their protagonists: Dorian Gray and Walter White, two morally upright people with values that are essentially good become two morally twisted villains with values that are essentially bad based on a breaking point in their lives and a moment where their goals of immortality (through beauty or pride) overshadow their desires to exist as decent people.
There are some physical similarities between the novels: how both characters use chemistry to dispose of a body; the fact that both men are led to darkness by another source (Lord Henry and Jesse Pinkman); the fact that there is, by the end of each story, one final threat to the existence of these two men (James Vane and Gustavo Fring) that, after being extinguished, leaves the men over-confident; the men confront their primary problems (beauty and pride) by the end of their stories; finally, both men die from self-inflicted wounds, left dead next to the monuments of their vices (the painting and a meth lab).
These physical similarities sparked interest in analyzing, in conjunction with, the thematic similarities of the novels. At the root of each story, there is a protagonist who goes from wholly good to wholly evil and, in this connection, the thematic similarities between the stories truly flesh themselves out. It is a specific ideal connected to what it means to be a successful human being that drive both Dorian and Walter and, by extension, destroy them.
There are some physical similarities between the novels: how both characters use chemistry to dispose of a body; the fact that both men are led to darkness by another source (Lord Henry and Jesse Pinkman); the fact that there is, by the end of each story, one final threat to the existence of these two men (James Vane and Gustavo Fring) that, after being extinguished, leaves the men over-confident; the men confront their primary problems (beauty and pride) by the end of their stories; finally, both men die from self-inflicted wounds, left dead next to the monuments of their vices (the painting and a meth lab).
These physical similarities sparked interest in analyzing, in conjunction with, the thematic similarities of the novels. At the root of each story, there is a protagonist who goes from wholly good to wholly evil and, in this connection, the thematic similarities between the stories truly flesh themselves out. It is a specific ideal connected to what it means to be a successful human being that drive both Dorian and Walter and, by extension, destroy them.