Villanueva 1

Sebastian Villanueva

Mrs.Vela

1302 English

25 October 2018

Devil inside the pure

The classic novel of Doctor Faustus was a significant influence in the great tale of The

painting of Dorian Gray. It greatly emphasizes the idea of the traditional angel and devil figure

that heavily influenced the main characters. These two, novel have a powerful connection in both

the social references and innuendos that are integrated into the subtext that makes the reader

think if everyone has the “devil” inside them. Many of them having to do with the people around

these main characters and the subtle clues they give of everything around them fall apart and

driving them to the brink of insanity.

Starting with the evil forces that cause a monster out the protagonist. This style makes the

reader feel like they are on a see-saw that can be tipped over at any moment and both sides

represent the bad and the good in the different moralities and priorities that the supporting

characters impose that tip the see-saw over profoundly affecting the main character. As Dorian

said in the novel ,” Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil, cried Dorian with a wild gesture

of despair” it solidly depicted the idea of both sides fighting for dorians will. Doctor Faustus is

continuously second-guessing his contract with Lucifer (Wilde 47) . He is continually tipping the

rocking seesaw between regret and pleasure of his new found powers but in the end, he pays for

his actions and says “ My heart’s so hardened I cannot report. Scare can I have salvation, faith,

or heaven But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears, Faustus thou art damned ” (Marlowe 24). This
 Villanueva 2

goes hand in hand with the saying that Dorian says, "If it were I who was to be always young and

the picture that was to grow old! For that- for that- I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing

in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!",That represents the constant

regret and the urge to be forgiven to regain a spot in the heavens(Wilde 36). They end in a

gruesome and terrible despise where Dorian ends up killing himself, and Doctor Faustus is

dragged down by the Lucifer's minions into the depths of hell as he is brutally torn to pieces

screaming in agony.

The signs and innuendos that start arising depict Dorian falling into the his pit of hell that

could be described as sticky web that sooner and later leads him to change like a caterpillar

transforming into a butterfly. In this case, the caterpillar turns into a poisonous spider that kills

everyone around it and enjoys the evil and despair that it cause it and loves to enjoy the pleasure

no matter the cost. The Schoolroom is like the spiderweb; a constant reminder of his innocence

and is his hell that will never leave him and that reminder of how innocent and pure he was

slowly makes a hell that ends up driving he insane. This correlates to the question that Doctor

Faustus asks the Devil; He asks "where is the place that men call Hell?"where is the place that

men call Hell?" (2.1.505) (1) Mephostophilis truthfully answers Faustus' inquiry, "Hell hath no

limits", and later explains that hell is not a place but a state of mind that slowly destroys you and

drives you mad (Budra 1). It synchronizes with the message that the schoolroom represents in

Dorian because the memories and mentality that brought onto Dorian when he is in there are

what makes him experience hell. Doctor Faustus experiences hell once he reaches the last hour

where his madness and weariness of his actions cause the hour to feel longer than the whole 24

years longer combined.

 Villanueva 3

His reference to the atoms having an affinity to each other and they work together to form

the painting and form the soul within which references the soul that is linked to Dorian. This

proves that he felt a piece of him in that painting and that every time he would taint his conscious

it reflected in his painting. In the big picture, it's the classic tale where the innocent person makes

the contract, in this case, the devil being lord Henry, and the innocent soul does all these dirty

deeds to complete their part of the contract, but then the devil tricks them and gives them the

opposite of what the innocent soul wanted. This is shown when Dorians slowly started thinking

like Lord Henry and started feeling no remorse for these deaths, and slowly Dorian began to see

the hideousness that started to come out in the picture. Doctor Faustus in the same aspect wanted

to entertain himself and pulled tricks and crimes for fun. Dorian is tricked into believing and

acting like Lord Henry to supposedly stay young and beautiful forever. Doctor Faustus was so

bored of life and wanted to entertain himself ,“Faustus dreamt of conjuring spirits who would

resolve him "of all ambiguities" by reading him "strange Philosophy," (Budra 3). They both

seeked something and took it to the extremes and paid in a terrible demise.

Basil in The portrait of Dorian gray is supposed to mirror a guardian angel that is

supposed guide and warn Dorian from the sinful things that Lord Henry is trying to influence

with, and in Doctor Faustus, there are literal angles warning him about asking forgiveness and

canceling the contract with satan.

This angel is not a "spirit" visible to the audience, such as the form of Helen that Faustus

lies with; it is a Christian perception of the unity of things expressed, necessarily, in metaphor, a

metaphor inspired by faith.

The Angels from the heavens begint to try to convince Faustus to abandon his plans to sign

the contract they begged him to “think of heaven, and heavenly things,” and he would ignore
 Villanueva 4

them saying that God has no love for him. Basil in the same aspect would also beg Dorian to

pray for forgiveness and to repent for all his terrible sins, but Dorian laughs and claims that it is

too late for the heavens to forgive him.

Readers may consider that Dorian burdens the portrait with his sins and psychological

transformation, but the horrible truth is that the portrait simultaneously shapes Dorian in an

invisible way. When Dorian becomes addicted to the portrait, his autonomy is gradually

weakened and replaced by the portrait. It interprets Dorian’s conceptions and even determines

his choices and behaviors.

Both Characters are warned by their morals and are reminded about the good in them ,but

they were ignored throughout the story and ended up being right. The constant reminder of good

was also a trigger that would push them further into madness, both the angels and Basil would be

a reminder of the good that use to be in both characters and it would make the character realize

the bad they had done and drove them insane.

Finally, the comparisons change the perspective taken by the reader once Faustin’s novel

is introduced and it makes the reader wonder about how even the holiest and purest being have a

devil inside them and may choose to act upon it and suffer the consequences. They reach new

levels of similarity through the references of both the good side of humanity and the bad side and

even how both forces fighting for power can create true destruction and chaos.
 Villanueva 5

Work Cited

Budra, Paul. "Doctor Faustus: deatthe the h of a bibliophile." Connotations, vol. 1, no. 1,

1991, p. 1+. Academic OneFile,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A322902991/GPS?u=j240903003&sid=GPS&xid=ea634dd0.

Accessed 29 Oct. 2018.

 Villanueva 6

Gray, Elizabeth, and Oscar Wilde. The Portrait of Dorian Gray. Express Publishing,

2008.

Marlowe, Christopher, and Paul Menzer. Doctor Faustus. Methuen Drama, 2019.

Zhang, Yan. “From Self-Identification to Self-Destruction-A Mirror Image Interpretation

of Dorian Gray's Psychic Transformation.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research,

www.academypublication.com/ojs/index.php/jltr/article/view/jltr0702377381.