Characterisation Lord Henry The Picture of Dorian Gray: Advanced (2024)

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Characterisation Lord Henry The Picture of Dorian Gray: Advanced? ›

Cultured and intellectual, he inhabits the most fashionable circles, spreading his own brand of highly intelligent, paradoxical philosophies about art and life. He is a powerful, often poisonous influence on young Dorian.

Lord Henry is a man possessed of “wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories.” He is a charming talker, a famous wit, and a brilliant intellect. Given the seductive way in which he leads conversation, it is little wonder that Dorian falls under his spell so completely.

MBTI Type: ENTP

He has a great deal of fun taking an naïve, innocent young man and transforming him into a hedonistic monster… although Henry eventually becomes appalled by his own creation.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton influences Dorian by advising him to make the most of his youth. In doing so, he instills a fear of death in Dorian that drives the young man to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for eternal youth.

Dorian is described in the book as perpetually young and beautiful on the outside, but morally corrupt on the inside.

Henry is brilliant, focused, fearless, and committed to the responsibilities of kingship. These responsibilities often force him to place his personal feelings second to the needs of the crown. Henry is a brilliant orator who uses his skill to justify his claims and to motivate his troops.

Sir Henry Baskerville

Sir Henry is hale and hearty, described as "a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years of age, very sturdily built." By the end of the story, Henry is as worn out and shell-shocked as his late uncle was before his death.

Cultured and intellectual, he inhabits the most fashionable circles, spreading his own brand of highly intelligent, paradoxical philosophies about art and life. He is a powerful, often poisonous influence on young Dorian.

On the other hand, Henry VIII could be vicious, paranoid, self-pitying and vainglorious. Many of his actions were motivated by self-interest, and his failures were never his fault. Henry ruled by proclamation as well as through Parliament and courtiers (and his wives) lived or died at his command.

and Lord Henry Wotton, the two characters that will be analysed, are aristocratic men, part of the top upper-class, and therefore two good models to study their portrayal of upper-class Victorian men and their lifestyles, as well as the roles and expectations that were set upon them.

Is Lord Henry a manipulator? ›

Lord Henry's manipulative coldness, while he remains free of any actual crime, is reminiscent of an American novel Wilde greatly admired, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850).

Certainly, Lord Henry's relationship to Dorian is also marked by a profound affection and is likened to a seduction: “He would seek to dominate him—had already, indeed, half done so.” Meanwhile, when Dorian gives in to a life of sin, there is a strong suggestion that his numerous friendships with young men contain a ...

In Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), a major corrupting influence on Dorian is "the yellow book" which Lord Henry sends over to amuse him after the suicide of his first love.

Lord Henry tells Dorian that "the real secret of life" is the search for beauty.

To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.”

Dorian Gray is destine to be the "son of Love and Death" (40): Lord Henry and Basil's "love" for Dorian was too aggressive that it may hurt this handsome lad, and even leads him to "death".

Henry is a man without religion, morality, politics, culture or history. He cherishes private, isolated life and attempts at shirking social responsibilities. He is receptive, a keen observer but curiously passive.

Henry, who was by nature shy, pious, and averse to deceit and bloodshed, immediately allowed his court to be dominated by a few noble favourites who clashed on the matter of the French war when he assumed the reins of government in 1437.

Henry was an energetic and ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to restore the royal lands and prerogatives of his grandfather Henry I. During the early years of his reign Henry restored the royal administration in England, which had almost collapsed during Stephen's reign, and re-established hegemony over Wales.

While Lord Henry's praises of Dorian's beauty suggest erotic longing, his desire is rooted not in sex but in power. Basil may long for physical union with Dorian, but Lord Henry intends to dominate him until he has penetrated his mind and his own ideas return to him on Dorian's lips.