ISU Essay #1 -- Outline!

*EDITED on October 11th. Noticed a few spelling errors... so I fixed them up. I'm sure to find more later on.

Here's my *updated* thesis along with my outline.

Thesis: Dorian Gray was envied for his youth and admired for his “perfect” life, but in reality, if one knew Gray’s true face, they would no longer be envious.

Reason 1: Because of the choices Dorian makes, deaths occur around him, one after another. Some of people he knew well—and all were of those connected to him.

“I have no doubt it was not an accident, Dorian, though it must be put in that way to the public. …[Sybil] said she had forgotten something upstairs. They waited for her, but she did not come down again. The ultimately found her lying dead on the floor of her dressing room.” (Wilde, 101)

“He rushed at [Basil] and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear crushing the man’s head down on the table, and stabbing again and again.” (Wilde, 165)

“The whole thing is hideous and cruel. Is the man…?”

He could not finish the sentence.

“I’m afraid so.” Rejoined Lord Henry. “He got the whole charge of the shot in his chest. He must have died almost instantly.” (Wilde, 212)

Reason 2: Dorian Gray was miserable. He had gotten the eternal youth which he had so desired, yet it made him unhappy.

“Dorian Gray was lying on a sofa…Life had suddenly become to hideous a burden for him to bear.” (Wilde, 216)

“Each of us has a Heaven and Hell in him, Basil!”…

‘My God, if it’s true,’ he exclaimed, ‘and this is what you’ve done with your life, why, you must be worse even than those who talk against you fancy you to be!” (Wilde, 164)

“‘I wish it were fin du globe,’ said Dorian with a sigh. ‘Life is a great disappointment. (Wilde, 188)

Reason 3: Instead of enjoying his life, Dorian Gray constantly was reminded of all his wrongdoings and crimes.

“He was imprisoned in thought. Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away. From time to time he seemed to see the eyes of Basil Hallward looking at him. Yet he felt he could not stay. The presence of Adrian Singleton troubled him. He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself.” (Wilde, 197)

“What sort of life would his be, if day and night, shadows of his crime were to peer at him from silent corners, to mock him from secret places, to whisper in his ear as he sat at the feast, to wake him with icy fingers as he lay asleep! As the thought crept through brain, he grew pale with terror, and the air seemed to him to have become colder.” (Wilde, 210)

“There is no one with whom I would not change places, Harry. Don’t laugh like that. I am telling you the truth. The wretched peasant who has just died is better off than I am.” (Wilde, 213)