Moral Ambiguous Characters Throughout Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the moral ambiguity of the central character, Dorian Gray, becomes more and more distinct. The story starts with Dorian being venerated by the artist Basil Hallward, and throughout the story the reader learns of Gray’s several wrong doings. Meeting Lord Henry almost straight away negatively influenced Dorian. He had started out blameless and innocent, but by the conclusion had been the cause of numerous deaths, all because of his selfish wish to stay beautiful forever. “His actions show a character who insists the soul is real, but loves the gaping chasm between the beauty of his body and the corruption of his soul” [ (Wilde 105-123) ].
Although it was Hamlet who wooed her, and with whom she was intimate it is Hamlet himself who later chastises her for her impious actions. “Get thee to a/nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs/marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough/what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,/and quickly too.” (III.i.131), he commands her, leaving her without a response. By saying these words to her he is crassly calling her a harlot, and making to appear that he never really loved her.
Lear, assaulted womanhood and his attitude towards women was revealed in the depth of the curse and what omens he wished upon Goneril. This may be Shakespeare using Lear as a tool to express his own dislike towards women or conversely, show how devastating it is for a parent to have an ungrateful child that turns her sadness into joy. Furthermore, through statement from “Never afflict/That scope” spoken by Goneril may be an indirect reference to the elderly and how they may rave on about senile matters that are of no concern to the younger generation as this is what Goneril thinks of Lear when he is this angry ranting on about cursing Goneril. The bulk of this text is very emotional as it focuses on Lear degenerating Goneril as a female. The mood is very dark and gloomy.
Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue uttered by the Duke of Ferrari which highlights the jealous and sadistic nature of his character and the mysteriousness which surrounds his late wife’s demise. The poem starts with him drawing the attention of the person whom he is talking to, who is, as one later finds out, a messenger from the Count’s family whose daughter’s hand the duke seeks in marriage; to the portrait of his late wife on the wall. The duke praises the work of the painter, Fra Pandolf, who had spent a whole day slaving over the painting to make it look so lifelike. He instructs the messenger to sit down, and goes on to describe how anyone who has ever seen that picturesque expression on his lady’s painted face, has never failed to ask him, as he has always been present for no one dares to draw the curtain from the painting except him, the reason behind the lively expression. He then thinks about his late wife, remembering that it wasn’t just his company which made her blush.
The reader sees that Lady Macbeth is quick to take advantage of her own husband by using his doubts and uncertainty to manipulate his final decision. When Macbeth states, “We will proceed no further in this business”, Lady Macbeth becomes outraged and insults his masculinity and pride when she says “When durst it then you were a man.” meaning that his claims
He stops at a painting of his late wife, his ‘last Duchess’ and begins a speech of which he is recanting his thoughts of her. From this speech, his wife was popular, especially with men, and a passionate and pleasant lady (to the reader only). The Duke is telling of his intolerances of her actions, being that of flirtations with men, however innocent, and how she did not rate his ‘gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name’, but instead treated him as she did others. It is well hinted that her behaviour angered the Duke so he had his Duchess killed, ‘I gave commands;Then all the smiles stopped together.’ It would seem his speech is also for the purpose of letting the envoy know his expectations of his new wife, that being very different to the last. Because the poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue, the reader only shares the conversation of the Duke.
The messenger wasn’t the first person to talk about the duchesses face and whenever people ask about the face he replies in a very intimidating manner. The duke is also seen as a possessive person as seen in the quote “the curtain I have drawn for you”. This shows that he wants to be possessive over the duchess' lasting remains by keeping it behind a curtain where he can open and close as he pleases. In the quote “sir twas not her husband's presence only that created the spot of joy” The spot of joy represents blushing which the duchess always did. This made the duke irate as he thought he should be the only one to make the duchess blush.
Cecil Graham describes Darlington as “a man who sees an absurd value in everything…” Lady Windermere dictates to his face how he says the most “foolish and insincere things”. These ‘things’ that Darlington is expressing is his love for Lady Windermere. When he hints at love, she sees this as a “modern affection of weakness.” Expressing oneself so outright is not deemed as acceptable, as seen in the following exchange: LADY WINDERMERE: Lord Darlington, you annoyed me last night at the Foreign Office. I am afraid you are going to annoy me again. LORD DARLINGTON: I, Lady Windermere?
The very first descriptions illustrate her initial animus by describing it as “one of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Perkins 41-42). This is significant for it reflects the narrator’s own presence—she is committing an artistic sin during her marriage by having her engaging imagination and her need to compose. Her husband, John, dislikes this, and as a result, the narrator deliberately feels stifled and has to obscure her writing so that her husband will not know. The narrator is characterized as having a nervous state and is overly protected by her
The readers introduction to Hamlet and King Claudius occurs in Act I Scene ii where the King explains that he has married his sister in law with mixed feelings but he believes Hamlet’s mourning should seize, to which his nephew replies with disdain and offense. This sets the mood for the relationship between the two characters as well as set Hamlet up for his first soliloquy, seen in Act I Scene ii line 133 O, that is too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve into dew! Or that the everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! Oh God! God!