English Literature I Beloved and Dorian Gray portrayal of LOVE

Compare and contrast the portrayal of love in both texts.

Love is desire of something in life. You can search for it and find it; this theme can be observed from the point of view of relationships between family, friends or partners. Love is feelings and attitudes. I believe love is shown with loyalty, passion, and madness which I think both texts include.

In the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Oscar Wilde uses a chronological and linear structure to narrate the story whereas in “Beloved”, Toni Morrison’s novel is not linear as it goes backwards and forwards and from different perspectives. The further the past memories go is the slave ship from Sweet home. Morrison uses many verbs in present tense when talking in the present, for example, “as she began telling about the earrings, she found herself wanting to, liking it.” The effect of this non-linear structure is a challenge to the reader who needs to place everything together and consider each side of the story. Bringing the past over and over again reinforces how important it is in the present and how the characters live conditioned to it. However in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, the structure is linear and more biased. Wilde centres the novel on Dorian just the title gives it away. The novel is balanced in the way it has ten chapters with Lord Henry and Dorian’s friendship and then another ten chapters with Dorian’s life. Oscar Wilde uses social activities such as dinner parties and attending the theatre to provide temporary relief from intense action. He also uses huge detail with descriptions, for example, “just catch the gleam of the honey sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches…” This style of writing has an effect on the reader which is making them read slowly and go through Wilde’s writing phrase by phrase, appreciating the extreme detail.

In the novel “Beloved”, Morrison uses the relationship of Beloved and Denver to represent non –corresponding love and admiration similarly as Wilde’s relationship of Dorian and Basil. Denver feels a strong attachment towards Beloved since the beginning of their relationship however Beloved is more attached to Sethe Denver is trying to have a mother figure that she never had and looks for this in Beloved which she then is obsessed in caring and protecting her. “It was lovely. Not to be stared at, not seen, but being pulled into view by the interested, uncritical eyes of the other […] Denver's skin dissolved under that gaze and became soft and bright like the lisle dress that had its arm around her mother's waist.” Denver goes against Sethe even though the relationship with Beloved is one-sided apparently her addiction comes from how she had “swallowed her blood right along with [her] mother’s milk.” Denver as a result weakens the mother-daughter relationships. The levels of obsession of Denver with Beloved turn in jealousy and over-protective attitude this is shown in how she is warning her “don’t love her (Sethe) too much. Denver becomes independent and mature taking her to the decision of leaving 124 to find someone to save her mother from her toxic relationship with Beloved. Denver represents the “voices of all blacks who survived,” a contrast to Beloved who represents those who died in slavery. In “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, similarly to “Beloved” Basil’s love for Dorian is non-corresponding and Dorian will rather be with Henry. Basil like Denver to Beloved wants to protect and take care of Dorian he refuses to share him with Henry. Basil is quiet and artistic and Henry is cynic and likes monologues. Henry introduces himself to Dorian and this is the point where he drives away from Basil and even reaches a deeper level of friendship, a form of love. Basil in act of jealousy blames Henry for Dorian’s immoral and unexplained actions and his different personality. This makes the friendship between Basil and Henry to deteriorate. Basil will never forgive Henry for taking Dorian’s attention and being his role model. Henry and Basil desire Dorian the difference is that Basil has admiration and sees Dorian as an object of beauty whilst Henry sucks Dorian’s personality and turns him into a mirror-self of himself. This is similar on how Denver and Sethe relationship turns out. Basil at the end is murdered by Dorian this shows that Dorian madness and self-love overcomes Basil’s pure intentions. I think the madness of Dorian towards Basil is a way of loving him, because you only get mad with things you care about.

In the novel “Beloved”, Morrison uses the relationship of Beloved and Sethe to show intimacy and reflects the theme of love. This intimacy is similarly shown between Henry and Dorian in TPODG. Both relationships in the two novels have an element of danger, they are both dangerous for each other in an emotional level.  Beloved takes Sethe essence away and makes her change this dangerous cycle actually helps Sethe in the way she finally opens up and is confident enough to tell her story. These are the “stories that have been „disremembered‟. Beloved sees herself as Sethe, the Sethe that also lost her mother to the institution slavery. Beloved represents daughters who have been separated from their mothers because the Middle Passage and slavery. The relationship of Paul D and Sethe reminds me of Basil and Dorian. Paul D contains his feelings and knows that Sethe will never love him as she loved Halle. Paul D decides to keep his traumatizing experiences for him to protect Sethe from those images and keep her as pure as he can, and for that he decides to kill himself emotionally.  In “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Henry and Dorian’s friendship is mutual love in the form that Dorian is devoted, admires and is loyal to Henry and Henry takes care and interests in him and his opinions something that makes Dorian grow as a person. The relationship is selfish for both of them because the mutual interest is just because they what the other has to offer.  Idolatry makes the friendships and love in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” difficult to understand in terms of love, as it’s another level of admiration you can say you don’t love them you love what they represent. The confusion and mixture of the concepts of friendship in TPODG actually makes the characters friendless and impossible for them to be happy.

In conclusion both novels show how love is shown in the form of friendships, mother-daughter and partner relationships. This can be mutual or not and the can even reach a level of idolatry but this will cause psychological problems like jealousy and resentment. Love is uncontrollable and hard to define and express every character will show it in their own way and some will suffer for this. Love can be toxic, but in the end is a choice.