Dorian Gray

he is constantly battling a guilty conscience, age, the picture that made him young forever, and Lord Henry s corruption. The first major internal conflict with Dorian Gray occurs when he brutally rejects Sibyl when she performs horribly on stage. In his mind he feels guilty for what he has done but do Lord Henry s constant corruption Dorian comes to the realization that she was selfish for killing herself. This conflict tells one that Dorian is very susceptible to outside influences.

During this time is also the first time one is able to observe the developing the internal conflict in which Dorian becomes obsessed with his self portrait. This conflict entails that Dorian is very materialistic and obsessive. Throughout all of Dorian s internal conflicts we can make the assumption that he has no such moral code, but would if he wasn t under the constant corruption of his mentor Lord Henry. This reinstates the fact that Dorian is very susceptible to outside influences. The internal conflicts of Basil Hallward are minuscule in comparison to those of Dorian.

In Dorian Gray the other two main characters are developed mostly by externaloonflcit. One can easily see that Basil and Lord Henry are somewhat selfish in the conflict about who spends more time with Dorian. Basil wants Dorian s attention non-stop so that he may paint beautiful pictures. On the other hand, Lord Henry wants Dorian s attention so that he can corrupt him in his own unique way. However through this conflict one can see that Basil does have a moral code, and also that he is quite passive when it comes to dealing with other people. One can also see that Lord Henry is quite aggressive, and is also very controlling or dominating. He like Dorian also has no moral code that he goes by. Through external conflict Dorian s personality is also developed a little more. In the conflict in which he killed Basil it is obvious that Dorian is very compulsive and doesn t think before he acts.

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