Main Themes, Images, and Similarities in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Devil Wears Prada

First of all, one should pay the attention to themes. The Picture of Dorian Gray arouses the theme of corruption of a personality. A young and extremely handsome man Dorian Gray makes everybody fall in love with him. However, Dorian Gray is influenced negatively and corrupted by Lord Henry. This is Lord Henry who incites Dorian Gray to admire his appearance. Dorian Gray is even ready to give up his soul for being eternally young. He sells his soul and does not even think that it was the most valuable treasure he had.
With the help of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the author proved that the amoral art did not exist, “the moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium” (Wilde 5). Another theme revealed in this novel is the theme of morality. The image of Dorian Gray helps to understand that any immoral actions can have the negative consequences. Beauty cannot make the soul beautiful as only moral actions can do this.

Philosophy of morality is very intricate and one can notice that in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Devil Wears Prada. The two main characters, Andrea and Dorian Gray, have their own philosophy of morality. While Andrea hesitates in her actions and doubts the morality of her choices, Dorian Gray does not admit his immoral conduct.

This is Lord Henry who turns Dorian Gray to immorality. He is convinced that one should live for pleasure, realizing one’s wishes and desires even if it contradicts moral principles
and rules. This is a life credo of Lord Henry and he imposes it on Dorian Gray. He says:

The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. (…) The body sins once, and is done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains but the recollection of a pleasure, or luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. (Wilde 25)
Comparing with all the characters in this novel, Dorian Gray is the most selfish and cynical one, especially when it concerns love. For example, Basil’s position is: “Do not talk like that about anyone you love, Dorian. Love is a more wonderful thing than Art” (Wilde 73). As a result, Dorian Gray does not know love and sincere feelings. The main problem of this novel is the corruption of the soul. Oscar Wilde described in details the process of destruction of the personality because of selfishness and narcissism.

The main image of this novel is Dorian Gray and one can observe his evolution under the influence of people who surround him, his attitude to himself, his understanding of beauty and superiority. One can name Dorian Gray a weak person as he is a conformist; he is restricted to his own world and is limited in terms of development.

Implicit homoerotic themes are hidden in The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The relationships between Harry, Dorian, and Basil display queer connection, autoerotism, and homosexuality. The portrait symbolizes a queer man with double life, split of self-representation as the element of survival, split between essence and appearance, struggle with identity, and contradiction between the inner world and the exterior one. The portrait is a form of self-love, erotic penetration, homosexual love, and autoerotism (Hansen 2011).

As to the movie The Devil Wears Prada, the main theme is the desire of the main character to get into the snooty fashionable environment. Andrea withstands everything like mockery, sneers, humiliation in order to prove that she is ready to do anything to get this job. At first, Andrea is indifferent to the attitude of her colleagues and her boss Miranda. However, soon she begins changing and listening to advice of surrounding people. Who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl and the same happens with Andrea.

Comparing with Dorian Gray who provokes very contradictory feelings, Andrea evokes sympathy, desire to help and support. In spite of her beauty, she is persuaded that she is far from perfection and that she can never reach such a level as Miranda. If in Dorian Gray one could see too much self-confidence and selfishness, here one could see too much underestimation and lack of self-confidence. In both cases, there is no golden middle ground. Too much self-confidence is as bad as lack of self-confidence.

Dorian Gray is in a better condition as he is only busy with himself and his life. However, Andrea should struggle for taking a comfortable place in the society. She works a lot and is as busy as a bee. One cannot say that she is self-centered. However, this self-centrism is felt w
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