Compare And Contrast The Picture Of Dorian Grey And The...

In both Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey and Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo the main characters are lend to believe in a greater notion of life. Specifically, Oscar Wilde and Alexandre Dumas appear to illustrate the idea that one cannot better themselves through others. Both protagonists, Dorian Grey and Edmond Dantà ¨s fail to recognize and act on their own fortune and, consequently, seek out to better themselves which eventually leads to their downfall. In both The Picture of Dorian Grey and The Count of Monte Cristo we are introduce to two young, fresh faced men who are yet to see enough of the world for it to negatively affect their being. In the case of Dorian Grey much of the first part of the book is spent†¦show more content†¦He is young and has the world at his fingertips, he was just promoted after docking, and engaged on his way to get married. For Edmond the future is looking and his personality reflects that. The all see ms well and good in the being this only means that they have further to fall. Thought the paths taken by Dorian and Edmond are different in execution they are both that of a dark and twisted nature the leads to the same conclusion. For Dorian, his descent down a dangerous path beings with the most dangerous thing of all knowledge. Specifically a book given to him by Lord Henry a short time after meeting him which enlightens him to the self serving side of life using his youth, charm, status and beauty to get what he wanted. This is the being of the end for him as he takes it to far, driving everyone who could or did care about him away. With the his descent into the darkness only being furthered by the realisation that though many years have past he hasn’t aged and he has remained externally beautiful, while the portrait done by Basil has instead, but has been twisted and turned into something dark and unrecognizable. As for Edmond his fall from grace is, surprisingly, not when he’s betrayed by those three men or when he is sent to a prison that he is never to leave again. No the being of his dark descent is when he learns that by working with inmate in the cell over he could get out. It is at that moment Edmond beings