Krishna Baburaj

Ms. Kret
English Pd. 1
January 6, 2014


Comparing and Contrasting the Values of Basil & Lord henry of Women in Macbeth
Lord Henry and Basil Hallward are very different characters and they are very important
to The Picture of Dorian Gray in very different ways. Lord Henry is a very influential character
in the book The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lord Henry is described as a very handsome and
wealthy man who displays his thoughts without hesitation or fear of being judged upon. Oscar
Wilde uses Lord Henry as a symbol of the time that influences Dorian Gray to be and do many
things that he will regret later on in the book. Lord Henry talks and acts in a way in which he
impacts Dorian and some other characters even though he believes that all influences are
immoral. Basil Hallward on the other hand is a totally different character than Lord Henry. Basil
is described as a man with rugged strong face and your coal-black hair (Wilde 21). He is a
believer in many values like beauty, truth and love. Lord Henry is normally referred to as the
devils advocate. If so, Basil would be the gods advocate.
Lord Henry is a believer of Hedonism which tells a man to follow in pursuit of his
pleasure and nothing else. Lord Henry gives his own pleasure even more importance than most
of his friends who he grows bored of as time passes. For example, after meeting Dorian he
forgets about Basil who referred Harry as his best friend (Wilde 43) after he meets Dorian. He
does not even check upon Basil even after Basil is missing for several months after Dorian
murdered him. He says, Do you know, I don't think he would have done much more good work.
During the last ten years his painting had gone off very much. (Wilde 224). This proves how
Krishna Baburaj
Ms. Kret
English Pd. 1
January 6, 2014


Henry is not into Basil anymore because he did not create any good piece of art for some time
which was the only reason he was really friends with Basil. He used Basil as tool for his pleasure
and the only way Basil gave him pleasure was through his art and once he stopped that he was
not of any use for Henry anymore. The only person he never stopped admiring was Dorian Gray
because Dorian was the perfect man in his opinion and he was the one who made Dorian
perfect and flawless (Wilde 227) is he himself.
Basil Hallward on the other hand is a totally different character compared to Henry. He
believes in the purity of the heart and art. From the beginning itself he warns Dorian of how he
doesnt want Dorian to pay any attention to what Lord Henry says. He has a very bad influence
over all his friends, with the single exception of myself." (Wilde 34). Dorian ignores this and
continues to talk with Lord Henry and gets influenced by Henry a lot just like how Basil said
would happen. Basil keeps on believing that the outside beauty and handsomeness of Lord Henry
and Dorian will be the same as their inner beauty and that they could never be bad in the inside.
He believes that Dorian continues to be truthful and innocent just like in the beginning of the
novel. Basil says, It is never too late, Dorian. Let us kneel down and try if we cannot remember
a prayer. Isn't there a verse somewhere, 'Though your sins be as scarlet, yet I will make them as
white as snow'?" (Wilde 170). He also believes that Dorian can beg the god for forgiveness and
earn it even though; Dorian seems to pay no attention to him. Dorian says, Those words mean
nothing to me now (Wilde 170). This conversation leads to Dorian to |rush| at him and dug the
Krishna Baburaj
Ms. Kret
English Pd. 1
January 6, 2014


knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man's head down on the table and
stabbing again and again. (Wilde 171). In the end, Basil pays for all his optimism by giving up
his life to Dorian.
In the novel, Basil is a Foil character for Henry. He is pretty much everything that Henry
is not. He is not deemed to be a person who is considered very influential. Basil himself tells
Dorian that Lord Henry has a very bad influence over all his friends, with the single exception
of myself." (Wilde 34) but Basil tells Dorian that there is no good or bad influence Because to
influence a person is to give him one's own soul. (Wilde 34). He also explains to Dorian how
once one becomes influenced by someone they are not themselves anymore and that they are
only a mere reflection of the person that influenced them. Another way, they are different from
each other is how they look. Lord Henry is described to be a very handsome and rich man while
Basil is described as a man with rugged strong face and your coal-black hair (Wilde 21). Lord
Henry follows the path of beauty while Basil follows the path of intellect (Wilde 21).
Lord Henry says that beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins.
Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. (Wilde 21).
He says that beauty and intellect are opposites and is showing us how he and Basil are opposites.
This shows how the path of beauty and the path of intellect were the two options from which
Dorian had to pick. He chose beauty which made him do many sins that he regretted for later on.
Krishna Baburaj
Ms. Kret
English Pd. 1
January 6, 2014


In the end, this choice leads him to his tragic end which is him stabbing the picture and
destroying with it his life which was full of misery and sadness.