Comparing the Myth in Ovid’s Echo and Narcissus and Wilde’s Dorian Gray

Contemporary Ancient story in Ovids Echo and Narcissus and Wildes Dorian Gray each time a story is told, elements of the original are often changed to lodge new situations and current societies, or to offer a new perspective. everyplace the centuries, Ovids tale of Echo and Narcissus has been told many times to new audiences, and in the late nineteenth-century, it took the form of The figure of Dorian Gray. Echo and Narcissus is the tale of a beautiful boy who fell in love with his reflection in a pond, and spurned others who loved him because he was so fixated upon himself. As a result of his extreme self-worship and consequent inability to love another, Narcissus perishes. Although several(prenominal) aspects of the original myth are retained in Wildes novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is shocking and its characters commit acts that lead to ultimate break down and destruction. By changing elements of Ovids original tale, Wilde expands the myth of Echo and Narcissus to stat e the inevitable punishment and ruin that excessive desire brings. The prophet Tiresias in Ovids Echo and Narcissus can be compared to Basil Hallward and Lord hydrogen Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray in that all dawdle a role in determining the protagonists fate. Tiresias enigmatically determines Narcissus fate by revealing that Narcissus will live to see ripe old age...If he never knows himself (Hendricks 93). In foreseeing the boys future, the prophet acts as a sort of father figure to Narcissus, whose real father is absent from his life. Narcissus cannot leak from Tiresias prophecy, and when he gains knowledge of his beauty, or knows himself, Narcissus is plagued by self-love which destroys him. Thus, the prophet influences the boys fut... ...ge Cambridge University Press, 1989. 141-175. McCormack, Joshua. The Mirror of Dorian Gray. The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. Ed. Peter Raby. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1997. 112-114. Miller, Robert Keith. Oscar W ilde. Twentieth vitamin C Literary Criticism 41 (1982). 384-389. Nassar, Christopher. The Darkening Lens. Modern Critical Views Oscar Wilde. Ed. Harold Bloom. new-fangled York Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 107-114. Nassar, Christopher. Into the Demon Universe A Literary Exploration of Oscar Wilde. newborn Haven Yale University Press, 1974. Shewan, Rodney. Oscar Wilde Art and Egotism. London The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1977. Spivey, Ted R. Oscar Wilde and the Tragedy of Symbolism. Twentieth blow Literary Criticism 8 (1980). 501-502. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York Penguin Books, 1949.