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

Contemporary Ancient Myth in Ovids reverberate and Narcissus and Wildes Dorian color Each time a story is told, elements of the original are often changed to suit new situations and actual societies, or to offer a new perspective. Over the centuries, Ovids level of Echo and Narcissus has been told many times to new audiences, and in the late nineteenth-century, it took the var. of The characterisation of Dorian Gray. Echo and Narcissus is the tale of a beautiful male child who fell in love with his reflection in a pond, and jilted others who loved him because he was so fixated upon himself. As a result of his ingrained self-worship and consequent inability to love another, Narcissus perishes. Although several aspects of the original falsehood are retained in Wildes novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is shocking and its characters commit acts that lead to ultimate decay and destruction. By ever-changing elements of Ovids original tale, Wilde expands the myth of Echo and Na rcissus to express the inevitable penalization and ruin that excessive desire brings. The prophet Tiresias in Ovids Echo and Narcissus can be compared to Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray in that all play a lineament in determining the protagonists fate. Tiresias enigmatically determines Narcissus fate by revealing that Narcissus provide 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 convey figure to Narcissus, whose real father is absent from his life. Narcissus cannot escape 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. Mil ler, Robert Keith. Oscar Wilde. Twentieth Century Literary literary criticism 41 (1982). 384-389. Nassar, Christopher. The Darkening Lens. Modern Critical Views Oscar Wilde. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 107-114. Nassar, Christopher. Into the colossus Universe A Literary Exploration of Oscar Wilde. New Haven Yale University Press, 1974. Shewan, Rodney. Oscar Wilde trick and Egotism. London The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1977. Spivey, Ted R. Oscar Wilde and the Tragedy of Symbolism. Twentieth Century Literary literary criticism 8 (1980). 501-502. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York Penguin Books, 1949.