"Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another."
In the novel, "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", by Oscar Wilde, the self portrait of Dorian Gray represents several different purposes. First it physically shows all of the evil that Dorian is doing in reality, from white hair to wrinkles and blood stains, while also showing how people can over idolize youth and physical beauty.
When someone creates a beautiful painting it stays the same forever (minus natural weathering). In this novel Dorian has sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to remain physically as beautiful as his portrait forever. Instead of just natural aging, the portrait ages with every evil dead that Dorian does. When he breaks the girls heart because he only loved her talent, the painting turns from a normal mouth to a scowl. This means that even though Dorian is attempting to preserve the physical beauty of youth, he fails to grasp all the other things required to be youthful. He may be physically innocent, but on the inside he becomes twisted and evil.
Lord Henry is a horrible influence over Dorian Grey. He laments about love and says that the greatest loves are those that last the shortest. He also over idolizes youth, and this scares Dorian into believing that his beauty is running out of time. That as he ages it will whither and die. Tragically, what he fails to grasp is that the body might start to go, but the mind and soul don't twist with age. They might become less innocent, but that knowledge has a purpose meant to channel a person into doing the right thing. Since Dorian doesn't acquire this wisdom from not aging naturally, he's unable to care about anyone else, or develop the reasoning skills showing what his actions do to other people, since they physically don't effect him. This all stems from the influence that Lord Henry inflicted upon him about youth.
Dorian Grey doesn't begin the novel as an evil character. He changes, quickly as the novel progresses from a charming boy, to a coldhearted narcissistic creature. He makes his full transformation at the end of the novel when he kills the artist of the painting in cold blood. Deciding to completely eradicate his conscience he stabs the painting, the only evidence of his madness. This started with the seed of thought that youth will pass, and that the only things that matter are physical beauty, so Dorian sold his soul and watched his panting take away the evil from his face.
