APP WIP
Out of Character Information
player name: Rae
player livejournal: lysdexicmun
playing here: Nobody!
where did you find us? dear_mun
are you 16 years of age or older?: Yes!
In Character Information
character name: Dorian Gray
Fandom: The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (the novel, not the movie, contrary to the iconset)
Timeline:
character's age: appears 21, in actuality, 38
powers, skills, pets and equipment: Dorian Gray has one of the more curious of curses set upon him- due to a naive wish he'd exclaimed as a young man, his soul is locked inside of his portrait. Because of this, Dorian never ages, and is caught eternally in the spring of his youth. And the thing is, his spring of youth is attractive. He isn't just a pretty face- Dorian's beauty is breathtaking, and the combination of his face and his charm has lead countless people into his arms and their doom.
Another side effect of this curse is that his portrait also absorbs the effect of his sins. Bags under his eyes, wrinkles, hollow cheeks- the effects a tormented soul has on its body is all taken in by the portrait, leaving Dorian untouched and graceful as ever. It's even commented on how he simply cannot have committed all of the sins that he had been rumored to, because he didn't have the look of a sinful man.
And lastly, in a few pop culture references, as well as the movie adaptation Dorian Gray has a healing factor of sorts- which makes sense, given the context of his curse. [EXPAND]
canon history:
Dorian Gray's history doesn't simply start with him- it starts with his lineage. As Dorian walks through his home and surveys the portraits of his ancestors, it becomes clear that he hails from a line of dark sin, sordid passions, and reputable beauty. His own mother, the daughter of a nobleman, shocked and horrified everyone by running away with a peasant, caught up in a whirlwind of passion and romance. It's heavily rumored (and widely believed) that Lord Kelso, Dorian's grandfather, was so enraged with Dorian's mother for marrying a penniless nobody, that he hired someone to have him killed and brought the woman back with him. Unfortunately, the whole affair ended in tragedy, as she died almost a year later, shortly after Dorian's birth, and left him to grow up with a grandfather who loathed him. However, despite his grandfather's disdain, Dorian still inherited a fortune when he came of age, as his mother and great grandfather were both quite rich and disliked Lord Kelso almost as much as he disliked them.
This sets the stage for Dorian to come into the novel. He is introduced in the second chapter, sitting for the Basil as his portrait is being painted. It's in this scene that Dorian meets Lord Henry and the plot is put into motion. As Dorian sits for Basil, he talks with Lord Henry, and the way he speaks rattles Dorian to his core. All of his young life, Dorian has never had to think before. He's been simple, beautiful, a flighty young boy with no regard for anything outside of his own simple passions and desires. As the poisoned fruit introduced sin to the world, so did Lord Henry introduce it to Dorian. He showed him dread, remorse at growing old- he told him about the joy in faithlessness, and ultimately, how the pleasures in one's life are the only thing worth seeking out- all in the time it took Basil to finish his portrait.
Dorian was awestruck when he saw the completed painting. Firstly, at his own beauty- he'd never quite realized that he was handsome before- and secondly, at the idea that the painting would stay the same forever, keep that immeasurable beauty and boyhood while he aged and wasted away. In realizing this, Dorian gives way to despair, which both offends and concerns Basil, and greatly amuses Lord Henry. In a fatally naive moment, Dorian Gray exclaims that he would give his very soul to remain untouched while his portrait ages instead of him. Be it some combination of his offering of his soul or Basil's own admittance that he painted his own soul into the portrait, Dorian's wish was granted, though he didn't realize it at first. Both Henry and Basil chide him for his lack of forethought, and in the end, Dorian accepts the painting.
As the opening scene fades into memory, Dorian slowly integrates himself into the life of the richer members of society. He attends parties, socializes- and becomes ever closer friends with the sharp-tongued Lord Henry. Henry's word means so much more to him than Basil's, and the two of them become almost inseperable
But Dorian Gray is still young, almost painfully so, and as most young people do, he falls in love. Ironically, Gray falls in love with a penniless actress based upon her performances in a dime theater- not unlike his own mother who ran away with her peasant lover. Dorian truly loves her performances with all of her heart, and he to her in secret. When the girl (Sibyl Vane) goes home to tell her mother of her engagement, her brother acts suspiciously, and says that if Dorian hurts her, he'll kill him.
Which, of course, means that Dorian simply has to hurt her. He tells Henry of his engagement and manages to convince both Henry and Basil to come to her performance. While they're waiting for Sibyl to come onto the stage, Dorian eagerly chatters about how amazing she is, what a flawless actress she is, how beautiful she is... et cetera. And when she finally does enter the stage- it's not there. Her words fall flat, rehearsed, she loses all talent for her acting, as if it were never there at all. Horrorstruck, Dorian leaves his friends who are struggling to console him, and goes to find her backstage. Sibyl tells Dorian that she cannot act love now that she knows it firsthand, and Dorian's reaction is- disgust. "How little you know of love, if you say it mars your art!," he exclaims in a fit of unrest, "Without your art, you are nothing. [...] You have killed my love."
He leaves her then, as she cries and begs for him to give her another chance, and returns to his home- wherein he glances up toward his portrait and notices that it seems... off, somehow.
Upon telling Henry, he invites him to the theater to see her act and meet her.
personality:
Dorian begins the book as an innocent young man, curious and naive about the world. He is very much like a child- delighted with pretty things, unhappy when he doesn't get his way, saying what's on his mind, even if it's hurtful, without thinking about it first. He's very young- and very impressionable, unfortunately. And so, when he meets the silver-tongued Lord Henry, Dorian can't help but to fall under his influence and hang onto his every word. As a matter of fact, Lord Henry can be seen as the catalyst for the entire plot of the novel- thanks to his influence on the very first day the two of them met, Dorian made his awful wish to remain beautiful while his painting aged, naively exclaiming that he would give his very soul for it.
It can be said that the entire novel has an underlying theme warning of the evils of influence. Lord Henry's hedonistic influence over Dorian in the novel slowly corrupted him, and transformed the beautiful, innocent young thing into the dark, sinister killer that he became at the end of the novel.
As he is now, Dorian Gray is very much a corrupted man. Henry has delighted in sculpting him into a hedonist, and the result isn't lacking in the slightest. Dorian, first and foremost, is concerned with his own pleasure. Be it actually participating in sexual activity, or simply admiring a pretty gemstone- stimulating the senses is his only aspiration in life.
As implied in the previous paragraph, Dorian is obsessed with beauty. Throughout the novel, he becomes an avid collector of beautiful things- anything from rare tapestries to one-of-a-kind perfumes, to spices and scented oils... anything that is rare, that holds beauty, Dorian is immediately enthralled with it, for it offers him pleasure to look, smell, taste these things. Along that note, Dorian is also... quite the sexual creature, for his time. In the newly released original version of the novel, his exploits- while still only hinted at- are given in slightly more detail. It's clear though, that while he resided in the opium dens of London, Dorian enjoyed sexual activity with both men and women, without any regard to marriage or love, an act which was frowned greatly upon in his time. But Dorian didn't really seem to care- indeed, with his beauty and grace of nobility, even Lord Henry noted that negative words and gossip seemed to slide right off of him... quite the feat, given the fact that gossip was one of the main hobbies of the many victorian women around them.
Still, as the novel goes on, people definitely begin to notice the change that takes place within him. Dorian transitions from a lively, happy boy into a dark and tormented villain. Caught between horror at the degredation of his own soul as viewed in the painting, and delight at the pleasures that he'd so entrenched his life in, Dorian quickly gets to a point where it's simply not possible for him to stop- he has to keep going, has to keep sinning... and after time, the horrific marring of his portrait almost stirs a feeling of fascination within him. After the revulsion wears off, he begins looking upon it with a twisted delight; after all he remained beautiful, young, while his sins were all enscribed onto something else, mangling it instead of himself. He takes to examining the portrait almost daily, searching for changes, delighting when he sees a wrinkle there that will never show up on his own beautiful skin. The vanity takes its grip on him, holds him firmly, and allows him the confidence he needs to charm even the most pious members of society.
It doesn't last forever. After Dorian finally commits what is regarded to be his worst act- murdering Basil, the artist who painted his portrait- the noble begins to spiral downward again, into a depth of paranoia, horror, and fear. When he learns that James is hunting him down in revenge for his sister all those years ago, Dorian finds himself looking over his shoulder constantly, canceling his lunch plans, staying locked up in his home. (FINISH)
However, that isn't to say that he doesn't have morals- simply that, as the book goes on, they slowly diminish over time. When his lover kills herself after he had spurned her, Dorian is sent into a grieving frenzy, resolving to live his life like a saint from then on (which is quickly dissolved, however, with an elaborate speech from Henry). And finally, at the end of the book when he murders Basil, Dorian is so horrorstruck and disgusted with his own actions that he turns his knife on the painting, ultimately (and perhaps unintentionally) killing himself.
Perhaps Dorian's best (or worst) quality is his bastardly ability to talk to people. Much like Henry influenced him in the beginning of the book, Dorian is capable of exerting his own influence- words, intermingled with beauty and seduction- in order to bend people to his will, and ultimately destroy them. He drives two people to suicide, tears apart the reputations of good women as if they were made of wet paper, and has left at least one person penniless in the gutters of Whitechapel. Whether or not he means to tear these people apart isn't exactly clear- however, I don't think that's his intention. Dorian simply wants pleasure, and he wants to give into it and convince the people around him (people without paintings to absorb their sins, people without beautiful faces who have to deal with the consiquences of their actions) to submit to their desires as well. In doing this, he pulls them into the fire and watches as they burn out, while he lives on. It's stated clearly that Dorian cycles through his friends quite often- he takes them, uses them, and when they eventually come to their senses and realize what the life of sin and pleasure does to them, they leave him, horribly depressed with the bleak life before them.
Early on in the novel- in what many would consider to be Dorian's first act that sends him spiraling downhill- he tells the actress Sibyl Vane that she has "killed [his] love".
why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? While not particularly technologically adept, Dorian
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