Crossing the Threshold- The Picture of Dorian Gray

 Welcome back to the Peerless Page-turner blog! Today we'll be talking about the stage, Crossing the Threshold. The novel I have chosen to represent this is The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Unlike most stories involving the Hero's journey, Dorian Gray's journey will end in his own ultimate ruin; instead of growing and becoming a better person, Dorian Gray is doing quite the opposite. 

A lesson that Dorian Gray has failed to learn is his choice to live only by the first part of this statement:

“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” (Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 27)

The senses and soul work together, the senses are driven by your own pleasure, and the soul by the needs of others. The soul can motivate one to be kind and righteous, but the senses do the opposite, the senses seek their own pleasure. These two work together; the person who is driven only by their senses is cruel and self-important, always acting with their own best interests in mind, while the person driven only by their soul can spread themselves too thin and might never find happiness within themselves in their drive to help others. 

Now, what does this have to do with Dorian Gray?

In the novel, Dorian is driven solely by his senses; he indulges in drugs. extravagant gems and other luxuries, rare musical instruments and other such material pleasures. Dorian Gray tries to fill his soul with anything but kindness and thoughts for his fellow humans. He follows every passing  pleasure, ramping up until he has murdered his once best friend and begun using Opium. 

Dorian Gray failed to learn the lesson that in life you need to feed your soul as a way to not over-indulge your senses, and in the end he will drive himself to destruction in search of pleasure.