Power and beauty relations in the picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Lady audley's secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

This thesis endeavours to explore the enchanting power of beauty and its history. This thesis aims at examining the enchanting power of beauty on selected characters in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret. It further aims at examining the effects of possessing the power of beauty on the characters that possess it, namely Dorian Gray and Lady Audley. This thesis particularly focuses on the descriptions of the portraits of the protagonists in the two novels, on their effects on whoever looks at them and on the complex relationship between pictorial representation, beauty and truth. Furthermore, the significance of beauty in the two novels will be discussed inside the framework of Victorian Aestheticism. To carry out the research, this thesis addresses the following questions: What is the significance of beauty, and what is the extent of the power of beauty in Lady Audley's Secret and The Picture of Dorian Gray? How is beauty represented in the portraits of Lady Audley and Dorian Gray? What is the relationship between outward and inward beauty in these portraits?