In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the protagonists Dorian Gray and Santiago Nazar are the central characters in these literary works. The protagonists make the stories develop as their ideology or value system are the central part of the conflict (Literary Devices). The protagonist are the main but not necessarily ideal characters. Despite the protagonists’ being unbiased and honorable or not, the changes in their characters, their suffering in the face of psychological and moral dilemmas highlighted by the author lead to the climax of the story and form the main idea.
In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the protagonist Dorian Gray he is faced with the problem of choosing between two value systems. He decides the dilemma of ironical outlooks of Lord Henry proclaiming doubtful values and pleasures, and the earnest and honest position of Basil Hallward. Dorian is conscious of his wrong life way and sins. Once he says to Lord that he want to stop leading the vicious life. At this moment, he stays alone with his conscience. However, a hypocritical smile reflected on the portrait displays the vanity of his intentions to change himself. The choice of the protagonist makes a story thought-provoking and helps convey a main idea of unfairness in modifying personal moral values and principles according to own conveniences in fulfilling wishes.
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iIIn Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Santiago becomes the innocent victim of the novel because he is an outcast who does not adjust his views to the traditional social norms. His name underlines his innocence as Santiago means “saint.” His foretold death is like Jesus’s one. The narrator states that he dies without understanding for what he is to die. His reaction assigns his innocence of wrongdoing and accordingly his denying of the norms adjusted in the society that judges him to death. A society blindly follows dominant obligations to and prefers violence to any changes in a habitual way of life. The protagonist becomes a victim because his ideology conflicts the social traditional views.
Comparing Wilde’s Dorian Gray and Marquez’s Santiago Nazar, the reversal of their stories becomes evident. While Dorian’s physical appearance remains beautiful and deceitfully innocent, the ugly changes reflect degradation of the protagonist’s moral image in his picture. While others consider him ideal, the protagonist possesses flaws and moral defects. On the contrary, Santiago is innocent while others consider him guilty. Regardless whether the conflict of the story is internal (personal dilemma of the protagonist) or external (opposition to the socially accepted norms and traditions), sufferings of the protagonists make the stories unfold.
Despite the protagonists’ being innocent or sinful, the changes in their characters, their suffering in the face of psychological and moral dilemmas lead to the climax of the story and form the main idea. The protagonist can struggle choosing between the good and evil. Thus the author invite readers to decide whether it is fair to modify moral values and principles according to own conveniences in fulfilling wishes. The injustice coursed to the protagonist by inflexible traditional society norms create the conflict between moral values and obligations and provoke the readers to overthink the necessity to follow rules that damage one’s life.
Work cited
Literary Devices: Definition and Examples of Literary Terms. Literary Devices. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 October 2014.
