Impact of Interpersonal Relationships on Protagonists’ Life Choices in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Stranger

Abstract

This essay examines the extent to which the protagonists in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and Albert Camus's The Stranger (1946) are influenced by their inter-personal relationships with respect to their life choices. Three key areas have been identified to narrow down the scope of potential choices: (a) lifestyle and attitudes towards life; (b) treatment of romantic relationships; (c) the impetus for murder. This paper argues that these protagonists did not fundamentally make their own decisions. Rather, their inter-personal relationships deterministically affected their actions. In particular, it shows that both Meursault and Dorian are consistently influenced by a single character (Maman and Lord Henry respectively), but neither of them is willing to forsake their individualism by making this admission. Further, these arguments depend on an analysis of character action (human behaviour) rather than internal monologue (individual thought). Hence, the key assumption undergirding said arguments is that the protagonist's psyche may be reliably scrutinised via appealing to their behaviour, thus incorporating psychoanalytic and reader-response theoretic frameworks into the discussion.