The relationship between commodification and personal value in The Essay - 1

The relationship between commodification and personal value in The Moonstone and The Picture of Dorian Gray - Essay Example The early history of detective fiction is saturated with narcotic drugs. Wilkie Collins was a laudanum addict, and opium circulates through The Moonstone. However, not only there. The constellated concerns of opium, subjectivity, empire, and the Gothic recur frequently in texts throughout the nineteenth century, from Wilkie Collins and Dickens to Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray. Just as early detective fiction is deeply, perhaps constitutively, steeped in drugs, it is also associated with empire, and this connection is constitutive. In this fiction, crime is the dark side of conquest and imperial rule returning to pollute the metropolitan homeland. Exactly these fears and uncertainties about the human self and its coherence in the 1890s are reflected in Oscar Wilde’s treatment of the double theme in The Picture of Dorian Gray, though from a markedly different perspective. Wilde uses the tale of a beautiful young man who is granted his wish to remain young while his alter ego, a portrait, ages, to explore ideas about art and life. The novella derives from Wilde’s interest and commitment to the Aestheticism of Walter Pater and Decadence of Baudelaire and Huysman. The innocence of Gray is framed alongside the morality of the tormented artist, Basil Hallward, who paints the portrait and is clearly in love with its subject, and the irresistibly cynical dandy, Lord Henry Wooton, who teaches Gray that the only proper object in life is the pursuit of beauty. As Gray succumbs to the temptations supplied by Wooton, he is led into a life of decadence, an immorality the signs of which mark his portrait but not his person. On this downward slope of decadence Dorian is able to continue his life of revelry without revealing his murderous deed, but is now driven by another force, his hunger for opium. His name bears significance again here, especially when a woman in the opium den identifies him as "Prince

The impact of advertising on male consumer Essay

The impact of advertising on male consumer - Essay Example This "The impact of advertising on male consumer" essay outlines how advertising shapes consumer patterns of male consumer and tools that it uses. A man's identity used to be dependent upon his role as a provider and his place of employment – this has been the traditional way that has defined the essence of the male identity in the modern society. This is known as the â€Å"hegemonic gender identity.† This morphed into contemporary society, in which, it is argued, Henry Ford is responsible for the increase in consumption, for he pioneered the idea that workers should be paid well, which led to more disposable income and, thus, more consumption. In advanced capitalist societies, Ford made consumption more egalitarian, and less the province of the rich. Modern consumption is driven by the choices that were being offered in modern society, choices that were not offered in earlier societies, before mass production of goods became the norm. According to Naomi Klein (2000), t his led to competitive branding and, ultimately, to the rise of designer labels, such as Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. During this period, men were traditionally thought of as producers – too busy working to bother with consuming – marketers traditionally have catered to females, as they were considered to be the consumers to the male producers. Advertising and marketing in the modern era catered to women, with particular emphasis upon women in their traditional gender-defined roles – looking beautiful and doing domestic chores, while men were in the background.