Although it was conveyed in a novel, the Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a classic study of a narcissistic character.  Dorian Gray, like Narcissus, is presented as a young man of extreme beauty, who does not have a matchingly beautiful character. Dorian’s beautiful aspect arose the interest of a successful artist, who wanted him as a model for a picture.  They arose the interest of an amateur, Lord Henry, who decided to teach him the good manners of a beautiful world.  Thus, with pondered adulation, Lord Henry leads Dorian Gray to think that he is special owing to his physical beauty. He convinces him that he must conserve it intact, the way it is. One of the methods to succeed in this task was to prevent any strong feeling from disturbing his peace of mind or leaving a sign on his body. How could he prevent that? Dorian became anxious and worried about his physical looks.  He thought that the picture would capture a radiant, happy, beautiful young man forever on canvas, whereas he would grow old and ugly. He prayed that that would never happen and his prayers were answered: Years passed and Dorian Gray did not show any signs of ageing and fatigue on his face or body.  At fifty, he looked twenty and his secret was the picture that grew old and showed the signs of a hard life.  He hid that picture and never looked at it.  Lacking emotions, he spent his life in a pursuit of sensations, seduced women, which was not hard owing to his charm and then he abandoned them.  He led young men who adored him into bad habits and drugs, ruining their lives. At the beginning of his career, he led a young actress to commit suicide. Nevertheless, Dorian did not feel any remorse. Only three people knew of his picture. He, Lord Henry and the painter. When the painter asked him to show him the picture, Dorian killed him.  He blackmailed a previous admirer to hide the crime, who later committed suicide.  In the end, Dorian cannot withhold his growing curiosity for the picture and he can neither calm down the increasing torment inside. He ventured all the way to the hiding place and lifted the veil off the picture. The horror that striked him in seeing his old, contorted and tortured face was too strong to deal with.  Dorian grabbed a knife and ripped the canvas. The next morning, a servant found him. On the ground, in front of the picture, with a knife stuck in his heart, an old man with a tortured and contorted face was lying. How could such a beautiful young man turn into such a character? In the beginning, Dorian Gray’s beauty was not superficial, it was not a façade. The young man was beautiful both on the inside and on the outside. But Oscar Wilde was convinced that, and he was not wrong in doing so, human nature is corruptible. A person can be seduced by a promise of power, health and social status: This seduction is present in our culture and favors the development for tendencies towards narcissism and to become him. Dorian Gray’s story is imaginary, but the idea that a person can have such an aspect which contradicts his interior existence is valid: They show no signs of worry or concern.  They do not allow life to touch them.  In particular, they do not allow the events of an internal life to come to the surface on their minds or bodies. They act by denying their emotions, but in doing so, they grow old on the inside and act as victims, all the while, inflicting terrible sufference on others. Narcissists are more worried about how they appear than what they feel.

The histrionic exceptionality and salient characteristics that can be figured out and underscored in Robbie William’s musical profession, British pop singer, can be understood in the literal translations of his songs’ lyrics, in which his versality to give value to the subject of “feminniity” emerges through an entertaining approach. The search of the Stoke-on-Trent’s soloist is a search which Carl Gustav Jung loved to define as “Internal moon”, whose purpose was reaching-returning to the soul. The qualities that make Williams worth noting is that he can perform this process through his compositions with an entertaining yet profound approach. It is a path that he has succeeded in discovering and pursuing to prove to himself the quality of his feelings in the lyrics he wrote for his songs. One can mention a histrionic exceptionality, since its adaptability combined with feelings that are close to authenticity, allow him to pursue his goal to revalorize the femininity in an entertaining way and give him the possibility to consider himself as an “exceptional” person before his and the eyes of other people, as he rightfully believes. It can be observed in his lyrics how he uses words to allude and search for an ideal and funny woman, which one can approximate as what the internal moon of his ego is according to him. To that end, one must underscore these aspects of the three songs that he made famous ( She’s the one, Tripping and You know me ).  Please note that his versatility and exceptionality in his appearances, which enable us to define him as an “exceptional and versatile” person as opposed to the obsolete term used in psychology, which would most probably classify him as “histrionic.”

First example. ” She’s the one” del 1999 . To be continued…