METAPHORICAL MODELS OF “BEAUTY/DECAY” IN DORIAN GRAY’S LINGUISTIC PORTRAIT: A LINGUO-COGNITIVE AND LINGUO-PRAGMATIC COMPARISON OF OSCAR WILDE’S NOVEL AND THE 1945 FILM ADAPTATION

Abstract

The article offers a linguo-cognitive and linguo-pragmatic comparison of the metaphorical models of “beauty/decay” that shape Dorian Gray’s linguistic portrait in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and in its 1945 film adaptation (dir. Albert Lewin). The research material comprises the text of the novel and the 1945 screen adaptation. The methodological framework relies on interpreting metaphor as a mechanism of conceptualisation and evaluative categorisation, as well as on a comparative analysis of the pragmatic functions of metaphors in the character’s self-presentation and in the structure of his interaction with other characters. Four dominant models are identified: YOUTH/BEAUTY IS VALUE/RESOURCE, TIME AS A JEALOUS AGENT/ENEMY, PORTRAIT AS SOUL/MORAL RECORD, and DECAY AS INSCRIPTION/SCARRING. It is established that the 1945 adaptation largely preserves the conceptual correspondences, yet systematically modifies their rhetorical organisation and pragmatic orientation. The comparison reveals a tendency toward reducing figurative peripheral imagery and increasing the aphoristic density of lines; consequently, metaphors more often function as high-force directives or self-declarations that accelerate character construction and fix an evaluative perspective on the protagonist. The most salient shift is observed in the PORTRAIT AS SOUL/MORAL RECORD model: in the film text, the moral meaning of the portrait is more frequently explicated at the level of an utterance, moving the conflict from symbolic interpretation to communicative demonstration and control over access to “truth.” The article concludes that the difference between the novel and the adaptation lies not in the set of basic metaphors, but in the way they operate pragmatically within the character’s linguistic portrait.