2013 AP Literary Analysis Thesis Statements
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte similarly
portray the effects of social classes on relationships, the presence of the supernatural, violence
and cruelty, and intense personal suffering.
As two comparative novels of the Victorian period, both Anna Karenina and The Picture of
Dorian Gray serve as outlets by which the authors use their characters to convey their thoughts
on marriage and society. The two of them also demonstrate the idea that no matter how
hidden from the public eye, corruption inevitably leads to a mental breakdown with suffering as
the only means of redemption.
Based on the similar and dissimilar features of the novels The Picture of Dorian Gray and
Frankenstein, the reader recognizes that evil is the ultimate force within each of the main
characters and their ability to control that evil determines his fate.
Shakespeare, in the tragedies of Hamlet and King Lear, puts various characters at odds with
each other in an extraordinarily complicated and microcosmic context to promote the
sociological model that tragedies arise from moral causes mutually incompatible between men,
from each man’s own self-righteous pursuit of justice, happiness, and solutions.
Though both All the Pretty Horses and Great Expectations are set in vastly different worlds,
John Grady cole and Pip both cross societal boundaries because of the women they love, and
both men differ from the social archetypes of their cultures.
Both couples in Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby are inhibited by cultural constraints
and because of these boundaries, the relationships developed in each novel are not love; they
are obsessions.
The two tragedies by Shakespeare, Macbeth and King Lear both similarly portray Macbeth’s and
Lear’s rising level of insanity due to the influence of women, emphasizing the rather cruel and
masculine attitudes of women and the weak and feminine attitudes of men.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini both portray
the corruptive power of love, how one’s past mistakes can haunt him or her, and how one
reacts to his or her guilt.
In Brave New World and The Picture of Dorian Gray, Huxley and Wilde illustrate the
consequences of living in a world where beauty and youth reign.
Emma and An Ideal Husband share the common ideas that social obligations can be harmful to
those they concern and that obligatory social gatherings and mandatory social conduct can
actually affect personal relationships and views of the individual. Through these themes, both
Austen and Wilde arrive at the idea of the demise of social structure and regard for others.
In both 1984 and The Picture of Dorian Gray, the authors show some form of corrupted
influence or control over the main characters to illuminate the main issues that man can be
easily manipulated and would never know.
As demonstrated in 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, it is the ignorance and timidity of of the people
that result in an overly powerful and controlling secret government.
The chief character in both The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Room with a View face heavy
external pressures to maintain social status, yet each character’s reaction to influence from
society and from other characters ultimately decides their fates.
Both George Orwell and Ray Bradbury express their views on how nonconformity, relationships,
and technology coexist with an authoritarian society.
The Picture of Dorian Gray and Wuthering Heights both portray the decay of their protagonists
through the use of representative objects to show the reader the deepening evil growing inside
them.
AP Novel Thematic Topics from 2013
Guilt
Betrayal
Power
Heart of Darkness
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Kite Runner
East of Eden
Crime and Punishment
A Separate Peace
The Kite Runner
East of Eden
A Separate Peace
Macbeth
King Lear
Heart of Darkness
King Lear
Macbeth
1984
Farenheit 451
All the King’s Men
Supernatural Events
Jane Eyre
Macbeth
Wuthering Heights
Religion
Jane Eyre
The Color Purple
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Evil/Madness
Heart of Darkness
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Macbeth
Crime and Punishment
Jane Eyre
A Separate Peace
Great Expectations
Initiation/Coming of Age
A Separate Peace
The Kite Runner
Great Expectations
Catcher in the Rye
Huckleberry Finn
Social Class/Relationships
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Native Son
A Room with a View
Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion
The Great Gatsby
The Sun Also Rises
AP Companion Novels-2013
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wuthering Heights
The Importance of Being
Earnest
Crime and Punishment
The Kite Runner
Frankenstein
Native Son
Brave New World
1984
A Room with a View
Macbeth
King Lear
Hamlet
Wuthering Heights
Heart of Darkness
All the Pretty Horses
Frankenstein
Catch-22
The Kite Runner
All the King’s Men
A Separate Peace
Jane Eyre
Emma
Wuthering Heights
Surfacing
Pride and Prejudice
Other Comparisons
1984 / Farenheit 451
The Great Gatsby / The Sun Also
Rises
A Separate Peace/East of Eden
Great Expectations
All the Pretty Horses
Things Fall Apart
Native Son
Poisonwood Bible
The Color Purple