I started borrowing and listening to audiobooks on the NLB app in June 2023. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was one of the books that I had wanted to purchase prior to the app download. Typed out the following post on the same day after finishing the book to process what I’ve read. Apparently, this piece of work was controversial and even recognised as a “classic of Gothic literature” (as stated on Wiki).
Author: Oscar Wilde
Published: 1890 (according to Wiki)
Lord Henry convinced Dorian that his youthful and handsome looks were his prized possession. He was not subtle at all with his envy and sang beautiful tunes about how Dorian had everything that other men could only ever dream of. However, he also ended the fairytale dream as quickly as he had started it by reminding Dorian harshly that youth is not forever. This made Dorian suddenly fearful about losing the best parts of him that he currently has and may only ever have in his otherwise ordinary life. Dorian became obsessed with his youthful appearance and unknowingly sold his soul to the devil to stop time on his physical looks.
Dorian got a shock when he looked at his portrait for the first time after it was gifted to him. Unlike his unchanging physical appearance, the Dorian that was in the picture was ageing and sinister looking. He was no longer the pure, innocent and handsome man from before. It reflected an undesirable development of his inner self which was also a reality that he wanted nobody to find out about, so he hid the painting away in a locked room. (Well, we all have an ugly side of us that we don’t want others to know about, right?)
Throughout his life, Dorian was deeply influenced and intrigued by Lord Henry who had a way with words. I’m not sure if Lord Henry knew how much Dorian looked up to him because it seemed like he couldn’t care less. I can believe that he befriended Dorian only because Dorian was extremely good-looking. Unbeknownst to Dorian, I think that Lord Henry was actually living life vicariously through him. He was envious of Dorian’s looks and gave him all sorts of questionable advice that he himself would never carry out. The significance of Lord Henry’s negative influence on Dorian was emphasised when Dorian encountered one of his first significant life events - the death of Sybil Vane. From there, he set off on an immoral and pleasure-seeking life.
I believe that Dorian fully destroyed himself when he killed Basil on impulse. Poor Basil believed in Dorian with his heart and had come to warn him about the gossip that was going around. Initially (when I didn’t know about the whole “Dorian sold his soul to the devil” part), I thought that Dorian’s act of showing Basil his portrait signified him opening up to kind Basil about his fear of trailing away from his path. He was grateful to Basil who still believed in him despite his rumoured actions and it was almost as if he was calling out to Basil for help. Aiyah, I had a bad feeling when Basil went on and on about Dorian’s misdeeds and Dorian asked if he wanted to follow him to see something. Oh well, the only person that could have potentially pulled him out of this deep pit was now gone.
Eventually, Dorian somewhat lost his mind and ended up killing himself. He realised that his efforts to turn his portrait-self handsome again was futile. The portrait can only become worse and thus, it will forever remain in this room. And as long as it exists, it will always serve as a reminder of all his actions that had contributed to the ugly him. Youth is not forever. He stabbed his ugly portrait (aka his soul) and died next to it. When his helpers got to him, they noticed that he died next to his handsome self-portrait. It seemed that the “curse” was finally undone and Dorian was finally free.
댓글