The Picture of Dorian Gray
---By Oscar Wilde
This is one of those books I couldn’t wait to go to library and just read online. The story fascinated me, so was the moral behind the story. On the one hand,
it gave you the idea how some artist viewed their art works and how long art works could stand time, while probably nothing else could.
But on the other hand, it was more likely that the writer, Oscar Wilde, intended
to show readers what end hedonism would bring you, and in a way how hedonism and puritan contrasted each other. The story was typically Gothic –styled, telling how Dorian Gray, after going after Henry’s hedonistic theory, went down morally whereas still was able to keep his appearance unaffected, while his portrait
endured for him all the traces his crimes left behind: the handsome face in the
portrait became more wrier, uglier, and more disgusting, revealing the degeneration of the soul.
The story came to an end when Dorian couldn’t endure the huge disparity between
himself and soul-- one is, though handsome as ever, so false; whilst the other
is, though real, so unbearably ugly, and committed suicide. When he stabled the
dagger into the portrait, he was desperate; and when his soul was dead, he was dead consequently.
The book gave a good scenario of hedonism, and by telling the story showed its consequences if you were a hedonist. Henry, a representative hedonist, said that
you should yield to your sensual senses, for things like youth are only but transient; and that your aim should always be experience, not the fruits of experience, sweet or bitter as they might be. Basically according to Henry’s theory, if
you have passion, be it what kind, going for it, rather than letting it stagnate, is always the best policy.
So Dorian Gray did. He appeared to the readers first as an innocent boy, and as
source of inspiration for painting; but then Henry’s theory awaked the boy’s inner world, a world that should have deserved much better a guide. He began to focus on his sensual satisfaction, treating others and things nothing but tools to satiate his needs. Because of that, an innocent girl died, the painter got killed, plenty of other people, women and men, were badly affected. He was like a serpent, spreading his venom ruthlessly to people only for the sake of different experience.
But did he enjoy it? How about those fanatic moments when he stared his ugly picture and wish everything could have happened differently? And how about those frightening moments when he became listless and sleepless, worrying and been afraid of the moment of revenge. In all this, you could see a tortured body, vainly attempting to conceal his crimes and his degraded soul. Nothing could be more pathetic than trying to hide a soul due to the sheer ugliness of it; and no other punishment could be more severe than been deserted and disgusted by every other people.
Reading this novel reminded me that you couldn’t really conceal anything you have done in the past. So perhaps instead of trying to cover things up later, it is better not to commit the mistake in the first place. Also, I think we all should really watch ideas that we take. Dorian said the book Henry lent him changed
him utterly. Since what we do are after what we think, picking up ideas is of utmost importance. If you are not careful, you may end up with your life full of repentance and unfulfilled wishes...
