1. "After all, it never would have happened if I had not met you. You filled me with a wild desire to know everything about life. For days after I met you, something seemed to throb in my veins." (page 52)
- Dorian Gray's increasing desire to know about the world and human created an obsession to Lord Henry. This naive young boy thirsts to discover this world with the eyes of Lord Henry, and Lord Henry is taking advantages of it. The witty and eloquence Lord Henry has fascinated him and made him think this wise man is trustworthy. That is why Dorian said to Lord Henry, "I cannot help telling you things. You have a curious influence over me. Of I ever did a crime, I would come and confess it to you. You would understand me" (56). It is quite horrifying when you realize that Dorian is considering Lord Henry as God - you confess to God when you have done something wrong because you believe that God would understand and forgive you. Dorian is a perplexed young man. So when he got those so-called advises from Lord Henry, his heart echos with those hedonistic theories of life, which seem to solve his problems. However, little does he knows, those "throb in my [his] veins" (52) will, at the end, turn him into a ruthless and cold-blood creature.
- After all, Lord Henry sees Dorian Gray as "his own creation" (61) It make sense that the infatuation Lord Henry had for Dorian was actually his obsession in vivisecting and analyzing the nature of human life. By investigating Dorian's spiritual changes, Lord Henry was satisfied - he saw his ability to change a beautiful and youthful creature by the witty and genius of eloquence. Although he said that "beauty [...] is higher than Genius, as it needs no explanation" (24); he is, indeed, using his genius destroying the halo of beauty. But why he wants to destroy beauty when he said that "the search for beauty" is "the real secret of life?" (85) In Lord Henry's Theory of Sicken and Taken, one must sicken the things they values in order to receive it. He wants to see the downfall of beauty because he thinks that only in this way, he may find the most aesthetic and empathetic thing in the world. I think this is why people always say that angels fallen from heaven are the most wondrous and beautiful things.
1. grotesque - [adj.]
1> distorted and unnatural in shape or size abnormal and hideous
2> ludicrously odd
Ex. "They were both as grotesque as the scenery, and that looked as if it had come out of a country booth." (54)
2. ecstasy - [n.]
1> a state of being carried away by overwhelming emotion
2> a state of elated bliss
Ex. "In the garden scene it had all the tremulous ecstasy htat one hears just before dawn when nightingales are singing." (55)
0 comments:
Post a Comment