You know I do quote elaborations from time to time, but this time I decided to take it to the next level and elaborate my thoughts on a whole book. The book in question is The Picture of Dorian Gray, obviously. As I am currently rereading it, I realized how much I had to say about it. I'm definitely not gonna share all my thoughts as that would take a long while. If you haven't read the book, you probably won't know what I'm on about, though.
Most of my thoughts revolve around the one and only Dorian Gray. I've been thinking how we don't actually know Dorian - we know the boy who lord Henry and Basil have created to satisfy their needs. Dorian is merely an idea. Nothing more than that.
In the first part of the book we see Basil's fascination with him; the artist thinks he's beautiful, inspiring, he uses him as a muse and he becomes all his art and with that, his whole life. When Harry meets him, he sees an opportunity - he's young, he's mesmerizingly beautiful and he's naive enough to take in his ideas and actually use them in practice (something Harry himself never had the courage to do).
So, to the both of them Dorian is the idea of perfection and ultimate beauty. They both try to make something out of him that they need in their lives. Dorian, being young and naive, listens to them and believes them, especially Harry, when they talk about his beauty. He realizes that his looks and youth are what define him and that becomes something he doesn't want to live without. So he sells his soul to keep those qualities forever and lets the portrait age.
I think we could say that the first Dorian is pure and beautiful and just what Basil needs, he's perfect in the artist's eyes. Later in the book they start to drift apart thanks to Harry who has decided to create the Dorian he wanted. I think his main reason was to bring his philosophy about new hedonism to life. He was too scared for that.
So, Dorian is Basil's idea of perfection and then he's Harry's idea of perfection, and everyone else's. He's the ultimate symbol and idea of beauty, class and everything that comes with it. But what is the real him? Is there a real him or is he merely an idea? I think he never found the real him either, he just fitted into the pattern he thought he was supposed to be in. And he too liked the idea of himself.
I guess that's kind of all I have to say right now, it's really difficult to write down your thoughts. Oh well, I did my best.
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2 comments
You make me wanna stay in my bed and read for hours...days...weeks even!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that babe
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