Mo' Dernity, Mo' Problems
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Can we chose to ignore our conscience? That's the question posed by Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. Creepy, philosophically intense, and gripping.
Dorian's friend, Basil, paints a picture of Dorian. Dorian, for the first time recognizing his own physical beauty in the painting, wishes that he might remain forever young and beautiful, and that the painting might age instead.
His wish is granted.
After this, Dorian attempts to enjoy all the pleasures of life, paying no attention to the harm he causes on the way. His wealth and ageless physical beauty allow him to get away with murder. But he is haunted by a constant reminder of his sins: the face in the painting bears the marks of his sins. Dorian's face remains forever boyish and innocent, while the face in the painting grows more and more wrinkled and cruel.
The painting prevents Dorian from forgetting about his sins. I'm not sure what this means for men in general. It could either mean 1) unless you have a magical painting, it's easy to ignore your sins, but they are nonetheless real, or it could mean 2) even if you think you can ignore your sins for a while, they end up haunting you. Probably, the meaning lies in some combination of (1) and (2).
Once you admit that (1) sin is real, (2) sin can't be ignored or erased by offering and apology and being extra nice in future (you were supposed to be extra nice in the first place!), and 3) you are a sinner, you're at least 2/3 of the way to converting to Catholicism.
And Oscar Wilde did convert, although for some reason Dover publishing didn't think that was an important enough fact to be included in the introduction to the text.
Can we chose to ignore our conscience? That's the question posed by Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. Creepy, philosophically intense, and gripping.
Dorian's friend, Basil, paints a picture of Dorian. Dorian, for the first time recognizing his own physical beauty in the painting, wishes that he might remain forever young and beautiful, and that the painting might age instead.
His wish is granted.
After this, Dorian attempts to enjoy all the pleasures of life, paying no attention to the harm he causes on the way. His wealth and ageless physical beauty allow him to get away with murder. But he is haunted by a constant reminder of his sins: the face in the painting bears the marks of his sins. Dorian's face remains forever boyish and innocent, while the face in the painting grows more and more wrinkled and cruel.
The painting prevents Dorian from forgetting about his sins. I'm not sure what this means for men in general. It could either mean 1) unless you have a magical painting, it's easy to ignore your sins, but they are nonetheless real, or it could mean 2) even if you think you can ignore your sins for a while, they end up haunting you. Probably, the meaning lies in some combination of (1) and (2).
Once you admit that (1) sin is real, (2) sin can't be ignored or erased by offering and apology and being extra nice in future (you were supposed to be extra nice in the first place!), and 3) you are a sinner, you're at least 2/3 of the way to converting to Catholicism.
And Oscar Wilde did convert, although for some reason Dover publishing didn't think that was an important enough fact to be included in the introduction to the text.
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