The Picture of Dorian Gray
The tale of a youth whose features, year after year, retain the same appearance of innocent beauty while the shame of his abhorrent vices becomes mirrored on the features of his portrait.
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Community Reviews
A calamity of philosophy and wonderful quotes while you shake with wonder at the entitlement of the English aristocracy and the impact of privilege on philosophy versus morals through the very impressionable eternal childishness of Dorian Grey.
You can read my full review here.
This specific edition of the book has six questions in the back. One of the questions is this: In literature, as perhaps in life, the supernatural is often a metaphor for the psychological. If the transformation of the painting is psychology made visible, whose psychology? Are we to understand that Dorian does ugly things or that he does things that he considers ugly--or that the society around him considers ugly?
My response to this question would be that if the transformation of the painting is psychology made visible, I think it would be Dorian Gray's psychology. We are to understand that Dorian does things that the society around him considers ugly because after he murders Basil he is always so paranoid when he talks to the people at the club or when he was hunting for sport. Whenever people would mention anything about Basil he would become so anxious that he would faint.
Another question is: Is sin ugly or beautiful? Can you do saintly things that are ugly?
In my opinion, sin is ugly and I do not know what would constitute ugly things that are saintly. The word sin has a bad connotation associated with it.
The fifth question at the end of the book is: At the end Hallward and Dorian are dead and Lord Henry is a defeated and disappointed man. Are they punished (perhaps unconsciously self-punished) for their sins? Or are defeat and disappointment inevitable parts of the human condition?
Hallward and Dorian are unconsciously self-punished because of what they did. Hallward for creating a painting that would inflict Dorian to commit such horrendous acts. Lord Henry's being a defeated and disappointed man would be linked to how he thinks about life itself and his obsession with youth, seeing as that Harry is an old man now he would be disappointed because of the way he feels about youth and how he worships people younger than him. Defeat and disappointment are inevitable parts of the human condition because of how men have a competitive side to them and would feel defeated at times from other men and disappointment would be a possible emotion from their female mate.
My overall thoughts on the story is that I loved the Basil character and I wish that there was just a little more small romances going on between Dorian and Basil, though I absolutely adored their friendship while it lasted. I miss them already!
I got this book at Savers for like $2.99 and as soon as I spotted the title I had to have the physical book! I am sad that the CO-VID 19 won't open Savers because I want to search for more books. I got a few Anne Rice books there, which is a major find for me! I first heard about this story through the 2009 film called Dorian. I saw there was some gay action going on and I am such a sucker for those kinds of stories ;) I was just browsing the books and I just had to read the "original" story. This book is the 20th chaptered version, but I saw the differences between this one and the original 13th chaptered version. I am still glad that I read this book! :D
This specific edition of the book has six questions in the back. One of the questions is this: In literature, as perhaps in life, the supernatural is often a metaphor for the psychological. If the transformation of the painting is psychology made visible, whose psychology? Are we to understand that Dorian does ugly things or that he does things that he considers ugly--or that the society around him considers ugly?
My response to this question would be that if the transformation of the painting is psychology made visible, I think it would be Dorian Gray's psychology. We are to understand that Dorian does things that the society around him considers ugly because after he murders Basil he is always so paranoid when he talks to the people at the club or when he was hunting for sport. Whenever people would mention anything about Basil he would become so anxious that he would faint.
Another question is: Is sin ugly or beautiful? Can you do saintly things that are ugly?
In my opinion, sin is ugly and I do not know what would constitute ugly things that are saintly. The word sin has a bad connotation associated with it.
The fifth question at the end of the book is: At the end Hallward and Dorian are dead and Lord Henry is a defeated and disappointed man. Are they punished (perhaps unconsciously self-punished) for their sins? Or are defeat and disappointment inevitable parts of the human condition?
Hallward and Dorian are unconsciously self-punished because of what they did. Hallward for creating a painting that would inflict Dorian to commit such horrendous acts. Lord Henry's being a defeated and disappointed man would be linked to how he thinks about life itself and his obsession with youth, seeing as that Harry is an old man now he would be disappointed because of the way he feels about youth and how he worships people younger than him. Defeat and disappointment are inevitable parts of the human condition because of how men have a competitive side to them and would feel defeated at times from other men and disappointment would be a possible emotion from their female mate.
My overall thoughts on the story is that I loved the Basil character and I wish that there was just a little more small romances going on between Dorian and Basil, though I absolutely adored their friendship while it lasted. I miss them already!
I got this book at Savers for like $2.99 and as soon as I spotted the title I had to have the physical book! I am sad that the CO-VID 19 won't open Savers because I want to search for more books. I got a few Anne Rice books there, which is a major find for me! I first heard about this story through the 2009 film called Dorian. I saw there was some gay action going on and I am such a sucker for those kinds of stories ;) I was just browsing the books and I just had to read the "original" story. This book is the 20th chaptered version, but I saw the differences between this one and the original 13th chaptered version. I am still glad that I read this book! :D
A fun mean-spirited fairytale. I enjoyed the writing, and I couldn't predict the course of the story, though I thought several times that I could. I can't decide if it was actually deep though. It pretends to be deep- it's about the damage we do to our soul when we make poor choices- but I'm not convinced it actually was deep.
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