2) Compose a blog response. As we did before, please choose 1-2 quotations that give us insights into the philosophy of Oscar Wilde. Aestheticism. The artist's purpose. Religion. Facts. Beauty. Read your classmates' responses and come up with something fresh. There is a lot of ground to cover, here. Feel free, of course, to comment on the plot and your feelings and reactions to what is taking place. Those feelings will be connected to the larger whole that Wilde wants us to experience.
3) Maker connections to Defending Your Life. How are we seeing the idea of beauty? Intelligence? Humor? Iron? Satire? Most importantly - authenticity.
I look forward to your responses.
In chapter seven, after Sibyl delivers her lines in the play badly, it seems that Dorian's appreciation for the play and how well it is executed is much more important to him than any kind of love he may feel towards her since he says, "...Without your art, you are nothing. I would have made you famous, splendid, magnificent. The world would have worshipped you, and you would have borne my name. What are you now? A third-rate actress with a pretty face."" He also says that she has broken his heart with that play, and that it was an embarrassment. This is extremely ironic since it is what Sibyl's angry brother was talking about before when they went for a walk. He said he would kill anyone that hurt her, and it seems like someone has done just that, and the person who she told him is her "Prince Charming" no less. This connects to Defending Your Life since the movie is basically entirely composed of ironic twists and turns, like when the main character cannot overcome his fear in any way shape or form in the real world, but suddenly he dies nad when it really doesn't matter he suddenly becomes courageous and a risk taker. Dorian's attitude towards this seems nearly sociopathic, further supported by how later on it is revealed that after Sibyl commits suicide Dorian barely registers it and seems to lack any major form of empathy.
ReplyDelete-Yuval
In these next few chapters we can start to see a decline in Dorian's kind nature as Lord Henry's philosophies begin to have a greater influence on his personality and outlook on life and art. After Sibyl gives her terrible performance, Dorian's feelings for her take a 180 as he tears her apart back stage. He realizes that he was only in love with her ability to perform and not with her as a person. I think Yuval hit it on the nose when he compared the ironies in the book to the movie Defending your life. Just as Dorian's character changes, so does his portrait, which now has cruel expression. He is disturbed by this, but ultimately does not give a second thought to the news of Sibyl's suicide. Lord Henry again takes this opportunity to compare Sibyl's tragic actions to a work of art. Without his "undying love" for Sybil, I believe that Dorian will now have nothing standing in the way of Lord Henry's toxic influence.
ReplyDeleteDorian goes from "Then the curtain rises, and you will see the girl to whom I am going to give all my life, to whom I have given everything that is good in me." to "You have spoiled the romance of my life. How little you can know of love, if you say it mars your art! Without your art, you are nothing. I would have made you famous, splendid, magnificent. The world would have worshipped you, and you would have borne my name. What are you now? A third-rate actress with a pretty face." after just one performance.
In these last chapters we see Dorian's attitude about his life, and the picture of himself, completely change as a result of lord Henry's constant speeches on aestheticism. The specifics of Dorian's changes completely mimic those of Daniels post life changes within Defending your Life. At First the two (Daniel/Dorian)were themselves, and though either sad about ether their future, or the way they treat themselves in the present, they both changed when introduced to another person of opposing ideology; that being Julia for Daniel, and Lord Henry for Dorian. In Dorian's case, after realizing his lover had died, before being influenced by Henry, he was a mess of emotion. In response to Sibyl's passing "A cry of pain broke from the lad's lips, and he leaped to his feet, tearing his hands away from Lord Henry's grasp." Though described as one who deeply cared about his love, after spending the night with Henry he had a new attitude on the situation in the morning, when relaying the events to Basil. He responded to Basil's concerns by saying, "Don't talk about horrid subjects. If one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened."This sudden change in character can be directly rooted from Henry's Influence throughout the night. In Defending your Life on the other hand, though living in constant fear, Daniel soon is influenced by his love of Julia, which overrides his fear based decision making in the last scene as he goes against fears of injury, emotion, and his life for that matter, as he runs after her on the bus. In both film and novel, weather it be for better or for worse, the influences of close friends seem pivotal in the changes found in both main characters
ReplyDeleteIn these chapters, Dorian continues to fall in love with Sibyl, while lord Henry is watching everything unfold. Henry manages to completely change Dorian's perspective on the world. From that point on, Dorian's previously innocent point of view is dramatically different. He starts to see life as Lord Henry does. Basil finishes his portrait of Dorian, and gives it to the young man, who keeps it in his home, where he can admire hmself. Lord Henry continues to exert his influence over Dorian, to Basil's dismay. Dorian grows more and more distant from Basil. Once Dorian and Sybil are engaged, her talent suddenly disappears while she’s overwhelmed with her passionate love for Dorian that none of her roles on stage seem important to her anymore. This destroyed Dorian’s love for her. Dorian tries to explain his reasoning to Basil, he goes through the argument that Sibyl's suicide was a great act, and he's pretty much over it. I couldn't really make connections between the novel and the movie.
ReplyDelete-Sarah
DeleteAgain, listening to Lord Henry's "advice" prods Dorian to make regretful decisions. Though Lord Henry is "less intelligent" (for lack better words) than say The Doctor [Doctor Who] or Sherlock Holmes, Dorian is like Lord Henry's companion or Watson; always never understanding where Lord Henry gets his observations until he's explain the entire thing (in all it's disasterous entirety).
ReplyDelete“What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect--simply a confession of failure. Faithfulness! I must analyse it some day. The passion for property is in it. There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.”
[“Never marry a woman with straw-coloured hair, Dorian," he said after a few puffs.
"Why, Harry?"]
"Because they are so sentimental."
"But I like sentimental people."
"Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed."
"I don't think I am likely to marry, Harry. I am too much in love. That is one of your aphorisms. I am putting it into practice, as I do everything that you say.”
(Emily Chiang)
"I hope the girl is good, Harry. I don't want to see Dorian tied to some vile creature, who might degrade his nature and ruin his intellect."
ReplyDelete"Oh, she is better than good—she is beautiful,"
Basil is jealous that Dorian is engaged to a woman. I think the only reason he says that he hopes that she doesn't "degrade his nature and ruin his intellect." is because of his jealousy. This is kind of ironic because Basil believes in aestheticism, so to be concerned with Dorian's intellect is out of character. This connects to Defending Your Life in the way that Basil isn't being authentic about how he really feels. In Defending Your Life, when the protagonist is asked how he felt in his past moments of his life; he only agrees with his lawyer and says that he had restraint or thoughtfulness at those times, when he really felt afraid in those moments.
“... I hope that Dorian Gray will make this girl his wife, passionately adore her for six months, and then suddenly become fascinated by someone else. He would be a wonderful study."
ReplyDeleteThis quote shows told by Lord Henry goes back to a point he made earlier in the book and tells of how is view on marriage is twisted and also connects to his character as an overseer in the book. It also connects to the movie “Defend your Life” because the main point of that movie was to do what you desire and if Dorian Gray does what Lord Henry says in this quote he would be acting upon his desire.
"He is gone," murmured Sibyl sadly. "I wish you had seen him."
ReplyDelete"I wish I had, for as sure as there is a God in heaven, if he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him.
She looked at him in horror. He repeated his words. They cut the air like a dagger. (5.27-28)
This relationship between Sibyl and her brother reminds me of the one between Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas and his father. Her brother/ his father are both in control of her/ his livelihood and try to make decisions to save them from themselves. In Sibyls case, Jim feels that “prince charming” is going to enslave her or hurt her. Bosie’s father feels that Mr. Wildes gay escapades with his son will sully the family name and corrupt him morally. Though Jim is portrayed as the antagonist of love in this scene, I also feel that we see Oscar Wilde being sympathetic towards John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry. History shows that Mr. Wilde did not listen to Mr. Douglas seniors threats, but his characterization of Jim demonstrates his understanding of Bosie’s father’s concerns.
“I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous."(CH 8)
Yet again, Mr. Wilde presents a paradoxical prose. Many people idealize being good as ‘being good for goodness's sake’(not too far linguistically from ‘art for art’s sake’). Despite this, Dorian’s main motivation for acting morally is beauty. If he manages to be “good”, would it still be good if he did it to not be ugly? Additionally, his obsession with beauty could be interpreted as shallow, a trait many consider unattractive. Is his goodness authentic if his motivation is shallow? Isn’t his motivation to do good based on the fear of being ugly? I’m guessing he uses less than 5% of his brain. Does this motivation foreshadow Dorian making decisions in order to maintain beauty?
-Samantha
In these past chapters we start to see a change in Dorian's nature, due to Lord Henery's influence. With this emotional change, comes a physical one in the portrait. After Dorian breaks off his engagement with Sibyl, because he realizes he was only in love with her ability to act, the portrait is left with a rather ugly expression. Dorian wished he would never lose his beauty and that the painting would age for him, and now that is exactly what is happening. After every "ugly" action Dorian makes the painting grows more and more grotesque.
ReplyDeleteAs stated before, Dorian was only "in love" with Sibyl's ability to act --> which was her claim to fame. When she decided she can no longer act, Dorian harshly ends their engagement. This begins to show what kind of a person Dorian is turning into, as this action is very shallow. When Dorian returns home, he finds the portrait to have a sneer. A sneer often indicates if someone is feeling superior to someone else, like they look down on them. The reader can gather that Dorian felt more accomplished and 'better' than Sibyl, after she gives up theater, he no longer wanted to be associated with her. Sibyl later ends her life and at first Dorian seems upset about it, but then with Lord Henery's help he decides to turn it into some artistic triumph/ beauty. Dorian's morals and ideas are taking a turn for the worst and its clear that the portraits beauty has nowhere to go but down hill.
In these few chapters, we see a large change in Dorian's mindset. This is due to Henry's actions and knowledge on aestheticism that is rubbing off onto Dorian. This also connects to the movie Defending your life because i felt like when he was in the afterlife world his views on his life completely changed, he learned so much while he was there. Also, Sibyl and Dorian are in love, but after watching the actress perform, he realized he only liked her because of her acting skills. I liked Ali's quotes that she used because they perfectly represent what happened in that instant. "Then the curtain rises, and you will see the girl to whom I am going to give all my life, to whom I have given everything that is good in me." he was so excited to watch her perform. But after she performed, he said, "You have spoiled the romance of my life. How little you can know of love, if you say it mars your art! Without your art, you are nothing. I would have made you famous, splendid, magnificent. The world would have worshipped you, and you would have borne my name. What are you now? A third-rate actress with a pretty face." He was clearly very frustrated when he realized she wasn't that good of an actress.
ReplyDeleteJust as Dorian Grey seems to be rejecting Lord Henry’s phiophispy by having an intimate relationship with Sibyl it turns out that Dorian Grey is in love with Sibyl the actor not Sibyl the person. This is crushing to Sibyl the person who kills herself because Dorian does not love her. At first, this seems to affect Dorian but Lord Henry convinces him to think of it as Sibyl being elevated into art. Lord Henry is exerting his control of Dorian completely changing who he is as a person. There is a similar theme in Defending Your Life, Daniel completely changes his ways because of the influence Julia had on him. The basis of Defending Your Life is fear leads to bad decisions and bad things which is also true in The Picture of Dorian Grey, after Sybil dies he does not even want to think about her death, maybe out of fear that he could be responsible. The same is true for Lord Henry, he does not have a real relationship with anybody, maybe out of fear of getting hurt by someone. For Dorian and Lord Henry, the fear leads to indifference which leads to bad things.
ReplyDelete-Conor Walsh
*My post for the last assignment wasn't posting so I'm posting it here for now even though it has nothing to do with this assignment*
ReplyDelete“Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.”
At this point it seems to me that Lord Henry likes to talk a lot even if he doesn’t fully understand what he’s saying half the time. It seems like he just talks to hear himself and give the illusion of being a very philosophical man. He lives quite a boring regular life while condemning everyone else for the way they live theirs. Wilde may be expressing the effect people (Lord Henry) can have on others (Dorian) without realizing it.
“A beautiful woman risking everything for a mad passion. A few wild weeks of happiness cut short by a hideous, treacherous crime. Months of voiceless agony”
We can see a lot of Wilde’s personal life reflected in this book but this quote especially stuck out to me as a description of himself. Wilde seemed like he would have been quite a catch for any woman in his day, similar to Margaret Devereux, but fell in love with someone who society wouldn’t want him with. In his case the ‘hideous, treacherous crime’ was who he loved.
- Dominique Devani
In chapter 7 Dorian Gray wakes up to the painting with a dreadful look on its face, "The quivering, ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing". I see this connecting with Defending Your Life because in the film the gist was that everything you do in your life makes an impact on where you end up. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian breaks up with Sibyl just because she can't act well anymore and she commits suicide and once he starts to feel guilty about the decision the portrait seems to look meaner. I feel like the two connect through bad decision having big effects on your life later on.
ReplyDeleteIn this section, Dorian’s wife-to-be, Sibyl, is introduced. In the beginning, they are both madly in love. Despite knowing little about Dorian, including his name, Sibyl exclaims “I will love him forever!” and speaks of him incessantly. Just like Sibyl’s opinion of Dorian, Dorian holds an idealistic view of Sibyl. He loves Sibyl not because of her personality or values, but because of her acting and beauty. This is yet another example of Wilde’s aestheticism. This attraction between the two falls apart after Syball’s disappointing performance. She claims that she did not act well because she understood what real love was, which goes against aestheticism. Sibyl learned what love was and in turn disrupted how she feigned the emotion while acting, which is her art, and in turn her performance was poor. Dorian is not amused by this, and yells, “Oh, I can’t bear to think of it! I wish I had never laid eyes upon you! You have spoiled the romance of my life. How little you can known of love, if you say it mars your art! Without your art you are nothing...What are you know? A third-rate actress with a pretty face”(64). In his eyes, her art is destroyed, thus ending his love for her. The relationship between Dorian and Sibyl is the exact opposite of Daniel and Julia’s in Defending Your Life, which focuses on the attraction between two people based on personality. This is also most likely why Daniel and Julia remained a couple.
ReplyDeleteIn the seventh chapter Sibyl preforms her role as Juliet and she does terribly. All of her acting talents seem to have faded away ever since she fell in love with Dorian. After the horrible performance from Sibyl Dorian leaves the theater and is angry at her for embarrassing him in front of his friends. She finds him and tells him that she will never act well again. This angers Dorian even more and he starts insulting her and saying that he doesn't love her anymore.
ReplyDelete"Without your art, you are nothing. I would have made you famous, splendid, magnificent. The world would have worshipped you, and you would have borne my name. What are you now? A third-rate actress with a pretty face.”
After he is done he storms off and leaves Sibyl to weep. This quote relates to Oscar Wilde's mentality about love and aestheticism because Dorian only loved her when she could act well and right when she could not anymore he left her and seemed to have absolutely no feelings for her, just because she could not preform anymore. Later on in the next chapter he doesn't even feel very bad when she commits suicide, further showing how him and Oscar Wilde only really care about love. An example of this from Oscar's life is when his wife gets pregnant and he is disgusted by her.
Evan Arhelger
A passage I found from chapter 7 that caught my eye is when Sibyl explains her love for Dorian. "Dorian, Dorian," she cried, "before I knew you, acting was the one reality of my life. It was only in the theatre that I lived. I thought that it was all true. I was Rosalind one night and Portia the other. The joy of Beatrice was my joy, and the sorrows of Cordelia were mine also. I believed in everything. The common people who acted with me seemed to me to be godlike. The painted scenes were my world. I knew nothing but shadows, and I thought them real. You came -- oh, my beautiful love! -- and you freed my soul from prison. You taught me what reality really is. To-night, for the first time in my life, I saw through the hollowness, the sham, the silliness of the empty pageant in which I had always played. To-night, for the first time, I became conscious that the Romeo was hideous, and old, and painted, that the moonlight in the orchard was false, that the scenery was vulgar, and that the words I had to speak were unreal, were not my words, were not what I wanted to say. You had brought me something higher, something of which all art is but a reflection. You had made me understand what love really is. My love! My love! Prince Charming! Prince of life! I have grown sick of shadows. You are more to me than all art can ever be. What have I to do with the puppets of a play?" (7.15). Sibyl has come to the realization that she hadn't lived until she fell in love with Dorian. Art was her entire world but it in no way measures up to true feelings and the feeling of love. Defending your life has a similar theme. At the very end of the movie when we see him jump onto the road to get to her bus, it shows that love always will win and is the answer in the end of it all. No matter what the situation is.
ReplyDelete“Women treat us just as humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them."
ReplyDeleteThis could be a reflection of Wilde's relationship with his wife, not necessarily the worship part but the doing something for them could be connected to his wife wanting him to be more involved. Considering he was editor of Women’s World I don’t see this as a complete reflection of his views of women.
“Believe me, no civilized man ever regrets a pleasure, and no uncivilized man ever knows what a pleasure is."
This is part of Lord Henry's philosophy of living one's life for oneself and pursuing their own wants. Oscar Wilde saw aestheticism as a pleasure so this could be a reflection of his views on that matter considering Wilde pursue pleasure all through his life.
Sibyl and Dorians love reminded me of Daniel and Julia’s relationship, with Julia being the Dorian of the relationship who is of a “higher class” than Daniel and likely to move on in the universe. In both cases they love each other regardless of their class distinctions.
-Dominique Devani
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn this section we are introduced to Sibyl who is a young actress and the girl dorian supposedly loves and is planning to marry. They have not known each other long and don't know each other very well yet when talking to Basil and Henry he says she is “the one thing i have been looking for my whole life”. Later on Dorian brings them to watch Sibyl act in a play however she does poorly. Afterwards Dorian tells her “ you have killed my love” and calls her “ shallow and stupid” before leaving her heart broken. Even when she explains that her bad acting was because she was so in love with him he still says horrible things to her and breaks things off which causes her to then kill herself. What I also found to be horrible was that in the end Dorian didn't even feel sad about her death. In Defending your life we see how Daniel and Julia fall in love based on who they are as people which is the opposite of what happened with Dorian and Sibyl. Daniel and Julia loved each other based on their personalities and character while Dorian only loved Sibyl’s acting.
ReplyDeleteIn new chapters Oscar Wild introduce new character Sibyl that plays a big role in the novel. Sibyl is a young attractive actress, love of whole life for Dorian. Dorian as a real friend tells his best mates about her and tells his feeling at the moment, Basil and Lord Henry were surprised by what they heard so Dorian decides to invite them to watch Sibyl in a play, but her play was horrible. And then Dorian realize that he fall in love with here play rather then her, so he tells her that she break his heart and that they can't be together even tho Sibyl still loves him. Because of unrequited love Sibyl commits suicide, but for Dorian she was already dead, so he did not care much. I really love these chapters and I also think that only in these chapters we can see real Dorian and his Picture.
ReplyDeleteI choose the quote from chapter 9 "It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to
use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them." in this quote Oscar Wild is telling that if you can control your emotions and feelings, you are a master of yourself. I also think that this is what have been showed in "Defending your life", if you could control your emotions and feelings in your past life, you will get level up in next life.
-Roman Shepeliev
Emperor Casino Review & Ratings | Shootercasino.com
ReplyDeleteEmperor Casino 샌즈카지노 offers choegocasino more than 150 live casino games such as Roulette, Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, Roulette 제왕 카지노 and more!