Sav's Book Club: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A beautiful poem by Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

'Nothing can cure your soul but your senses and nothing can cure your senses but your soul.'

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is the story of a boy who sells his soul for his youth.

Dorian Gray is a young boy whose life changes due to two people - the artist who makes his portrait, Basil Hallward & his friend Lord Henry. Basil worships Dorian, he makes him conscious of his beautiful youth. Dorian is introduced to Lord Henry via Basil who eventually influences him greatly into a sinful life. For Lord Henry, Conscience and Cowardice are the same thing. When the portrait is complete, Dorian becomes terribly sad, he feels that this picture will mock him when he grows old and make him sorry for his lost youth and in that moment he says a prayer in which he is ready to trade his soul for his youth. His wish gets fulfilled. Dorian leads a double life and seeks great pleasure in doing the most gravest acts. The burden of all his sins is borne by the picture, the man in the picture becomes old, ugly and wrinkled after every sin that he commits while his youth remains intact in real. Even at the age of 40 he looks like how he looked when the portrait was made. He hides the portrait from the world as he is scared to reveal the darkside of his soul. The innocence on his face, makes it impossible for anyone to believe that he is capable of doing all those hideous acts. But when he has a close call with death, he starts feeling terrorised by his acts and guilty too.
You can run away from the entire world but you cannot runaway from yourself. There is no escape. There is no refuge. The most difficult thing in the world is to face your inner self which you may call your conscience. Every human soul consists of God and Devil. The conscience is the representative of the God.
When he dies, Dorian's staff fails to recognize him because the face of the dead man lying beneath the portrait of their master is all wrinkled and old, unlike the young Dorian in the picture.
By the way, it will be so cool if you could be young all your life