Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Full analysis of the work - Document. ABOUT
O. Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray"- Full analysis of the work.
The title page is drawn up independently.
Serves for numbering. Numbering starts with the title page.
The beginning of O. Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is a completely peaceful picture. We see a talented artist who paints a beautiful portrait and dreams of keeping it a secret from everyone. In the portrait of Basil Hallward - a young man - Dorian Gray, the hero of the novel, or his anti-hero. Seeing the beautiful creation of the artist, Dorian exclaims: “Oh, if it could be the other way around! If this portrait were getting old, and I would remain young forever! For this ... for this I would give everything in the world. Yes, I would not regret anything! I would give my soul for that!" These prophetic words determine the further course of the plot. The portrait begins to grow old, and Dorian Gray remains young, adversity is not reflected on his face, but his heart is hardened.
Dorian plunges into secular life, because now nothing has power over him, all troubles and hardships are reflected not in his beautiful face, but in the portrait of Basil, which is becoming more and more ugly. But now Dorian Gray falls in love with a young actress - Sybil Vane, who plays all the roles in a row in a beggarly theater in the East End. At first glance, the love of two young people is beautiful, and Sybil gives herself completely to her. She can no longer play artificial roles, she now has a different, real role - to love and be loved. That's why the show, to which Dorian invites his friends to look at his bride, fails miserably. “I have known true love,” Sybil says to Dorian. Art is only its pale reflection. Oh, my joy, my Prince Charming! I am tired of living among the shadows. You are dearer to me than all the art of the world. stage? When I came to the theater today, I was just surprised: everything immediately became so alien to me! I thought that I would play wonderfully, but it turned out that nothing came out of me. However, Dorian Gray did not understand Sybil's feelings, did not understand or did not want to understand. After all, for him, this whole theater is real life, and feelings only add wrinkles to the portrait.
Dorian Gray leaves Sybil, throwing her a cruel "You killed my love!" He wanders around the city at night, and at this time the unfortunate Sybil commits suicide. It would seem that Dorian should be crushed, killed, should be tormented and tormented by remorse. Yes, at first he does so, but his faithful friend, Lord Henry, gives him good advice: "What, in fact, happened? The girl committed suicide because of her love for you. I regret that there was nothing like this in my life Then I would have believed in love and would have bowed before it forever.” And Dorian Gray calms down, and a hard fold appears on the portrait.
This is how the life of a beautiful young man continues: he plunges into the abyss of vice, revelry and hatred for everyone around him, lasting twenty long years. However, the pains and sorrows of the time do not concern him: "Even those who heard dark rumors about Dorian Gray (and such rumors about his very suspicious lifestyle from time to time went all over London and caused talk in clubs) could not believe the dishonored to his gossip, for he seemed to be a man who had not been touched by the filth of life. People who spoke obscenities fell silent when Dorian Gray entered. The serene clarity of his face was like an embarrassing reproach to them. His mere presence reminded them of their lost purity. And they wondered that this charming man managed to escape the bad influence of our age, the age of immorality and base passions. And even his faithful friend, the artist Basil, cannot stop him. “Pray, Dorian, pray!” he exclaims, seeing what has become of his portrait. How was it that we were taught to pray in childhood? "Let's pray together! The prayer prompted by your vanity has been answered. The prayer of repentance will also be heard. I idolized you too much - and for this I am punished. You also loved yourself too much. Both of us are punished." But Dorian Gray forgot how to pray, just as he forgot how to love, compassion, repentance and understanding. In a fit of hatred inspired by the ugly portrait, he kills the unfortunate artist, who was the only person who loved Dorian for who he is.
Now Dorian begins to seek oblivion in drugs. One day, during his forays into the brothel, he is recognized by the brother of the unfortunate Sybil Wayne. Dorian narrowly escaped death.
But an idle, worthless existence cannot last long. Moreover, Dorian Gray is far from being a stupid person, he understands the reasons for his unhappiness, he begins to be tormented by remorse: "This beauty ruined him, the beauty and eternal youth that he begged for himself! If not for them, his life would be clean "Beauty turned out to be only a mask, youth - a mockery. What is youth at best? A time of immaturity, naivety, a time of superficial impressions and unhealthy thoughts. Why did he have to wear her outfit? Yes, youth killed him."
Unbearable pangs of conscience torment Dorian Gray when he decides to destroy the terrible portrait so that the blood dripping from his fingers does not remind him of the crimes he committed. However, the porter is Dorian Gray, and by plunging into the knife, in fact, Dorian kills himself. Miraculously, the portrait and its owner change places, and now on the wall the servants see "a magnificent portrait of their master in all the splendor of his wondrous youth and beauty. And on the floor with a knife in his chest lay a dead man in a tailcoat. His face was wrinkled, withered, repulsive." Thus ends O. Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
Even Dostoevsky wrote about a man that "God and the devil are fighting in him, and the battlefield is the soul." This is something to keep in mind when thinking about Wilde's novel. For Wilde, humanity is behavior in an extreme situation, although his entire novel is an extreme situation. He has a human soul - something material, something that can be sold, pawned, poisoned, saved, exchanged (these are the words of the protagonist of the novel). Nevertheless, the author does not hide the fact that the whole story with Dorian Gray is fictitious - “the transmission of beautiful fables is the true goal of art”, the more valuable for us the meaning inherent in the fable, the more carefully we are looking for morality in this fable with a portrait.
It is no coincidence that Dorian Gray is in love not so much with actress Sybil Vane, but with the roles she plays - Juliet, Rosalind, Imogen. He himself is a musician and passionately loves everything beautiful. Collects objects of ancient art. Beauty destroys the personality, because it is not real beauty, but diabolical, which shows the portrait that Dorian Gray keeps. A deal with the devil must be paid. The whole story that happened to Dorian Gray is a diabolical obsession: killed, Gray becomes as ugly as it should be, and the portrait again turns into something material - balance is restored.
In general, from the point of view of the plot, Wilde's novel uses several myths (or mythical plots). This is, firstly, the myth of Narcissus, who died when he saw his reflection in the water. It is also a myth about the possibility of selling one's soul to the devil. Wilde plays the role of the devil in Lord Henry, cynical and devoid of any moral and ethical principles, a man who “always says immoral things, but never does them.” It is in a conversation with him that Dorian says the sacramental phrase: “How sad it is ! murmured Dorian Gray suddenly, still staring at his portrait. - How sad! I will grow old, become a nasty freak, and my portrait will be forever young. He will never get older than on this June day ... Oh, if it could be the other way around! And so it turns out: Dorian becomes forever young "the offspring of the Devil," as the prostitute in the port calls him, and the portrait grows old vilely.
Dorian Gray is in love with his "second self" portrait, looks at him for a long time and even kisses him. At the end of the novel, when the portrait replaces him, Gray falls more and more in love with his beauty and, unable to bear the beauty of his body and, in contrast, the disgust of his soul, which the portrait shows him, in fact commits suicide, dies, like Narcissus, from self love.
O. Wilde did not create a realistic novel, although some scenes are quite plausible. “This is purely a decorative novel! "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - golden brocade! - the author himself argued. He does not describe to us the characters of the heroes in a multifaceted way in their development, on the contrary, he singles out one predominant feature in the character, a characteristic idea: Dorian is the desire for eternal youth, Lord Henry is the cult of enjoying life, the denial of morality and morality, Basil is sacrificial devotion to art. The main attention in the novel is paid not to action, not to characteristics, but to the subtle play of the mind, which is played by Lord Henry, in whose bold paradoxes the cherished thoughts of the author are embodied. He involves Dorian in his intellectual game, striking his imagination with unusual and impudent speeches. And words for Wilde are much more important than facts, he, and with him his heroes, completely surrender to verbal fights.
However, Lord Henry's speeches are not so vicious, in many ways they are correct, and sometimes we can even agree with his point of view. His life path, in the end, is illuminated by a dream of beauty, of that beauty of Dostoevsky, which was supposed to save the world, but, as it were, ruined it inopportunely. “The purpose of life is self-expression. To manifest our essence in all its fullness - that's what we live for ... If every person could live a full life, giving free rein to every feeling and every thought, fulfilling his every dream, the world would again feel such a powerful impulse to joy that they are forgotten if there were all the diseases of the Middle Ages, and we would have returned to the ideals of Hellenism, and perhaps to something even more valuable and beautiful, ”Lord Henry preaches to us, and it is simply impossible not to agree with him. And after all, no one in the novel, except Basil, tries to contradict him! “You are lovely, but a real demon tempter. Be sure to come and dine with us,” exclaims the venerable Duchess. The likes of Lord Henry were held in high esteem in the society of that time.
Oscar Wilde often refused to call a spade a spade. Literature, in his opinion, should not describe the vices and shortcomings of society. He had little sympathy for the sufferers. He believed that those who care for the suffering, flaunt only ulcers and wounds, refusing to perceive a person's life as a whole, with his defeats and victories. And in this his point of view is very similar to that of Lord Henry. The author believes that all living things, no matter how ugly and immoral it may seem, have the right to exist and also have the right to make their own choice. This, in fact, is the essence of the philosophy of Sir Henry, the spiritual provocateur and seducer of Dorian Gray from the novel. Life is just a material, clay is in our hands, the hands of artists-experimenters of life. Everything in life has to be tried. And fascinated by this idea, Dorian boldly tries. He experiments with his own life. But not only with your own. And this, apparently, is the difference between the position of Sir Henry and Dorian. "Every crime is vulgar," says Sir Henry, "and every vulgarity is criminal." According to Sir Henry, for vulgar, unimaginative people, crime is what art is for a sophisticated mind, that is, a source of unusual sensations.
The portrait of Dorian Gray is a portrait of his soul, a list of the crimes of this sinner. Wilde believed that there is Someone in the world who watches over us and writes everything down (or sketches, as in a certain portrait in heaven). However, this method of reforming Dorian Gray is highly questionable, because it raises even more questions for us about the ways in which repentance for the crimes committed is possible. At the first stage, Dorian Gray is not particularly tormented by pangs of conscience. He is, however, still preoccupied with his reputation (his portrait) in the eyes of others. But gradually he does not give a damn about this either - just to remain uncaught. The main spiritual flaw (sin) of Dorian as a person is that he, devoid of imagination, needed actions, deeds (good or evil) in order to experience the excitement of contact with life. But actions, in contrast to the game of the mind, from a certain moment begin to repeat themselves, that is, to cause boredom and irritation in the first place for the one who performs these actions.
Actually, Dorian Gray is suppressed by the very fact that his inner content (which is the portrait) is embodied in the face of the old man. Thought (as well as meaningful feeling) ages, that's for sure. Dorian Gray does not age because he does not think about his actions, about his portrait. He did not think about his own crimes, because he never truly loved his victims (no matter how much he swore this to himself).
Thus, we see that everything in O. Wilde's novel is built on contradictions. On the one hand, this is the permissibility of crimes (I remember Dostoevsky and his "Crime and Punishment"), on the other, a ban on them, their rejection. This, in our opinion, is the essence of the creative concept of the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of O. Wilde's most popular works. There are more than thirty versions of the film adaptation of the novel. The parable component plays an important role in it, so the meaning of the work should be sought between the lines. At school, The Picture of Dorian Gray is studied in high school. The analysis of the work presented in the article will help you quickly prepare for the lesson and refresh your knowledge about the novel before the exam. For convenience, the analysis is arranged according to the plan.
Brief analysis
Year of writing - 1891.
History of creation- Researchers believe that the creation of the "Portrait of Dorian Gray" by O. Wild was inspired by the image of Faust, common in world literature and the works "Shagreen Skin" by O. Balzac and "On the contrary" by Huysmans.
Subject- The themes of external and internal beauty, the true meaning of life are developed in the work.
Composition- O. Wilde described the life of Dorian Gray from a young age to old age. There are two versions of the novel - in 13 and 20 chapters. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific event. In one of the chapters, the author managed to contain the events that took place in the life of Dorian Gray for the last 20 years. The analyzed work is an interweaving of events and philosophical reflections.
Genre- Philosophical novel.
Direction- Modernism.
History of creation
Work on the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" lasted only three weeks. For the first time he saw the world in the American "Lippincott's Monthly Journal" in 1890. However, after some time, O. Wilde made changes to his work: he redid some chapters, added 6 new ones and a preface, which today is considered a manifesto of aestheticism. The second version of the work was published in the spring of 1891 in London as a separate book.
The publication of the novel caused a scandal in society. He was criticized by the political elite. The works were considered immoral. There were demands to ban The Picture of Dorian Gray, and its author to be judged. However, ordinary readers took it with a bang.
Subject
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the analysis should begin with a description of the motives of the work.
In world literature beauty theme occupies a place of honor. It is also revealed in Wilde's novel. In the context of this topic, they raise problems of love, human vices, old age and etc.
Main characters works - Dorian Gray and Lord Henry. The images of the artist Basil, Sybil and James Vane also play an important role in the realization of the problem. At the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to Dorian Gray. This is a young, very handsome man, from whom the artist Basil copied a portrait. In the workshop of Basil, the young man met Lord Henry. Here he admitted that he would very much like the portrait to grow old, and he always remained beautiful.
Dorian Gray's wish came true. Years passed, and he remained a young handsome man. At the same time, the hero knew how to appreciate only external beauty. It killed his love for Sybil Vane. The pride of the man was the cause of Sybil's death. This tragedy was only the beginning of the vicious path of Dorian Gray. After that, he killed more than one person. With each of his actions, the portrait changed. Soon the young man depicted on it turned into an ugly old man.
Dorian Gray understood that the portrait was a reflection of his soul, so he hid it from everyone. When Basil discovered a new image, the former sitter killed him.
The main idea of the novel- human vices and an ugly soul cannot be hidden under a beautiful appearance. One must struggle with the very essence of one's vices, one must not allow self-love to take possession of the soul, this is what O. Wilde's novel teaches.
Composition
O. Wilde described the life of Dorian Gray from a young age to old age. There are two versions of the novel - in 13 and 20 chapters. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific event. In one of the chapters, the author managed to contain the events that took place in the life of Dorian Gray for the last 20 years. The plot of the work develops sequentially: from exposition to denouement. The close interweaving of events and philosophical reflections gives the reader the opportunity to delve into the essence of the topic.
Genre
The genre of the work is a philosophical novel, as evidenced by the following features: the main problem remains open, an instructive component plays an important role. The direction of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is modernism.
Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Balashov Institute (branch)
State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Saratov State University
named after N.G. Chernyshevsky"
Analysis of the features of the figurative system and ways of its linguistic embodiment of Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
graduate work
specialty 050303.65 "Foreign language"
The figurative system is perhaps the most interesting, complex and rich component of a work of art, the most difficult for the reader to understand and comprehend. Despite this, consideration of the figurative system and ways of its linguistic embodiment is of great value for linguists and literary critics, because the artistic style of the era, the author's style, the author's mood and worldview are reflected in the ways of the linguistic embodiment of the system of images.
This work is carried out in line with the study of the features of the figurative system and the ways of its linguistic embodiment of Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which is item research.
“A real artist” (Bryusov), “a born writer” (Aldington) - this is how writers from different countries and different generations, a Russian and an Englishman, both endowed with a heightened aesthetic sense, spoke about Oscar Wilde. They were not mistaken in their opinion: Wilde's work entered the history of literature and theater, a living history that attracts not only researchers, but also readers and spectators, entered thanks to that part of it in which a born artist expressed himself, who did not replace art skill and brilliance of self-admiring wit.
As in any phenomenon, the merits and demerits in Wilde's work do not belong to independent spheres. In his works, they are brought together and connected in such a way that they almost do not leave boundary signs.
In this work, we will focus on the only novel by Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Dorian Gray came out with a scandal that was largely the work of Wilde himself. The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in issues of the American magazine Lippincott'sMagazine and then revised (probably to remove a clear homosexual accent) before being released in hardcover. And yet this book was met with a storm of protest against the alleged immorality of the novel and, even more so, of Wilde's Preface to it. Indeed, the Preface has attracted so much attention over the years that sometimes the novel itself is taken as nothing more than a demonstration of its truth. One way or another, the interest of the Dorian Gray novel lies in its method of storytelling. The novel should be read carefully, with an eye alert for inconsistencies between author and character. Although Wilde himself admitted: “Basil Hallward is what I think I am; Lord Henry is what the world thinks I am; Dorian is what I would like to be - some other time, perhaps."
This work gives an analysis of the novel by Oscar Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray". An object research - the figurative system of Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and its linguistic embodiment - is due to the fact that earlier the attention of researchers was not drawn to the system of images of Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which is relevance research.
Target research - consists in a comprehensive, systematic description, analysis, scientific and theoretical understanding and classification of the system of images in the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
Tasks research - to determine the essence of the concept of "system of images", to analyze the images in the novel, the stylistic devices used by the author to create certain images, to trace their influence on the style and narration of the novel.
Thus, we penetrate into the basis of the style and narrative manner of Wilde the prose writer.
Practical The significance of this work is determined by the fact that the results of the study can be used in courses on literary criticism, stylistics, in classes on the practice of English speech and text interpretation.
This work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.
In the introduction, the subject and purpose of the study are established, its tasks are formed, the relevance of the research topic is substantiated, and the practical significance of the results of the work is considered.
The first chapter establishes the theoretical basis of the study, gives the basis for the analysis of a literary text, defines the concept of a system of images, and considers the main canons of some artistic styles.
The second chapter is devoted to the study of the system of images of the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", the consideration of the stylistic devices used by the author.
The results of the study and the main results are reflected in the conclusion.
Chapter 1. Theoretical basis for the analysis of a work of art
1.1 Literary definition of image
To study the linguistic expression of the system of images in Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", it is necessary to clarify the concept of "image".
Image- one of the basic concepts of literature, which determines the nature, form and function of artistic and literary creativity. In the center of the artistic image is the image of human life, shown in an individualized form, but at the same time carrying a generalized principle, behind which one can guess those patterns of the life process that form people of this particular type.
The image is a universal category of artistic creativity, a form of reproduction, interpretation and development of life inherent in art by creating aesthetically affecting objects. An image is often understood as an element or part of an artistic whole, usually a fragment that has, as it were, an independent life and content. Since the image of a certain person becomes generalized, it is inherent in fiction (the writer discards random details, adds features that clarify what he considers important). Fiction reinforces the generalized meaning of the artistic image, which is inseparable from the writer's idea of the ideal, emphasizes in it what helps the establishment of this ideal or contradicts it. An image is a fact of imaginary being, each time it is re-realized in the imagination of the addressee. In the aesthetic aspect, the image appears to be an expedient, life-like organism, in which there is no superfluous, random, mechanically auxiliary, and which gives the impression of beauty precisely because of the perfect unity and ultimate meaningfulness of its parts. But without the isolating power of fiction, the image could not achieve that concentration and coordination that liken it to a living formation. In other words, the "life-likeness" of an image is connected with its imaginary being.
An image in literature is a character, a character. In general, any literary image is expressed in the word - although it is not reduced to the word, it is wider and deeper than the word. The term “image” is often used in both a narrower and a broader sense of the word. Often any colorful expression, each trope is called an image.
The artistic image is manifested in the work in a very versatile way. In prose, it is given in interaction with the author's speech. The image reflects life in all its complexity and versatility.
For further work, it is important to determine the genre of the work. A genre is a historically developing and developing type of work of art.
Novel- an epic genre in which the subject of the image is an unfinished, ongoing history or the past, comprehended through the prism of concepts, interests and aspirations that characterize modernity, perceived in its dynamics. The novel recreates the experience of the individual and the circle of her ideas, which are formed in continuous contact with reality, which, like the hero, is in the process of becoming. The constant changes taking place in it, its very incompleteness and unpredictability of potential development affect the self-awareness of the characters, as well as their destinies. The peculiarity of the construction of the novel determines the choice of characters, the movement of intrigue, the nature of the climactic episodes, the motivation of the denouement. In the course of literary evolution, the structure of the novel becomes more and more complicated. Varieties of the genre are emerging in which an original combination of intense intrigue and psychological sophistication is found, and the desire to recreate life authentically and recognizably is combined with the widespread use of fiction, gravitating towards science fiction.
Composition the novel includes the "arrangement" of characters, i.e. image system. The most important aspect of composition is the sequence of introducing images into the narrative, which contributes to the development of a literary text. The arrangement of characters takes place around the image of the protagonist, which is transformed throughout the novel.
1.2 Building a figurative system of a work of art
System images begins where, according to Pasternak, “the image enters the image”, where they overlap each other, interact with each other in one way or another - within the framework of one artistic text. In this case, a so-called hierarchy of images arises. "Hierarchy" in Greek means a multi-stage order of subordination and domination. It reigns everywhere, at any stage of being, and often these hierarchical relations are extremely complex, contradictory, incomprehensible.
The figurative system of a literary text can be built - from top to bottom - in the following order:
The image of the work itself as a whole;
Kabanova I.V. Analysis of the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde
Foreign literature of the 20th century: practical exercises Edited by I.V. Kabanova (second edition), Moscow: Flinta Nauka, 2009
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) is Wilde's only novel. Here, for the first time, the author's project was embodied, the implementation of which is devoted to the entire mature work of the writer and which is characterized by Wilde's biographer Richard Ellmann as "an attempt to highly civilized anatomize contemporary society and radically rethink its ethics." The novel sings of Beauty devoid of moral dimension, Beauty as such, intentionally shocking with a decadent sexual atmosphere. An enthusiastic fan of the novel, André Gide, rightly called Wilde “the most dangerous product of modern civilization,” and the writer’s wife, Constance, lamented in 1890: “Since Oscar wrote Dorian Gray, no one talks to us.”
The literary roots of the novel are Balzac's Shagreen Skin, from which the idea of a magical talisman is borrowed, and Huysmans' Conversely, from where the atmosphere of spicy sensuality came into the novel. The fantastic story of the portrait, the image of which is aging, while Dorian himself, who commits various crimes, remains young and beautiful, unfolds in contemporary England. The heroes of the novel enjoy all the benefits of civilization, reflect on the state of modern society, but the presence of fantasy in the very heart of the novel constitutes a challenge to the positivist worldview.
Wilde's novel is distinguished, like all philosophical works, by an increased measure of artistic conventionality: not only does its plot contain a magical, magical assumption, but the characters are not quite lifelike. The fact is that in a philosophical work each of the characters illustrates one or another side of the author's concept, becomes the mouthpiece of the author's ideas and partly loses independence, acquiring a certain predetermined, constructed character. Such is the artistic nature of all three central characters.
This feature of the poetics of the novel deserves special attention as a confirmation of the artificiality inherent in Wilde's method equally in dramaturgy and prose, the artificiality of aestheticism in general: striving for the standard of beauty, the author inevitably introduces a greater measure of order into reality, controls it more strictly and, consequently, distorts than if he were guided by the spirit of a free, unbiased exploration of life.
The plot combines the appeal of science fiction and the entertainment of a psychological thriller, there are elements of a "black novel". Unlike the plot of the novel "On the contrary", which, according to the French psychological tradition, is focused on a single image of the central character, the plot of the "Portrait" contains many events, an independent love line, the action spans several decades, the ways of creating characters are more diverse, despite the fact that the narration is conducted from third person.
All three central characters of the novel are an expression of different sides of the extraordinary personality of their creator. The image of the artist Basil Hallward is connected with the problem of art in the novel: the theme of the artist and creativity, the image of the creative act. The voice of Wilde's philosophy in the novel is Lord Henry Wotton, while Dorian Gray experiments with dandyism in practice. Unlike the Frenchman Huysmans, who sought salvation for his hero along the paths of Catholicism, the Irishman Wilde, working in the tradition of the English moralistic novel, ultimately leads his hero to complete collapse. The dead ends of sensuality, the dead ends of hedonism and the philosophy of permissiveness in this novel are clearly marked both by the plot itself and by the arrangement of images.
Basil Hallward, creator of The Portrait of Dorian Gray, is a talented artist who is in love with Beauty. In his image, the author gives a brilliant study of the psychology of artistic creativity, which, of course, is not subject to the laws of morality. It is not at all necessary for talent to be aware of its nature, but Basil dangerously approaches such an awareness in the history of his relationship with Dorian: his Victorian conscience is confused by the truths about the sensual basis of his work that are revealed to him. When their friendship with Dorian is interrupted, he returns to his usual level of painting, but continues to watch Dorian anxiously from a distance. Psychologically, it is very convincing that Basil is the only one who undertakes to read morality to Dorian (Chapter XII), exhorts him to abandon a vicious life, he wants to “see the soul” of Dorian, as only the Lord God can. Dorian, in response, shows the artist a portrait (Chapter XIII), "eaten from the inside by the leprosy of vice", Basil, in horror, urges Dorian to pray together. And this normal reaction of a person for whom conscience and morality are not empty words provokes Dorian to kill the artist, whom he blames for his misfortunes. You can kill the creator of the portrait, but the portrait itself, the symbol of the soul, cannot be destroyed, just as it is impossible to destroy the eternal soul. Hallward is the creator of the portrait of Dorian Gray, and the creator of the true Dorian is Lord Henry Wotton.
The plot functions of the image of Lord Henry are to be a mentor, a demon-tempter for the innocent Dorian. Lord Henry penetrates the soul of the young man and takes possession of it, he corrupts the young man with the philosophy of hedonism, the cult of youth and beauty. In his external manifestations, he fully meets the ideal of a dandy, his appearance and manners are impeccable. Lord Henry wears lacquered boots, plays with an ebony cane, strokes his neat dark beard, gesticulates gracefully, puffs intricate puffs of smoke while smoking opium cigarettes, picks off daisy petals or twists an olive in his fingers while talking.
But not a verbal portrait is the main way to create the image of Lord Henry. He, like his creator, is a genius of conversation, a genius of conversation, the word for him is a natural way of being. The author endows the lord with a wonderful sonorous voice that sounds like music, sometimes languidly, sometimes energetically. Lord Henry's speech is a collection of vivid, memorable paradoxes and aphorisms, well-aimed and evil judgments, he has mastered the art of never being boring. It captivates mature and young minds alike; on the possession of the word no less than on his title and wealth, the social position of the lord is based. The author does not tire of emphasizing the wit and colorfulness of his speeches: “What he said was fascinating, irresponsible, contrary to logic and reason. The listeners laughed, but were involuntarily fascinated and meekly followed the flight of his imagination, like children follow the legendary piper.
Henry Wotton almost always says things that are contrary to conventional wisdom. For example, he opposes the intellect, against rationality, while since the Enlightenment, rationality has been recognized as the defining, best property of a person. For Lord Henry, “a highly developed intellect is in itself an anomaly; it disturbs the harmony of the face. As soon as a person begins to think, his nose stretches disproportionately, or his forehead grows, or something else spoils his face. But a person who lives by the word cannot be truly anti-intellectual. Therefore, Lord Henry, for whom the whole world is just an excuse for playing with words, finds excellent philosophical and logical justifications for this position, deploying the philosophy of hedonism to the enchanted Dorian and the reader.
Appreciating the fleeting pleasures of youth, extracting maximum pleasure from life - this is an ethics that is the opposite of Victorian ideas about morality, and in reasoning about morality (and this word does not leave the lips of Lord Henry), a new level of his reflection is visible:
To be good means to live in harmony with oneself. And whoever is forced to live in harmony with others, he is at odds with himself. Your life is the most important thing. Philistines or Puritans can, if they please, impose their moral rules on others, but I maintain that it is not our business to interfere in the lives of our neighbors. Moreover, individualism undoubtedly has higher goals. Modern morality requires us to share the generally accepted notions of our age. But I believe that a cultured person should in no case humbly accept the measure of his time - this is the grossest form of immorality (Chapter VI).
Individualism, rejection of philistinism and puritanism - this is what is preserved in the philosophy of Lord Henry from classical dandyism, while what is new with him is the open preaching of beauty and pleasure introduced by aestheticism. In the same scene, Lord Henry expresses his ideal of "supreme pleasure, subtle and sharp, but leaving you unsatisfied" - this is a cigarette.
In expressing all these paradoxes on which his success in social drawing rooms is based, Lord Wotton himself follows only those aspects of his ideal that fit into the framework of generally accepted morality. He does not drop his rank in anything, lives on fashionable Curzon Street, is married, and although he rarely sees his wife, they jointly visit their parents and stay outside the city, maintaining in the eyes of others the appearance of a normal family life.
Lord Henry is primarily a man of the world, and throughout the novel he does not commit a single act that confirms his originality, which is manifested only in words. Oscar Wilde reproached himself for the same thing for a long time, and it was not for nothing that he wrote about the novel: “I'm afraid that it is like my life - continuous talk and no action.” In a late conversation with Dorian, Lord Henry emphasizes: “Murder is always a miss. You should never do anything that you can’t talk to people about after dinner” (Chapter XIX). So, from the point of view of dandyism, Lord Henry reveals a duality: in words he defends the elevation of the principles of dandyism to the level of philosophy, in fact he leads a rather conformist way of life.
If Watton's dandyism is theoretical, purely intellectual, and his challenge to society is limited to words, then Dorian Gray embodies theory in practice. Lord Henry deliberately chooses Dorian Gray as a student, attracted primarily by his appearance: “This young man was really amazingly handsome, and something in his face immediately inspired confidence. He felt the sincerity and purity of youth, its chaste ardor. It was easy to believe that life had not polluted this young soul in any way” (Chapter II). It is this innocence and ardor that attracts Lord Henry when he thinks "to pour his soul into another ... to transfer his temperament to another as the finest fluid or peculiar aroma" (chapter III). The author conveys the course of Lord Henry's thoughts: “... something wonderful can be made from it. He has everything - charm, the snow-white purity of youth and beauty, the beauty that the ancient Greeks captured in marble. You can mold anything out of it, make it a titan - or a toy ”(ibid.).
And Dorian from the first meeting falls under the spell of Lord Henry, he feels that this stranger reads in his soul, as in an open book, and at the same time "reveals to him all the secrets of life." Dorian's hesitation before he agrees to friendship with Lord Henry is not long at all, the author does not linger on his fear, on the young man's feeling that life is a foregone conclusion. Unlike Lord Henry Dorian, a man of little intelligence and non-verbal, the word for him is not the preferred way of self-expression. Already in the first conversation between Basil Hallward and Lord Henry about Dorian, we learn that "sometimes he is terribly insensitive, and he seems to like to torment" (Chapter I) his older friend.
Watton's great monologue, addressed to Dorian at the moment of their acquaintance, awakens new thoughts and feelings in the young man, which he is "vaguely aware of", and "it seemed to him that they did not come from outside, but rose from the depths of his being" (chapter II). The author emphasizes the mutual attraction between Lord Henry and Dorian: Dorian naturally has those properties that make him especially receptive to Lord Henry's preaching. Half an hour after meeting him, Dorian shocks Basil Hallward with a threat to commit suicide when he notices the first signs of aging, and expresses envy at the newly completed portrait: “If the portrait changed, but I could always remain the same as now! Why did you write it? There will come a time when he will tease me, mock me all the time!” (Chapter II). He really behaves like a "stupid boy", and just like a silly boy he is offended when he is told about it.
Dorian takes Lord Henry's maxim as a guide to action: "The true secret of happiness is in the search for beauty" (chapter IV). The author does not hesitate to send him the first test of love for Sybil Vane. When he is with her, he is ashamed of all that Lord Henry has taught him: "at one touch of her hand I forget you and your fascinating but poisonous and false theories" (chapter VI). Wilde the moralist recognizes the superiority of pure love over "poisonous" theories, but at the same time shows that evil has already happened, these theories have penetrated Dorian's flesh and blood. Sibylle is completely incomprehensible to the motives for his refusal to marry - she cannot come to terms with the fact that he loved in her only the talent of an actress, only the Shakespearean heroines she embodied, and not a living girl. After Sibylla's suicide, the portrait, the true mirror of his soul, shows the first cruel wrinkle at the mouth, and the same Lord Henry helps Dorian to cope with remorse.
From that moment on, Dorian begins to lead a double life: a shiny secular surface hides a criminal essence. The author does not decipher the deaf allusions and obscure gossip about Dorian; what vices he indulges in in the slums of the East End and during his absences is not directly stated, and this makes the reader suspect the worst. As the proportion of these unnamed crimes increases in Dorian's life, as the shadows around his name thicken, the author devotes more and more space to describing the luxury of useless and priceless objects with which the hero surrounds himself. Like Huysmans, Wilde devotes entire pages to descriptions of collections of embroideries, fabrics, tapestries, incense, musical instruments, precious stones, but these descriptions are not an end in themselves. Their meaning is not so much to illustrate the sophistication of the hero’s tastes, but to paradoxically emphasize his moral inferiority - “these treasures, like everything that Dorian Gray collected in his superbly cleaned house, helped him to forget at least for a while, to be saved from fear, which at times became unbearable.
Evil becomes for him one of the means of realizing what he considers the beauty of life. The process of moral decline ends with the murder of Basil Hallward - poor Dorian is completely entangled between the requirements of morality, which his conscience-portrait prompts him, and his "poisoned theories".
Dorian plunges into sensual life, for which he was created and prepared by communication with Lord Henry. The author attributes to Dorian the achievement of his own ideal: “... for Dorian, Life itself was the first and greatest of the arts, and all other arts were only a threshold to it. Of course, he paid tribute to both Fashion, ... and Dandyism, as a kind of desire to prove the absoluteness of the conventional concept of beauty ”(Chapter XI).
He is characterized by the desire to play a role more significant than the role of just a trendsetter, he is tormented by the desire to follow Lord Henry to become a spiritual leader, for which objectively he does not have any qualities. And yet, “in the depths of his soul, he wanted to play a role more significant than a simple “arbiter elegantiarum”, who is asked for advice on what jewelry to wear, how to tie a tie or how to carry a cane. He dreamed of creating a new philosophy of life, which would have its own rationale, its own consistent principles, and saw the highest meaning of life in the spiritualization of feelings and sensations. The new hedonism, according to Wilde, “will resort to the services of the intellect, but will not replace the diverse experience of passions with any theories or teachings. The goal of hedonism is precisely this experience in itself, and not its fruits, bitter or sweet” (Chapter XI).
Accordingly, in the image of Dorian, the author emphasizes the spontaneity, spontaneity of his emotional life. Dorian lives stormily, richly, without reflecting and not particularly disguising his sinful aspirations, but still he is not recklessly frivolous, does not neglect the opinion of the world and, in general, observes decency. But the main thing is that the magic of eternal youth allows him to maintain in the eyes of society the impression of charming purity. In love only with himself, he finds perverse pleasure in the constant comparison of his reflection in the mirror with an increasingly repulsive portrait: “The more striking the contrast between the one and the other became, the more Dorian enjoyed it. He fell more and more in love with his own beauty and watched with increasing interest the decay of his soul ”(Chapter XI). He is tormented by a “wolf hunger” for life, an insatiable curiosity for it, awakened by Lord Henry. And life in all its fullness is not only beautiful, but also violent; stupidity, low passions, violence are an integral element in the beauty of life, so the ardent Dorian easily commits cruel deeds.
Already after parting with Sybil, “that purple speck appeared in his brain that makes a person insane.” In response to the reproaches of Basil Hodlward, who penetrated the secret of the portrait, the fury of a hunted beast woke up in Dorian, pushing him to kill. Dorian is also guilty of many other deaths and human tragedies, and no hedonistic reasoning can drown out this burden of guilt on his conscience. He, like a "stupid boy", splashes out his anger on the portrait, and Wilde the moralist triumphs at the end of the novel.
The purely moralistic finale of the novel - the punishment of licentiousness, permissiveness, the collapse of the philosophy of hedonism - can be interpreted both as the author's concession to the conventions of the novel of the 19th century, which implied the obligatory debunking of vice, and as an affirmation of the main principle of aestheticism about the superiority of art over life. Exhausted by remorse, Dorian, standing in front of a disgustingly grinning portrait, decides “to end the supernatural life of the soul in the portrait, and when these ominous warnings cease, he will again find peace. Dorian grabbed a knife and plunged it into the portrait.
The word recedes before the image of the supernatural. What exactly happens at this moment of denouement, the author is silent. He abruptly changes his point of view - through the eyes of the servants who have come running to the “cry of death torment”, the reader sees on the wall of the forbidden room a magnificent portrait of Dorian Gray “in all the splendor of his wondrous youth and beauty. And on the floor with a knife in his hand lay a dead man in a tailcoat. His face too was wrinkled, withered, repulsive. And only by the rings on the hands of the servants did they find out who it was, ”these are the final words of the last, XX chapter of the novel. The radiance of the portrait over the corpse in this final scene embodies the romantic idea of eternity, the incorruptibility of art, of its ability to reflect life more deeply than it is often capable of knowing itself.
Thus, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel that embodies the basic principle of aestheticism, the cult of youth and beauty, and raises the question of the price to be paid for eternal Beauty. The portrait takes on its original appearance, showing that beauty can only be imperishable in the realm of art; Dorian, on the other hand, has to give his soul and life for beauty. But the society depicted in the novel is not interested in souls, it readily judges people by their appearance. Since Dorian is invariably handsome and young, his face expresses innocence and purity, a society that does not see the difference between the external and ethical side of life does not want to hear dark rumors about Dorian. As Lady Narborough says to Dorian in Chapter XV of the novel, "You can't be bad - you can see it in your face."
From the point of view of form, the novel is quite traditional for the literature of the 19th century, including the manner in which it discusses ideological and ethical issues. It is ideology and ethics that contain those features of the novel that made it so popular with readers and critics of the 20th century with their interest in the problems of subjectivity, sexuality, and marginality in literature.
"The Picture of Dorian Gray", analysis of the novel
In this novel, Wilde's aesthetic ideal was most fully embodied: the absolutization of creativity and the creative personality, the opposition of the inner world of a person to soulless, rough reality, the proclamation of enjoying the meaning of existence (hedonism). The writer made the topic of correlation of aesthetic problems with the ethical norms of society the main one, starting with the preface, and ended with an experiment on the life of the protagonist - Dorian Gray.
The preface to the novel consists of 25 aphorisms that declare the author's aesthetic program. In a paradoxical way, the main principles of aestheticism are repeated: “The artist is the creator of the beautiful”, “To reveal oneself and hide the creator - this is what art craves”, “The chosen ones are those for whom beauty means only one thing - Beauty”. The writer did not disregard the questions of the morality of art, dividing these concepts as incompatible. "The ethical preferences of the creator lead to mannerisms of style", "Vices and virtues for the creator are the material of art." But, despite this, the life of the protagonist demonstrates the danger of an artificial separation of ethical and aesthetic principles.
Plot
The author put Dorian Gray in a fantastic situation: he is given eternal youth and beauty, and his image in the portrait grows old and becomes ugly, terrible. The rich, handsome young man plunged into the world of pleasures after his teacher Lord Henry Wotton, who suggested the idea of eternal youth, admiring the portrait of Dorian in the studio of the artist Basil Hallward. The artist, struck by the purity of young Gray, put his dreams, feelings, his vision of beauty, “himself” into the portrait. A beautiful work of art has received a part of the soul of the creator, capable of influencing others and conquering them. But Dorian Gray was attracted not by the feelings of Basil, but by the ideas of Lord Henry, according to whom a person should not trust art, not learn beauty from him, but independently seek it in life.
Between the artist and the lord, a struggle flares up for the soul and beauty of the young man, in which Lord Henry wins on the very first pages of the novel, probably because his words fell on fertile ground.
Dorian Gray followed his new teacher without much hesitation, exchanging his own soul for the search for eternal pleasures. With the help of fantastic techniques, the author materialized the words of the young man: “If I could remain forever young, but the portrait would grow old. For this… for this… I would give anything.” And the portrait created by Basil took upon himself both the burden of time and the moral responsibility for the thirst for thrills.
Pleasure always requires sacrifice. The first tribute was the love of the young actress Sybille Vane. But love quickly passed when Sybil, having fallen in love with a handsome young man, could no longer portray love on stage. Having not received pleasure from the performance, Dorian Gray rudely pushed the girl away not only from himself, but also from life, she poisoned herself. This was the first crime that was reflected in the portrait. At first it frightened Dorian, but selfishness won out: he hid the portrait and began a new life.
This new life was double. In society, Gray is a brilliant dandy, an idol of youth. Hungry for new, extraordinary sensations, the eternal youth, furnished his house with splendor, collected a collection of tapestries and the rarest perfumes, precious stones and exotic musical instruments. The expanse of the novel is closed within the boundaries of rooms, caskets, bottles. There are no descriptions of nature, this is the dead beauty of Dorian Gray.
Dorian soon became little fancy things and a lonely life. From secular salons, he moved to dirty dens, opium dens, followed by dark gossip. The first to whom Dorian revealed the secret of the portrait was Basil. He showed this portrait as a mockery thrown in response to the artist's attempts to reason with the young man. Basil is terrified by the real face of Dorian, the once beautiful portrait now depicts a voluptuous old man, disfigured by vices and atrocities. But Gray himself cannot but be horrified by this spectacle, he begins to blame Basil for his vices and behavior, in a fit of rage Dorian killed the artist with a dagger, he got rid of the corpse by dissolving it in nitric acid.
Too late, Dorian begins to be tormented by pangs of conscience, he begins to envy all people whose conscience is pure and blameless, in the end he decides that the portrait is his own conscience and decides to get rid of it and thereby alleviate his mental anguish. With the same dagger with which Basil had previously taken his life, Dorian rushes at the terrible portrait. The servants who woke up from a scream found the corpse of an ugly old man next to the portrait of a beautiful young man, it was only possible to find out that this was the corpse of Dorian Gray by the rings on his fingers ...
