Day Seventy-Nine

6/19

The Book: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

ISBN: 1-59308-025-5

Suggested By: Brenda Mora

Where: Moonbeans

When: 2:30-3P

Music: Explosions in the Sky

Company: Alone

Pages: 1-55 (55)

The Lead In: If I were to point out the strength of this book, I would say it is the dialogue, Wilde really sprinkles wit throughout. His characters are amusing in the conversations between them.

The 411 on the 55: Dorian is growing up. Simplistic, yes, but learning the harshness and beauty of life. He falls in love with an actress. She embodies the beauty that he has set as his life pursuit. Hours after mentioning his new-found love to Harry (Lord Henry), he sends a notice to him announcing his intention to marry her. He is wasting no time. Sybil, his new muse, is just as thrilled. Her mother is worries and her brother is furious, threatening Dorian’s life if he hurts Sybil’s feelings. And does he!

Dorian brings Harry and Basil to the play to see Sybil act as Juliet. Instead of being good, she is embarrassingly bad, which leads Harry to make some hilarious and rude comments about her, while Basil attempts to protect her from scorn. Dorian sides with Harry and is disgusted. He goes backstage and calls it all off. Sybil is crushed. And...we find out later...kills herself that night.

When Dorian gets home, he discovers that the painting Basil has given him looks crueler. However, when he looks in the mirror, he see no such mark.

Two quick notes

1. Sybil’s explanation for her bad acting is well-thought out and persuasive. Prior to falling in love, she had poured herself into the emotions of her characters, but now, she had her own emotions and could not identify with her roles.

2. Basil and Harry are constrasting. Basil is the artist view of life, while Harry is a bit of a hedonist. Dorian fluctuates between their opinions and ideas.

Line of the Day: “The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror. We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbor with the possession of those virtues that are likely to be a benefit to us...I have the greatest contempt for optimism.” pg 79

The Fact on the Fiction: “In December 1881, Oscar Wilde sailed for New York to travel across the United States and deliver a series of lectures on aesthetics. The 50-lecture tour was originally scheduled to last four months, but stretched to nearly a year, with over 140 lectures given in 260 days. In between lectures he made time to meet with Henry Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Walt Whitman.” Wilde