The Picture of Dorian Gray Entry 1

I started reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde today. What drew me to this book was the supernatural aspect of it. The idea that a portrait could get older, but not the person sounded interesting to me. I was a little surprised at how philosophical it was. I felt like I was taking a class on the meaning of life. It was only the third page of the book when the character Basil said, " There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of Kings." I didn't understand what he meant by that. How could having beauty and intelligence be a bad thing? But as I kept reading he went on to explain how not knowing much spared you from knowing about the ugly things in life. He also goes onto say that himself, Lord Henry, and Dorian will all suffer for their gifts. I guess on some level I understand what he's saying, something along the lines of you can't miss what you don't have. But at the same time those people will never know the joy of those gifts either.

Later, Lord Henry goes on to make comment about genius. How we over educate ourselves in the hope that what we know will somehow endure time. He put it , " we fill our minds with rubbish and facts in the silly hope of keeping our place." I agree and education has always been a necessity. But why? I never thought about why, only that it was something that I had to do. And the truth is that we educate ourselves so that we are not left behind. Education is something that is world wide and in order to not fall behind the rest of the world we educate ourselves. So that we can compete on a mental level. I always wondered about the lives of people who didn't go to school. Maybe they're family lives in a rural place where education isn't important. Are they happier or do they feel left behind? It also brings up the question in my mind: should we only know what we need to know or does knowing more things help us better understand the world or do the things that are excess knowledge just sit in our brains and collect dust? Lord Henry seems to think that the amount of time put into education is unnecessary.

Later in the second chapter Lord Henry meets Dorian Gray and gets on the subject of youth, which I suspect will be a theme in the book. He starts talking about youth and how it's the only time you can, " live really, perfectly, and fully." He goes on a whole rampage of seizing the day and how once your older they're will be no more triumphs for you. The way he talks about getting older is very frightening. He says, "The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of passions of which we were too much afraid and exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to." Myself having a bit of Peter Pan syndrome, thought that this was horrible. It this really what I have to look forward to? I had thought that my silly fear of growing up was childish and was all in my head, but Lord Henry just confirmed my fears. I tried to snap out of it and tell myself that it was just a book, that it doesn't mean anything, but much of the same way Dorian was fascinated by Lord Henry so was I. Then I started to think that I really hope that he isn't right because being young doesn't seem to be as glamorous as he depicts it to be.I haven't met one teenager who says, " These are the best days of my life." It's actually quite the opposite. Maybe when I turn 20 magically my life will be glamorous as Lord Henry describes.

When Dorian saw his portrait and got upset, which surprised me. I myself don't like the idea of growing old, but Dorian took his fear to an extreme level. He even threatened to kill himself when he starts to grow old. The first thing I thought was he's over reacting, and that Henry had changed him in only a few hours. Dorian exclaimed, " If it were I who was to be always young and the picture that was to grow old! For that-for that- I would give everything!" This is 100% foreshadowing what's going to happen in the rest of the book. I don't know how, but Dorian most likely will sell his soul to be forever young. Even though it seems like a good idea to be young forever. I don't think I would choose it, if I could. After a while it would be sad to see your friends and family die of old age and you would be the only one left. Realistically it would be a lot of work and eventually you'd get tired of it.