The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2: Still Text
Dorian is looking at some of Basil's piano music when they come in, and he immediately starts bitching, until he sees that Basil is accompanied by a Handsome Stranger. Then he becomes all coy charm and "Who's your friend?" I'm not saying I'd like this book would be better if it were straight (I mean, you know me), I'm just saying Wilde wouldn't even have to overcome his misogyny to cast Dorian as a girl. He's beautiful, emotional, and capricious. His only accomplishment is playing piano. I mean, really.
There's some protracted arguing about whether or not Lord Henry will stay and talk to Dorian during the painting session, with Dorian's position being OH YOU MUST STAY BEING PAINTED IS SO BORING, and Basil's position being DUDE, SOCK ON THE DOOR, and Lord Henry's changing by the moment to annoy them both. He does stay, of course. Basil tells Dorian not to pay any attention to what Lord Henry says as he is a bad influence. He then goes into a painting trance and tunes out the conversation, and Lord Henry proceeds to be a bad influence.
I think. See if you can make sense of his argument. I have conveniently provided it for you in outline form.
I. "All influence is immoral"
A. "There is no such thing as a good influence"
B. "to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions"
II. "To realize one's nature perfectly -- that is what each of us is here for"
A. "if one man were to live out his life fully... give form to every feeling, expression to every thought... the world would"
1. "gain a fresh impulse of joy"
2. "forget all the maladies of mediaevalism"
3. "return to the Hellenic ideal"
B. "Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us."
1. "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
2. "Resist it, and your soul grows sick with... desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful"
III. "You, Mr. Gray, you yourself... have had"
A. "passions that have made you afraid"
B. "thoughts that have fined you with terror"
C. "day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame -- "
Here Dorian cuts him off, "Stop!", and stands lost in thought: "The few words that Basil's friend had said to him... had touched some secret chord that had never been touched before, but that he felt was now vibrating and throbbing to curious pulses." Ew. "Yes; there had been things in his boyhood that he had not understood. He understood them now." What things? No, I mean... what things are we supposed to think? Meanwhile, Lord Henry "was amazed at the sudden impression that his words had produced, and, remembering a book that he had read when he was sixteen, a book which had revealed to him much that he had not known before, he wondered whether Dorian Gray was passing through a similar experience." WHAT BOOK?
Seriously, what is the text here? The subtext is coming through loud and clear (Hellenic ideal anyone?) but I really don't understand what, exactly, in Lord Henry's speech--which is really vague if you don't count the gay bingo keywords--is supposed to be striking this chord in Dorian. Surely he has heard of sin or whatever before.
Look. I know that Oscar Wilde could get away with a lot that future writers wouldn't have been able to because of the time in which he lived; that homosexuality, as an identity, complete with stereotypical characterizations and wink-wink hints, wasn't really a thing before the sensational trials that would out and condemn Wilde himself in the future; that, prior to the rise of that identity, grand passions of friendship between men were considered to be normal, even praiseworthy; that the idea of coupledom as affection + sex (marriage optional) is modern, and that the Victorians were more likely think that friendship = affection and marriage = sex (affection optional); and that the idea of two men having sex was so--not just sinful, but just weird, that it didn't just immediately spring to people's minds as something that a book would be super-secretly be about. BUT STILL, I MEAN, REALLY.
Dorian asks Basil for a break. Basil says sure and thanks him for doing such a good job of sitting and looking pretty today (I guess the look of gears slowly turning in his head is very attractive). He finished up the background while Dorian goes to clear his head in the garden. Lord Henry follows him to watch the transcendent loveliness of Dorian rubbing his head in a bush (Okay, okay, "burying his face in the great cool lilac-blossoms, feverishly drinking in their perfume as if it had been wine." Like I said.)
Lord Henry tells Dorian not to get sunburned, because he's sooooooo hottt and he mustn't ruin the one thing he's got going for him. He goes on about beauty at length, saying it's better than genius, but that it's fleeting: "youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you." Too mean! He continues at length on the themes of Beautiful People Are Great; Ugly Are Boring; Old People Are Ugly; Live Life To Its Fullest While You Are Still Pretty; Living Life to Its Fullest Means Having Lots of Sex Yielding To Temptation. He concludes with a stirring, "Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!" So, nice and restrained.
Basil calls them both in to see the finished painting. The painting is great! Lord Henry offers to buy it for any price. Basil says it's not his to sell; it was promised to Dorian before he painted it. Both look at Dorian expectantly. Dorian says: "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it were only the other way! 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! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"
You know, IN CASE ANYONE IS IN A POSITION TO OFFER. Basil says he would "object very strongly" to that arrangement. Ha ha ha ha. Good point.
Dorian says he'll kill himself before he gets old. (His generation!) Basil is shocked and blames Lord Henry for putting such ideas in his pretty little head. Lord Henry replies that, well, what did anyone expect, jeez, he was GOING to go to lunch, it was Basil who asked him to stay (not really). Dorian whines some more about being jealous of the painting. Basil gets fed up and picks up a knife to slice up the canvas, but at the last moment, Dorian stays his hand: "It would be murder!" Lord Henry laughs at them both for being absurd. Man, you started it.
Lord Henry invites them both to the theatre with him. Basil doesn't want to go; he doesn't like getting dressed up, and he has work he wants to do. Dorian says he'll go. Basil asks him to have dinner with him instead. Dorian hesitates, but then decides to go with Lord Henry. Basil asks Lord Henry to "remember what I asked you in the garden," about not "influencing" Dorian, and says, "I trust you." Oh, now, that's just a red flag in front of a bull for Lord Henry. Oscar Wilde is powerless over himself!
I'm open to the possibility that I'm oversimplifying things, but I posit that this book would be exactly the same if you search and replaced every verb "influence" with the verb "bone."
Lord Henry Has Been Reading the Quotable Oscar Wilde: Chapter 2
There's some protracted arguing about whether or not Lord Henry will stay and talk to Dorian during the painting session, with Dorian's position being OH YOU MUST STAY BEING PAINTED IS SO BORING, and Basil's position being DUDE, SOCK ON THE DOOR, and Lord Henry's changing by the moment to annoy them both. He does stay, of course. Basil tells Dorian not to pay any attention to what Lord Henry says as he is a bad influence. He then goes into a painting trance and tunes out the conversation, and Lord Henry proceeds to be a bad influence.
I think. See if you can make sense of his argument. I have conveniently provided it for you in outline form.
I. "All influence is immoral"
A. "There is no such thing as a good influence"
B. "to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions"
II. "To realize one's nature perfectly -- that is what each of us is here for"
A. "if one man were to live out his life fully... give form to every feeling, expression to every thought... the world would"
1. "gain a fresh impulse of joy"
2. "forget all the maladies of mediaevalism"
3. "return to the Hellenic ideal"
B. "Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us."
1. "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
2. "Resist it, and your soul grows sick with... desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful"
III. "You, Mr. Gray, you yourself... have had"
A. "passions that have made you afraid"
B. "thoughts that have fined you with terror"
C. "day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame -- "
Here Dorian cuts him off, "Stop!", and stands lost in thought: "The few words that Basil's friend had said to him... had touched some secret chord that had never been touched before, but that he felt was now vibrating and throbbing to curious pulses." Ew. "Yes; there had been things in his boyhood that he had not understood. He understood them now." What things? No, I mean... what things are we supposed to think? Meanwhile, Lord Henry "was amazed at the sudden impression that his words had produced, and, remembering a book that he had read when he was sixteen, a book which had revealed to him much that he had not known before, he wondered whether Dorian Gray was passing through a similar experience." WHAT BOOK?
Seriously, what is the text here? The subtext is coming through loud and clear (Hellenic ideal anyone?) but I really don't understand what, exactly, in Lord Henry's speech--which is really vague if you don't count the gay bingo keywords--is supposed to be striking this chord in Dorian. Surely he has heard of sin or whatever before.
Look. I know that Oscar Wilde could get away with a lot that future writers wouldn't have been able to because of the time in which he lived; that homosexuality, as an identity, complete with stereotypical characterizations and wink-wink hints, wasn't really a thing before the sensational trials that would out and condemn Wilde himself in the future; that, prior to the rise of that identity, grand passions of friendship between men were considered to be normal, even praiseworthy; that the idea of coupledom as affection + sex (marriage optional) is modern, and that the Victorians were more likely think that friendship = affection and marriage = sex (affection optional); and that the idea of two men having sex was so--not just sinful, but just weird, that it didn't just immediately spring to people's minds as something that a book would be super-secretly be about. BUT STILL, I MEAN, REALLY.
Dorian asks Basil for a break. Basil says sure and thanks him for doing such a good job of sitting and looking pretty today (I guess the look of gears slowly turning in his head is very attractive). He finished up the background while Dorian goes to clear his head in the garden. Lord Henry follows him to watch the transcendent loveliness of Dorian rubbing his head in a bush (Okay, okay, "burying his face in the great cool lilac-blossoms, feverishly drinking in their perfume as if it had been wine." Like I said.)
Lord Henry tells Dorian not to get sunburned, because he's sooooooo hottt and he mustn't ruin the one thing he's got going for him. He goes on about beauty at length, saying it's better than genius, but that it's fleeting: "youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you." Too mean! He continues at length on the themes of Beautiful People Are Great; Ugly Are Boring; Old People Are Ugly; Live Life To Its Fullest While You Are Still Pretty; Living Life to Its Fullest Means Having Lots of Sex Yielding To Temptation. He concludes with a stirring, "Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!" So, nice and restrained.
Basil calls them both in to see the finished painting. The painting is great! Lord Henry offers to buy it for any price. Basil says it's not his to sell; it was promised to Dorian before he painted it. Both look at Dorian expectantly. Dorian says: "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it were only the other way! 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! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"
You know, IN CASE ANYONE IS IN A POSITION TO OFFER. Basil says he would "object very strongly" to that arrangement. Ha ha ha ha. Good point.
Dorian says he'll kill himself before he gets old. (His generation!) Basil is shocked and blames Lord Henry for putting such ideas in his pretty little head. Lord Henry replies that, well, what did anyone expect, jeez, he was GOING to go to lunch, it was Basil who asked him to stay (not really). Dorian whines some more about being jealous of the painting. Basil gets fed up and picks up a knife to slice up the canvas, but at the last moment, Dorian stays his hand: "It would be murder!" Lord Henry laughs at them both for being absurd. Man, you started it.
Lord Henry invites them both to the theatre with him. Basil doesn't want to go; he doesn't like getting dressed up, and he has work he wants to do. Dorian says he'll go. Basil asks him to have dinner with him instead. Dorian hesitates, but then decides to go with Lord Henry. Basil asks Lord Henry to "remember what I asked you in the garden," about not "influencing" Dorian, and says, "I trust you." Oh, now, that's just a red flag in front of a bull for Lord Henry. Oscar Wilde is powerless over himself!
I'm open to the possibility that I'm oversimplifying things, but I posit that this book would be exactly the same if you search and replaced every verb "influence" with the verb "bone."
Lord Henry Has Been Reading the Quotable Oscar Wilde: Chapter 2
- "It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances."
- "The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer."
- "I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex."
- "Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot."