Oscar Wilde
Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
"Those who find ugly meaning in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope"
Yesterdays tutorial centred around this preface. After reading the preface these lines stood out for me. How many of us actually look at something and try to find the faults rather than the beauty in things? I know that for myself, when it comes to people, books, art or anything for that matter, my first instinct is to look for the bad things in it. When i meet a person for the first time i tend to look at what is wrong with them and that always impacts on my impression on them. I dont seem to give people the benfit of the doubt and let them show me their faults and good points themselves and explain themselves, i jump straight to coclusions be them right or wrong.
I think that this is true to what Wilde is trying to convey in this preface and especially in these few sentences. He is saying that the way that people see things can perhaps depend on the way that they ahve been brought up. Their class and social standing has something to do with the way they view literature, people and the world in general. this is true to an extent.
I went to both a private co-ed school (K-10) and a private girls school (11-12) and i noticed that the way that people at my first read things spoke and generally interacted with people was different.Some people may put this down to the fact that my first school was a greek only school that didnt really have the opportunity for interaction with other cultures. Whereas the school i did my HSC at, was very much a multicultural school, however that didnt seem to matter with the girls. I had never been in an environment that really tolerated other cultures and especially religions. Having been at a greek school, which was greek orthodox by dominationa nd then going to an anglican school was a huge shock.
So i guess in connection with these lines, when i was at St Spyridon, my first school, i only saw things from a very Greek point of view, i had so many greek influences in the way i viewed things that i didnt really know any different, so in that way i was corrupt in tha way i viewed things, because if something didnt fit into my greek mindset then it was ugly. However when i changed schools and my new friends brought me down from my Greek high horse, i soon realised that i had been missing out on so many opportunities and missing the chances to meet people that could have been potentially great friends. so in this sense, i became more cultivated and there was hope agian for me.
"Those who find ugly meaning in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope"
Yesterdays tutorial centred around this preface. After reading the preface these lines stood out for me. How many of us actually look at something and try to find the faults rather than the beauty in things? I know that for myself, when it comes to people, books, art or anything for that matter, my first instinct is to look for the bad things in it. When i meet a person for the first time i tend to look at what is wrong with them and that always impacts on my impression on them. I dont seem to give people the benfit of the doubt and let them show me their faults and good points themselves and explain themselves, i jump straight to coclusions be them right or wrong.
I think that this is true to what Wilde is trying to convey in this preface and especially in these few sentences. He is saying that the way that people see things can perhaps depend on the way that they ahve been brought up. Their class and social standing has something to do with the way they view literature, people and the world in general. this is true to an extent.
I went to both a private co-ed school (K-10) and a private girls school (11-12) and i noticed that the way that people at my first read things spoke and generally interacted with people was different.Some people may put this down to the fact that my first school was a greek only school that didnt really have the opportunity for interaction with other cultures. Whereas the school i did my HSC at, was very much a multicultural school, however that didnt seem to matter with the girls. I had never been in an environment that really tolerated other cultures and especially religions. Having been at a greek school, which was greek orthodox by dominationa nd then going to an anglican school was a huge shock.
So i guess in connection with these lines, when i was at St Spyridon, my first school, i only saw things from a very Greek point of view, i had so many greek influences in the way i viewed things that i didnt really know any different, so in that way i was corrupt in tha way i viewed things, because if something didnt fit into my greek mindset then it was ugly. However when i changed schools and my new friends brought me down from my Greek high horse, i soon realised that i had been missing out on so many opportunities and missing the chances to meet people that could have been potentially great friends. so in this sense, i became more cultivated and there was hope agian for me.