Sunday, February 22, 2009

Frebruary Vacation

1. To be a true friend you have to be a fake person.

2. To feel love you have to feel hate first.

3. People always want to escape life, but are afraid of death.

4. People always want the truth, but they don't always give it.

5. One lie; a small hole forms under you, when asked where that hole came from; two lies; the hold gets bigger. Three, four, five lies; a never ending hole where you are stuck forever.

6. People always want people to like them for who they are, but to people to like them, they are a completely different person.

7. To show people who you really are, you have to show them who you really aren't first.

8. We expect someone to forgive us right away, but we expect them to understand that we cannot forgive them right away.

9. Family is the only real, true thing in life

10. Life is like a light bulb, you shine brightly and help others around you for so long, and then with one final switch, your gone.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 11

"Indeed, what right had Basil to have spoken to him as he had done? Who had made him a judge over others? He has said things that were dreadful, horrible, not to be endured" (190).

Dorian completely contradicts himself here. He says that Basil had no right to say the things he said and that he had no right to judge Dorian, but didn't Dorian just judge Basil and kill Basil? In the first place, Basil was merely trying to help Dorian, Basil didn't want anything bad to come things to Dorian, Basil says, "I want you to lead such a life as will make the world respect you". Basil was looking out for Dorian and by no means judging him and for some odd reason Dorian though it was okay to actually judge Basil and kill him. Dorian says that Basil said dreadful and horrible things, but Dorian killed the man. That is far more worse than was Dorian thinks Basil did. Dorian took an innocent life simply because he didn't want to hear the truth about himself. Dorian killed a man who was only looking out for him from the kindness of his heart with all good intentions.

"Innocent blood had been split. What could atone for that? Ah! for that there was no atonement; but though forgiveness was impossible, forgetfulness was possible still, and he was determined to forget" (189)

Again Dorian contradicts himself. Here he says that there is no atonement for what he had done, but then he goes on to try and justify what he did, with the quote at the top. Dorian really does know what he did was wrong but he is trying to justify himself, for his own sake. He is trying to convince himself that it was okay to do. He is also trying to forget it completely because he knows it will haunt him forever if he doesn't forget. He knows that he can only convince himself for so long, so he needs to forget.

mausoleum - a burial place for the bodies or remains of many individuals, often of a single family, usually in the form of a small building.
"She had proved an excellent wife to one of our most tedious ambassadors, and having buried her husband properly in a marble mausoleum" (179).

oratory - skill or eloquence in public speaking
"An alliteration prefix served as an ornament of oratory" (185).

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 10

"'You have gone from corruption to corruption, and now you have culminated in crime"' (176).

Here it can be seen that others do see Dorian's corruption, it is not hidden like he thinks it is. People hear stories and they pass them along, and not everything you hear is true, but actions speak louder than words. The way he acts towards things and the way he presents himself show that he has been very much corrupted, they show that these stories people are hearing are true. He is not the soft, naive, little boy he used to be, he is a hard, cruel corruption. For someone to be that cruel and harsh must be corrupted, the stories must be true. Dorian still seems to think that his soul and corruption is hidden within the portrait, so he thinks it is hidden from everyone and everything. With that, he does not even think twice about his actions because he thinks it will not be shown on him, not on his face, it will be shown on the face of the portrait, but little does he know that people see his actions.

"Then he stretched out his hand, took a piece of paper, and wrote something on it [...] and pushed it across the table [..] Campbell look at him in surprise, and then took up the paper and opened it. As he read it his face became ghastly pale, and hr fell back in his chair. A horrible sense of sickness came over him, He felt as if his heart was beating itself to death in some empty hollow" (174).

Here Dorian bribes Campbell to burn Basil's body. By Dorian doing this it shows just how not only cruel, but selfish Dorian is. Whatever Dorian said to Campbell or whatever Campbell has done, clearly was something so hurtful to Campbell that "he felt as if his heart was beating itself to death" (174). To cause someone that much pain by saying something to them, or threatening to do something that could ruin their life forever, you have to be completely and 100& callous and selfish. Dorian only cares about himself and will do absolutely anything and everything to make sure he is not caught of anything and to make sure his good reputation remains, but he is so caught up in the theory that no one can see his cruel actions because they are hidden in the portrait, he does to realize that his reputation is already ruined, and people do see his bad actions. Dorian has been caught.

liveries - a distinctive uniform, badge, or device formerly provided by someone of rank or title for his retainers
"He spent a long time also over breakfast, tasting various dishes, talking to his valet about some new liveries that he was thinking of getting made for the servants at Selby" (167).

precipice - a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.
"Time seems to him to be crawling with feet of lead, while he by monstrous winds was being swept toward the jagged edge of some black cleft or precipice" (171).

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 9

'"Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed. People talk of secret vies. There are no such things"' (153-154)

Basil has heard bad things of Dorian and has heard that Dorian has sinned, but he does not believe it from the beginning, because he loves and cares for Dorian so much he does not want to believe it and he is very naive. With the very clear fact that Dorian's face is still perfect, it has not aged, it has no lines, Basil is not being naive, he really does not believe, how can he? He knows that if a man has sinned it would show in their face and Dorian does not show any signs of sin, and Basil knows that there are no vices to get rid of them. Little does he know, but will soon find out, that there is one, and it lies within his greatest work of art yet.

"'You are the one man in the world who is entitled to know everything about me. You have had more to do with my life than you think"' (159)

Dorian clearly says that Basil how influenced him, when earlier he was just talking and wondering about what it was like to have someone influence you so much and here Dorian says that Basil is the one and only person in the world who can now everything about him, so clearly Basil has dominated Dorian. It seems that Dorian starts to ask questions and wonder things before even looking into them. He does not realize when something is happening to him and it seems that he does not even really care too much about anything happening to him, because nothing shows on his face, that he doesn't take notice to things happening to him, but then he later inquires about them. He does not even realize himself that he really does not care.

petulant - moved to or showing sudden, impatient irritation, esp. over some trifling annoyance
"'What is it all about?" cried Dorian in his petulant way, flinging himself on the sofa" (153)

debauchery - excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures; intemperance
"'Did I teach the one his vices and the other his debauchery?"' (155)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Picture of Dorian Gray 8

"looking now at the evil and aging face on the canvas, and now at the fair young face that laughed back at him from the polished glass [...] He grew more and more enamored of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul" (131)

Dorian seems now to not really care that much about his soul corrupting, he is more interested in it. Even when he looks at the picture and himself at the same time and sees the complete difference, and he sees his cruel soul, he still does not even care too much about it. It seems that he is just more curious in how it is all happening, how is soul is becoming so cruel and how the picture is aging and not himself.

"he would think of the ruin he had brought upon his soul, with pity that was all the more poignant because it was purely selfish. But moments such as these were rare" (131)

This quote shows again how Dorian does not really care much about his soul becoming very, very cruel. It says that he would sometimes look at the picture and know that he is being extremely selfish, but that would only happen on a rare occasion so, he really is indeed being selfish. He just loves the fact that he staying beautiful and young looking, while the picture is bearing is cruel soul and all his dark secrets where no one can see them. And that is prefect for Dorian because since they were in a place where no one can see them, it makes him look and feel more beautiful and younger. He seems perfect to everyone, and sometimes even to himself.

sojourn - a temporary stay
"for a house in which to leave, an inn that is but suitable for the sojourn of a night" (136)

debonair - courteous, gracious, and having a sophisticated charm
"his frank, debonair manner" (145)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 7

"there is nothing fearful about it. It is one of the great romantic tragedies of the age [...] How different Sibyl was! She lived her finest tragedy. She was a heroine" (113)

To me, it seems like Dorian is trying to convince himself that Sibyl's death is not a bad thing and that it is not his fault because when he first found of her death he was devastated, but Lord Henry was there to grace him with his conniving influences. Dorian, being so influences or in more modern terms 'whipped' by Lord Henry, Dorian automatically changed from being devastated to saying it is in the past, what's done is done, and that it is not a fearful thing about it at all.

"he unlocked the door that opened into the room that was to keep for him the curious secret of his life and hide his soul from eyes of men" (125)

Dorian thinks that just by putting his picture away where no one will see it, his secret will be hidden from everyone forever. He thinks that it will not affect him anymore, his soul will not be altered. But, it is not the picture that alters his soul and makes his face change, it is himself, his actions. He chose to act cruel to Sibyl, he chose not 'not care' about Sibyl's death, not the picture, but if he had not met Lord Henry, would he have acted this way? Is Lord Henry the real culprit, or is is just another visible, concrete version of Dorian's cruel soul?

panegyrics - A formal eulogistic composition intended as a public compliment.
"The painter's absurd fits of jealousy, his wild devotion, his extravagant panegyrics, his curious reticences-he understood them all now, and he felt sorry" (120)
impecuniosity - having little or no money; penniless; poor.
"Mr. Hubbard was a florid, red-whiskered little man, whose admiration for art was a considerably tempered by the inveterate impecuniosity of most of the artists who dwelt with him" (123)

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 6

"we live in an age where unnecessary things are our only necessities" (97)

Here it is explaining that everyone is more interested in material goods, looks, etc. and people think they are the keys to life. That without them they are no good, but really these things are the most unimportant things in life. You do not need material things and good looks to get anywhere in life, it just matters what kind of person you are on the inside. It is also funny how this book was set so long ago, but the people of today still think the same exact thing.

"When we blame it in ourselves we feel that no one else has the right to blame us" (100)

I think this is very true because often times I have blamed an incident on myself, and then when someone agrees or is telling me the truth that it was myself, I get very angry and think to myself, 'they have no right to blame anything on me'. I have also seen other people who have blamed themselves for something and then when someone agrees they get awfully defensive. Even though we know that something is our fault, we just can't come to deal with the fact that it really is our own fault. We blame ourselves as a way of defense, to defend ourselves in a situation that way no one else can attack us, but when they do attack us we feel that they have no right too, it is not their zone to, simply because we don't want to believe that something is actually our own fault.

affinity - a natural liking for or attraction to a person, thing, idea, etc.
"Was there some subtle affinity between the chemical atoms, that shaped themselves into form and color on the canvas, ad the soul that was within them?" (99)

sanguine - cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident
"He was trying to gather up the scarlet threads of his life, and to weave them into a pattern; to find his way through the sanguine labyrinth of the passion through which he was wandering" (100)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 5

"Without your art you are nothing" (91)

Here we can see that Dorian was actually in love with Sibyl's gift of acting, and not really her as a person. He thinks that she is absolutely nothing without her acting and he thinks she is not real anymore. But it is ironic because when Sibyl is acting, she is false because she is not bring her true self, she is acting like someone else and all the people she is acting have all had wonderful lovers and lives of love. I think Dorian is just really in love with love, as Lord Henry did say.

"But the picture? What was he to say of that? It held the secret of his life, and told his story. It had taught him to love own beauty. Would it teacher him to loath his own soul? Would he ever look at it again?" (95)

We now have a glimpse that Dorian wish for the picture to age and not him came true. The thing that he loved more than anything in the world, it taught him to love himself but now that it is aging and he knows it will become visibly uglier he won't want to look at it again because he has become to obsessed with his good looks. Now Dorian is starting to realize what he has become since he met Lord Henry, he has become cold, and Dorian is worried that the picture will make him hate himself and who he has become, so he does not want to look at it again. But, I think he will not be able to resist the temptation to look at it because I think he really knows what he has become and will become and he wants to what his soul really looks like and he wants to get back to who he was.

disdain - A feeling of contempt and aversion; the regarding anything as unworthy of or beneath one; scorn.

"Dorian Gray, with his beautiful eyes, looked down at her, and his chiseled lips curled in exquisite disdain" (92)

callousness - insensitive; indifferent; unsympathetic

"He remembered with what callousness he had watched her" (95)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 4

"'A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?"' (84)

Here Lord Henry is saying that the prefect pleasure is on that leaves you unsatisfied and in a way that makes sense. Like with a cigarette, people get a pleasure out of smoking one, and it is a good feeling, but even after having one, they still want more and more. Just one does not satisfy someone, so they need more and more, therefore they experience the pleasure more and more. If just one cigarette left you completely satisfied, it would not really be a pleasure because you can only experience it once, because people want to indulge in pleasures as much as they can, so a cigarette is a type of a perfect pleasure because you can experience more than once, and have that pleasure more than once.

"'When we are happy we are good, but when we are good we are not always happy"' (82)

Here Lord Henry is stating that whenever we are happy, we are good, we have done good things, and been a good person and made ourselves happy, but when we are always good and always doing good things, we are not always happy because sometimes always doing the right thing is boring. Always being good, and always doing the right thing can sometimes have a negative affect on people because they can have no excitement or adventure in their lives so therefore they are not always happy.

querulously - full of complaints; complaining.

"'I don't know how we could manage without him,' answered the elderly woman, querulously" (64)

incorrigible - impervious to constraints or punishment; willful; unruly

"'You are quite incorrigible, Harry; but I don't mind"' (81)