Killing Conscience

"'What have you or I to do with the superstitions of our Age?
No: we have given up our belief in the soul'" (205).
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

Points for Reflection

O. Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) chps 14-20

1. Dorian’s lessons in psychology from Lord Henry may be of doubtful value—as Alan Campbell suggests (161)—but the final chapters of this novel present a number of suggestions about human nature to the attentive reader.  Identify some of them.
2. in what ways do these last chapters apply a final test to the validity of Lord Henry’s hedonistic ideals, particularly the following claims?
   • "'Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul'" (23).
   • "'To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies [. . .] the only things one neer regrets are one's mistakes'" (42).
   • "'It is better to be beautiful than to be good'" (186).
   • "'Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art" (188).
   • "'The only horrible thing in the world is ennui [boredom], Dorian. That is the one sin for which there is no forgiveness'" (194).
   • "'Art [has] a soul, but man [has] not'" (205).
   • "'Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile'" (208).
3. as Dorian enters Lady Narborough’s drawing-room, he congratulates himself on the even tenor of his present affect: “He himself could not help wondering at the calm of his demeanour, and for a moment felt keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life” (167).  Does he sustain this calm throughout the dinner party?
4. why does the portrait not change for the better after Dorian breaks off a relationship with the country girl Hetty Merton instead of going ahead and ruining her?
5. how close does Dorian come to walking a righteous path, and what obstacles (external & internal) does he encounter?
6. does this novel suggest that Dorian’s post-portrait life choices were an inevitable consequence of circumstances (environmental, inborn) outside his control?  Do body and blood dictate fate?
7. is it possible to find someone—of either sex—beautiful without sexually desiring them?
8. in the first edition (1890), Wilde ended the novel with a chapter that combined elements from chps. 13, 19, and 20.  What is gained by the inclusion of everything that happens between chapters 14-18?  Is anything lost?
9. is there, finally, a character who serves as moral compass throughout this novel?  If so, who is it?  Lord Henry Wotton?  Jim Vane?  Basil Hallward? The Portrait?
10. whose initial estimation of Dorian Gray proved more correct, Basil’s upon first meeting him (9-10) or Lord Wotton’s after seeing only his portrait (7)?

O. Wilde's "The Harlot's House" (1885, 1908), PDF

1. does this poem represent one monolithic perspective? Is the narrator's point of view authoritative and trustworthy? Is it representative of society, or just his personal opinion?
2. what draws the narrator's love into this house? Does she see or hear something different than the narrator? Is the compelled against her will? Does she appear to have a Treus Liebes Herz (true, loving heart)?
3. why are those within the brothel describes as "shadows" (l.9) and "ghosts" (l.10)? Consider the lighting conditions under which they are viewed by the narrator.
4. are the prostitutes in full control of their own actions? Why might the narrator liken them to "wire-pulled automatons" and "clockwork puppet[s]" (ll.13, 19)?
5. does the narrator's companion transform the events inside, or join them (ll.28-33)?
6. with what tone does the poem conclude, and why is the daylight described as frightened, and girlish?

Anxiety (1894)
Edvard Munch

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu