Questions page 397

Interpretation:

What does the historian Arnold Hauser underline about the 1880s in the following paragraph?

>> He underlines that the younger generation of the 1880s is interested above all in entertainment, it is hostile to the bourgeoisie, sometimes anti-social and immoral.

Could this sort of fin-de-siècle hedonism be a suitable term for the younger generation of our age?

>> The younger generation of our age is interested in external beauty and in physical appearance. On this point of view we can affirm that the younger generation of our age, but sometimes even the oldest, is somehow hedonistic.

Considering the ending of the novel, how can this story be interpreted?

>> This story can be interpreted as a criticism of the moral hypocrisies, vulgarity and materialism of Victorian society.

The picture becomes Dorian's double and records on cavans the marks of time, while Dorian enjoys his timeless youth. Like Stevenson in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Wilde too is attracted by the theme of the double. Can you see any similarities between the two novels as regards this theme?

>> In both the novels the main character has a dark side. On one hand there is the good fellow while on the other there is the bad, hidden one. Both the writers criticize the conventional social attitudes of their contemporaries.

At the end of the novel Dorian kills Basil Hallward, the painter who made his portrait, and then tries to destroy the picture. Read the very ending of Dorian Gray and compare with Jekyll/Hyde's death.

>> Both decide to put end to their life, committing suicide, because both have a double personality, which renders Dorian and Jekyll bad persons. They have a bad side and they are unable to control it.