The Picture of Dorian Gray - Life as the greatest of the Arts

Comprehension:

 •1)     What are you told of Dorian Gray's lifestyle?

Right from the start the intelligent reader understands that Dorian Gray, the main character, is a "rigid" person, who behaves always in the same way, and follows all the same rhythm of life. (lines 1,2: every month, each Wednesday).

The reader understands that Dorian Gray has an high life's style: during winter he usually opens his house to the most celebrated musicians of the day to charm his guests with the wonders of their art.

•2)     What is for him the greatest art?

In his opinion the greatest of Arts is Life, while all the others seem to be only a preparation.

•3)     Why is Dorian Gray an ideal for educated young men? Why is being consulted on matters of fashion not enough for Dorian?

He is an ideal for educated very young men, because they saw in Dorian Gray the true realization of a type of which they have often dreamed, a type that was to combine the real culture of the scholar with all the grace and distinction and perfect manner of a citizen of the world. To them he seemed to be of the company of who he make themselves perfect by the worship of beauty. He was one for whom  "the visible world existed".

•4)     What is the common attitude to the "worship of senses" and what has this attitude caused?

The common attitude to the "worship of senses" is the complete surrender of men to senses. In Dorian Gray's ideas this attitude has caused an incomprehension in men, who remained savage.

•5)     What era the principles of Dorian's "new Hedonism"?

The principle of Dorian's "new Hedonism" was to recreate life and save it from Puritanism. Its aim was to be experience himself, and not the fruits of experience, sweet or bitter as they might be.

Interpretation:

                  •1)       What kind of narrator does Wilde use in his novel? do you feel his presence?

In his novel Wilde uses a 3^rd person omniscient, intrusive narrator. The reader can not feel his presence because he identifies with the characters of the novel.

•2)       What idea of life is expressed in the final sentence of the passage?

In the final sentence of the passage the main character Dorian Gray expresses an idea of life which is based on the idea that life is the most important and the greatest of Arts.

•3)       Walter Pater, the forerunner of the aesthetic movement, expressed the same concept of life in his collection of essays, "Studies in the History of Renaissance" which he concluded with the following words: "Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end. A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life." Where in the last paragraph does Wilde quote Pater?

In the last part of the paragraph, Wilde quotes Pater saying that in his opinion a new Hedonism was to recreate life, saving it from Puritanism. Its aim was to experience, sweet or bitter, as they might be.

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

The historian Arnold Hauser underlines that the young generation are completely hostile to the classical life's style of, for example, the Middle Ages. The principal aim of enjoying life and become enraptured with it, is turning every hour of life into an unforgettable and irreplaceable experience.

•5)       Considering the end of the novel, how can this story be interpreted?

Considering the end of the novel, it will be interpreted as a criticism of superficial Hedonism and self-love, and as an illustration of the immortality of art.