hello all,
so by now we have finished dorian gray and i just wanted to say that i enjoyed the book in itself. it was my first time reading it and i found it very captivating. the entire descent into debauchery and corruption of Dorian's soul was very magnetic. I found that Dorian was charming even at his most evil and for that i applaud Wilde as he figured out how to make the reader empathetic to Dorian and his character. I foudn that i pitied Basil the way that dorian did. This confused me as well. There is somethign to be obviously said about the queer theory behind this book. The relationships between Dorian, Basil, and lord Henry are clearly deeper than friendship and yet Wilde never openly says this.
I really appreciated Wilde's writing style (i have never read anythign by him before) and it was interesting to follow the intrigues with dorian as we read along. As for the ending, i thought it was too neat tho i suppose the book did have to end somewhere and in death. Mostly the supernatural elements are what displeased me. I however understand the use of it and thought it was cunning to have dorian switch places ( or faces) with the painting and having him die as he stabs the painting. It was all very symbolic and though it was not very realistic it was credible within the context of the story.
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I agree that it is extremely interesting that the writing really encouraged the reader to empathize with Dorian. He was such an ugly person (you know what I mean) but by hearing his side of the story, we feel pity because he says over and over that he hates what he does but he chooses to do it anyway. I think that is totally worse than doing something "evil" without realizing it and consciously deciding to do so. But I still feel some compassion for the guy!
I feel really bad for Basil as well. He was a good guy and was actually quite fond of him, but his openness kind of skrewed him over.
I have to disagree about the ending though. I would have been disappointed if it ended in any other way.
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