The Picture of
Dorian Gray: Reading Journal up to chapter 2
Theme: Character
Analysis
"The Picture of
Dorian Gray" begins with Lord Henry
Wotton and Basil Hallward arguing about a charming guy, "Dorian
Gray," while Basil, the painter, enjoys the view of his own painting. In
chapter 1, the author quite explicitly describes both the characters while
giving the reader an anticipation of Dorian Gray. According to the first
chapter, Basil Hallward is an inflexible, serious artist and rather dull
moralist, the primary characteristics that can be shown when Basil says, "Oh, I can't explain. When I like
people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a
part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that
can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us…" Basil here is so
enthralled by Dorian Gray, whom he chose as a model for his painting, that
Dorian is often described by Basil as "an
inspiration for his art," or "the
reason he continues to paint."
On
the other hand, Lord Henry is a fantastic talker who possesses such a great
humor in his words. He is a bright, open-minded genius, charming others using
his witty sayings. His theories are often very radical, and they are to shock
the conventional ideas. Thus, Basil frowns on Henry's words now and then,
trying to contradict his ideas, but fails to do so. Especially when the subject
of Dorian Gray came up, Basil almost beseeches Henry not to influence Dorian at
all when he fails to persuade Henry not to meet Dorian. Again, Basil's love
towards Dorian is shown here, and as he begs more and more while complimenting
him, Henry desires more and more to actually meet this Dorian guy.
In
chapter 2, Henry finally meets Dorian Gray, and despite Basil's request, Henry
charms Dorian at first sight, eventually influencing him to great extent. Here,
Dorian is described as an ideal, who is perfect in all sense and a prime model
of a human being. Especially in terms of outer appearance, Dorian is a
perfection. However, the acute questions and comments from Lord Henry reveal
the real, inner qualities of Dorian Gray as the story goes on. In this chapter,
Henry starts to impart his unusual theories into Dorian's brain as a process
before revelation, telling him that "you
have the most marvelous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having."
Basically, youth is an ephemeral phase, but quite wonderful, so Dorian has to
enjoy and get out as much joy as possible when he can. This idea greatly
confuses Dorian, who develops his own notion, thinking that it is unfortunate
of him to stay very short time in his youth, and at the same time admires the painting
that Basil drew of him.
