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I've just finished Chapter 3 and am perplexed as to how two mature men can be so damn fascinated by Dorian Gray. It almost seems like there is an element of homosexual attraction going on here. Just because Dorian is youthful and attractive?

The Preface to this book didn't make sense to me or my wife. I read it out loud to her and she was just as lost to the meaning. Fortunately, Oscar Wilde's writing style seemed to change once he moved into the actual story.

Chris:

It almost seems like there is an element of homosexual attraction going on here. Just because Dorian is youthful and attractive?

Yes, well that's very perceptive of you. Oscar Wilde was a homosexual when it was illegal to be so.

So, of necessity, he wrote about the situation in a covert manner.

As a completely heterosexual person, I also am very fascinated by beautiful people. Look at Tarav, Interbane......it is silly to admire people just because of their appearance.....I know that.....but I still like looking at them.

PS - I also like looking at little children, because they are beautiful.....and poor old Lewis Caroll was denigrated...because he took photographs of them, when photography was in its infancy.

Honi soit qui mal y pense????

perplexed as well initially by the book. I mean, come on !! Dorian is so taken by anything Henry says, and Basil's art changes completely because of looking at Dorian - how superficial can people be! Of course, more homoerotic references show up near the end of the novel during Basil's final confrontation with Dorian, and the novel did grip my attention after the first little while.

Hello folks,

I have actually finished reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray" just now. It is an amazing book that I have ever read which took me to the eerie realms at times. I would be glad to share my understanding and views about the each chapter. Though, several parts of the novel seemed vague and remote to my mind, I would try to express my interpretation chapter by chapter.

Any feedback and comments from the fellow members are welcome.

Thanks!

Initially, I would like to talk about the preface of the book which sounded like a paradox to me. Oscar Wilde begins saying that "The artist is the creator of beautiful things" and the further lines seems so confusing and it's quite difficult to judge the stance of Wilde. In the concluding line he says that "All art is quite useless". Does it imply his repulsion towards art? or Is he just trying to conform his lines to the ensuing novel?

Lotus:

I do agree with you. It is a very odd Preface and I wonder if it is just meant to provoke discussion, about what art is.

After all, all art is not beautiful. Art reflects life and sometimes life is ugly, so sometimes art is ugly too.

Wilde talks about the 19th Century dislike of Romanticism - but certainly some of the most romantic images are Victorian. In particular the pre-Raphaelite movement - very beautiful images, but ultra romantic. So I don't quite know to what he is referring here.

William Morris (the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement) is famous for saying that in ones home, everything should be either useful or beautiful. Because if a thing is not useful in a practical sense, then, if it is beautiful, it will lift ones spirits, not only useful then, but essential at times.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing, so long as he does not admire it.

What an absurd statement!! Some things are useful and also beautiful.

I am wondering if Wilde is here mocking the Arts and Crafts movement.

Hello Lotus:

I think, to understand the preface of "Picture", is to understand Oscar Wilde, not an easy undertaking.

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

from preface

Those who find ugly meanings in the beautiful things are corrupt...this is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.

from preface

I think when Wilde says, "the artist is the creator of beautiful things", and then ends with, "all art is useless", he is saying that it is not art that is beautiful, it is the interpratation of the art that is beautiful, In Wilde's words, "there is hope" hope for humanity to maybe see something beautiful and meaningful in themselves, and others when veiwing the creation of someone else. Oscar Wilde was not considered beautiful in the eyes of most critics of his time. This might have influenced his words of the preface.

The one question he does not pose in the preface; is there beauty in something that appears ugly? This, I think, is the question he goes on to answer throughout the book.

I look forward to discussing this book, I think it will affect people in different ways, should be interesting.

Suzanne

Hello Penelope:

Ah, but he then goes on to say

The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

This quote correlates with his words, "art is useless".

Beauty, is it useful, or useless? I think he may be talking more about the beauty, or lack there of in humanity, not so much art.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Dorien created something useful, to him, and he admired it. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I do have to say, however, I agree with you Penelope. Right now, I am admireing the beauty and usefullness of my reading lamp.

Suzanne