Ok so a bit of a follow up on my post the other day about how I liked The Picture of Dorian Gray but I felt like liking it would cause me pain: I like this book but I have so many conflicting and confusing emotions about it.
Ok so Ik “the time period” and I can’t apply modern ideals onto stuff from the past, but at the same time there are so many things that make me feel icky about this book. Like Basil being thirty years old and straight up worshiping a 20 year old that is constantly being described as young and boyish and impressionable. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with writing fucked up things, it’s just in this case I have no idea if Basil is meant to be likable or not. I would understand if he’s presented as creepy like Henry is, but I really didn’t get that feeling; I feel like we’re supposed to like him (and I actually did until yk looking up the ages). i don’t know if this was some brilliant representation of creeps who still come off as nice or if Oscar Wilde was just wilding and wanted him to be some sad tortured artist nice guy.
Ok anyway onto other stuff that I find interesting; I mainly feel like this book touches a lot on like how younger more impressionable people are taken advantage of by older more powerful people, mainly through how Dorian (I think) basically came from a pretty shitty family background and then the first two people he meets are a guy who basically worships his every move bc he’s so pretty and a guy who’s telling him he’s only valuable is he’s young and pretty. I never really saw Dorian’s “narcissism” or ego really as him actually being in love with himself, or at least not fully, but I felt it was more so just a reflection of how he was basically told this was the only way he’d be of any important/use.
I think Henry’s pretty cool and I actually have some speculations about him. He’s basically Dorian’s bad influence who ends up leading him down the path of sin, but I think it’s really interesting how hypocritical he is. He contradicts his words a lot whether it be through other words or actions, and I think it’s actually because he truly doesn’t believe what he says; he feels more like some sort of observer who just wants to understand or experience things that he can examine, like when he was talking about how he wanted to basically experiment with Dorian, when he differentiated liking things and being fascinated by things, and how he mentioned that all influence was poisonous; it made me think that he maybe countered the latter point by just ceasing to form any ideals to believe in.
Anyway that’s all. I just finished this book and haven’t really thought about it/dissected it all that much so please be patient with me if I said anything stupid or confusing and feel free to correct me/respond.