Day of the Butterfly by Alice Munro

Red Dress by Alice Munro

The Badness Within Him by Susan Hill

*The Study Notes postings are a work in progress and will be updated over time to cover works read over the 1st year (Moments of Madness, Somehow Tenderness Survives, The Picture of Dorian Gray).  Do visit the blog for updates.

Class Orals (F)

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Maria

p.s. Enjoy this too: If at first

The Common Errors Workshop

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Theme: self-consciousness that leads to loath his evil nature, desire to be free of it.

Key words: beauty, purification, blood, death, sin, hypocrisy

The symbolism of the character of Hetty:

She represents the lost innocence: p. 251 “she knew nothing, but she had everything he had lost”

The crucial point is that seems there’s no possible way to become good, the non-return point has passed by. Dorian is scared by that: Lord Henry had made him reflecting on his “renounce”, now he’s not sure if he is able, actually, to change.

p. 251 “Was it really true one could never change?” p.252 “But was it all irretrievable? Was there no hope for him?”

p. 251 “he knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption” There is a curious structure: just before, Lord Henry is nominated, and the initial “he” seems alluding to him.

Attempts to blame an “external” factor instead of himself. Why? Maybe he cannot stand (or even recognise) the feeling of guiltiness. He is trying to convince himself it was the destiny that decided for him, he couldn’t interfere.

p. 252 “All his failure had been due to that”, that is the prayer to be always young.

p. 252 “It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for”

p. 253 “It was the portrait that had done everything”

He is worried about the consequences of his actions: p. 252-3 he remember to himself the three people he could fear of are dead (James Vane, Alan Campbell, Basil Hallward) but he doesn’t regret his behaviour. “It was the living death of his own soul that trouble him” (p.253) That’s an hint to the fact he cannot change now, if he is not even able to feel responsible.

Still fear: “The picture itself-that was evidence. He would destroy it” (p.255)

There is a process, from p. 253 to p.255

Dorian wants a new life “he would be good”

He hope his renounce of Hetty was the beginning “Perhaps if his life became pure, he would be able to expel every sign of evil passion from the face”

Peak of tension: “A cry of pain and indignation broke from him. He could see no change” indeed, there is hypocrisy drawn on his face.

Doubt: “Had it been merely vanity?….. or perhaps all this?” (p.254)

Self-awareness: “Through vanity he had spared her. In hypocrisy he had worn the mask of goodness. For curiosity’s sake he had tried to denial of self. He recognised that now” (Answers to the question rose in the previous chapter)

hence “It had been conscience to him. Yes, it had been conscience. He would destroy it.”

The knife takes a symbolic connotation: “As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter’s work” (p. 255) worth to be noticed, “kill” is repeated, although is not an adequate verb for an object

Aestheticism: beautiful=good, ugly=bad

p. 251 “He had told her once that he was wicked, and she had laughed at him, and answered that wicked people were always very old and ugly”

The character of Lord Henry:

p.240 “Pray, don’t change.” open contradiction to what, at p. 181, Basil said: “Lead us not into temptation.”.

p.240 “You’re quite perfect” arrogance

p.240 “There are only two ways by which man can reach civilization. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt.” TOK question: what do we mean with civilization?

p.241 “I should think the novelty of the new emotions must have given you a thrill of real pleasure” interrupted Lord Henry “But I can finish your idyll for you.” ; “Even as a beginning, it is poor” Sarcasm, that succeeds in make Dorian feel uncomfortable, since he changes topic (p.242) why does LH do that? Maybe he feels he’s loosing his influence, afraid Dorian is “really beginning to moralise” (p.249)

p.243 “Death is the only thing that ever terrifies me” arrogance that reveal his fear

p.243 “Poor Victoria! I was very fond of her. Of course married life is merely a habit, a bad habit. But then one regrets the loss even of one’s worst habits.“ at the end he’s distant, maybe to cover his real affection, expressed at the beginning.

p.247 Nostalgia of youth: he’s old.

p.247-8 LH envy of Dorian: the creation has overcame the master. “I wish I could change place with you, Dorian. The world has cried out against us both, but it has always worshipped you.”

Dorian about his “renounce” : is he really going to change?

No, he’s not :

“I am going to alter. I think I have altered.” not self-confident, confused?

P.240 “I spared somebody”: egocentrism

p. 241 Romanticism and sensuality through flowers and literature “apple-blossom”, “flower-like”, “like Perdita, in her garden of mint and marigold” – he just wanted to try another type of emotion.

Yes, he is :

p. 249 LH: “There was something in your touch that was wonderful.” Dorian: “It is because I am going to be good – smiling” he’s proud of himself.

p. 249 “Harry, promise me that you will never lend that book to anyone” he cares about others.

Characterization of Basil through Lord Henry

p.243 “He was not clever enough to have enemies”. P.244 “He had no curiosity” “I don’t think he would have done much more good work.” “He had lost an ideal. When you and he ceased to be great friends, he ceased to be a great artist.” Something more on Dorian’s conscience.

Relationship Dorian-Lord Henry

Dorian’s great friend of Lord Henry, but not enough to tell him everything: he didn’t tell neither about Basil’s murder nor the picture, he actually lied. Why?

LH said: p.244 “It is not in you, Dorian, to commit a murder.”fear to disappoint him?

p. 246 “How grave you are! Don’t be so serious.” fear to not be understood?

p.249 Dorian says: “You don’t know everything about me. I think that if you did, even you would turn from me. You laugh. Don’t laugh” “Why have you stopped playing, Dorian?” LH not really listening.

p. 246 “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

p. 249 personification of the moon: “she is waiting for you to charm her” as Dorian charmed lots of women.

p. 249-250 “Art has no influence in action.” LH afraid to have done too much.

Hints to homosexuality: p.249 “there is someone who wants immensely to know you – young Lord Poole …he has begged me … he is quite delightful” p.250 “such liliacs since the year I met you” since flowers are often used as symbols for love.

There is nothing that can be compared with it. Nothing is even close to it. Nothing, apart of art which is it. For art is nature’s exquisiteness. And art has its own magnificence. Hence art is nature, and is more than that. Nature is described by art, but it cannot be done other way around. There is nothing above these two. Therefore the only way that you can express the value of art is by creating another piece of the same. It is the biggest challenge for artists, but Oscar Wild took the risk and has created ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ which is unreachable piece of perfection.

In this work of his, whole beauty and perfection are explained by three main characters. In their conversations, in their thoughts, in their acts art can be seen and art is shown in the most severe way. The one who is reading cannot pass by not noticing it, and cannot escape thoughts which are consuming mind and leading toward the same conclusions of this matter. It is like the author had set his mind to make everyone realize how everything around us is connected by one most amassing invention of human intellect.

Three leading roles are given to Basil-the painter, Dorian Gray-the subject that connects everything and Lord Henry-the most valuable link.

Music, theater, writing and visual art are discussed about and explained by them.

‘Ordinary people waited till life disclosed to them its secrets, but to the few, to the elect, the mysteries of life were revealed before the veil was drawn away. Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect. But now and then a complex personality took the place and assumed the office of art; was indeed, in its way, a real work of art, Life having its elaborate master-pieces, just as poetry has, or sculpture, or painting.’

Every one of them was mentioned individually in order to describe feelings of characters when they are under impression of some great event, or at least of happening that had caused change of feelings inside. As an example, when Basil was telling about his work he stated that there is no difference between it and him:

‘Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.’

In such a manner Dorian explained fell in love with the art of actress:

‘She has been innocent, and the black hands of jealousy have crushed her reed-like throat. I have seen her in every age in every costume. Ordinary woman never appeal to one’s imagination. /…/ But an actress! How different an actress is!’

His personality is hidden in art as well as he himself. Great love toward this image of reality is shown after he starts being in company of Lord Henry.

Lord Henry has the most complex characteristics. As a true English high society member he is introduced and familiar with all types of art, as a philosopher he has his own opinion about it and as such has great influence on others which is his own art. His role in this book is the most important for he is the link that connects everything together. This character is the one that talks about all: music, poetry, theater, visual arts, women, philosophy; in one word –life. The effect if his words was best seen on example of Dorian’s thoughts after conversation between them:

‘Music had stirred him like that. Music had troubled him many times. But music was not articulate, It was not a new world, but rather another chaos, that it created in us. Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viola or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?’

So art is not just individual’s creativity, or representation of nature, nor mare image of life. Art is life, wrapped in a form of beauty which posses whole cruelty of reality and untouched perfection of imagination. This is what Oscar Wilde explained with piece of art about art.

In this paragraph we first see Dorian Gray, who we know since the first chapter by the words Basil described him to Lord Henry. As we go through the chapter we quickly notice the reaction he causes in Lord Henry’s thoughts:

Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. (pg. 23 – second paragraph)

The scene goes on with conversations between the three characters and at a certain point Lord Henry, who seems to have bewitched Dorian with his words, tells him:

Because you have the most marvelous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having. (pg. 29 – third paragraph)

It is some of the numerous things that Dorian has. Youth is valuable to everyone who doesn’t have it, but it seems just a common thing to the ones who posses it. In fact, after Lord Henry told this to Dorian he didn’t believe it. He just took it for granted. There are many other things Dorian had and took them for granted. One of them was Beauty. He wasn’t aware of this and he wasn’t aware of himself either. He starts becoming aware of everything around him, and most important, aware of his insight:

Dorian made no answer, but passed listlessly in front of his picture, and turned towards it. When he saw it he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time.

And then it follows:

The sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before. (pg. 33 – first paragraph)

This is the very first time Dorian looks at himself as beautiful, he was never aware of it, he never felt it. Lord Henry had a strange influence in him, an influence that he liked. He went on socializing with Lord Henry and gains the kind of confidence to start calling him ‘Harry’. But the truth is that he is very influenced by Lord Henry and he seems aware of it:

I don’t think I am likely to marry, Henry. I am too much in love. That is one of you aphorisms. I am putting it into practice, as I do everything that you say. (pg. 58 – second paragraph)

But when he reveals to Lord Henry that he loves Sibyl Vane, he doesn’t get in return what he expects. He expects Lord Henry to be glad and happy about him but he is not. He is somehow disappointed by this attitude and stops the conversation just like a child does when he doesn’t get what he wants:

I wish now I had not told you about Sibyl Vane. (pg.63 – third paragraph)

And he would be right. After they went to the show he was ashamed by her exhibition on the stage that he went to her after the show and unwillingly maybe made her seriously think of making suicide; a thing this that he would always deny, but somewhere in his consciousness he would be afraid of people getting to know who Prince Charming was. (That’s how she called Dorian)And yet he denies having any relation with the suicide. In chapter ten is obvious that he is scared of other people getting to know that Prince Charming was him, and that he had made a sin. He saw this sin in his own portrait. That’s the reason for hiding it. He’d better grow old than showing the sin of his face. He was ashamed of it. And still in his mind the thought of the suicide of Sibyl Vane and again denying everything connected to him:

And, yet, what did it matter? What had Dorian Gray to do with Sibyl Vane’s death? There was nothing to fear. Dorian Gray had not killed her. (pg. 145 – first paragraph)

And then he reads the book Lord Henry sent him. He is absolutely fascinated and astonished by it. He likes it so much that decides to make that book the base of his life. He starts educating himself in different regions such as religion, fashion, perfumes, history, music, art etc. and all of it is in front of his second life, a life full of suffering, of his portrait in the schoolroom and of his face reflected in the mirror.

As the story flows Dorian goes from corruption to corruption (as Alan says) leading a life that makes no longer sense. During the whole story he changes simply too much. He grows old and ugly. As we associated ugliness to unkind things, Dorian itself is connected to unkind thoughts and events including murders. He becomes like Lord Henry (as his wife had already said that all Henry’s friends were a mirror of the personality of Lord Henry himself) and doesn’t lead a peaceful life until the end comes and he was found in the feet of his own portrait, unrecognized until the rings were examined.

Victoria, “laughed nervously as she spoke”(p.56), she “tried to look picturesque, but only succeeded in being untidy”(p.56) when she meets Dorian; she is so different from the self-confident and elegant Lord Henry. It’s maybe noticeable the fact she is not called by name but the surname: is reasonable from Dorian, who doesn’t know her, but both the narrator and Lord Henry himself call her Lady Henry. It’s evident the unimportance of her own personality, also because Lord Henry comments “never marry a woman with straw-coloured hair”; this sentence is extremely generalizing. Perhaps the most terrible thing is that she knows her condition, since when Dorian mistakes for Lord Henry, Victoria answers “it is only his wife”.

Opposite situation is the one of Sybil Vane: her individuality is emphasized; however, “personality” is intended in a more extended way of the common sense. “To-night she is Imogen (…), and to-morrow night she will be Juliet” “When is she Sybil Vane?” “Never” (p.66). Sybil is herself talking childish, as “I love him because he is like what Love himself should be” (p. 73): doesn’t this sound like a manipulation of the narrator to make her appear a bit stupid? As well as the sentence “To see him is to worship him, to see him is to trust him” (p. 81), contrasted by Lord Henry’s aphorism “Women treat us just as Humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them” (p. 93). Sybil is appreciable only because she is a good-looking (“She is beautiful. What more can you want?” p.99), excellent actress (“I loved you because … you realised the dreams of great poets”, p. 102); all that seems quite superficial to me.

Women are seen as something additional, often annoying: “women … inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces, and always prevent us from carrying them out”(p.93), “women are wonderfully practical (…) we often forget to say anything about marriage, and they always remind us.” (p. 90-1), “They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever” (p. 31-2). Lord Henry is blaming women for everything, incapable of see his own faults.

Moreover, the men have the arrogance to classify women. Firstly, by characterizing the Americans: “she behaves as if she was beautiful. (…) It is the secret of their charm” (p. 44); secondly, by separating the plain and the coloured ones “The plain women are very useful (…) the other women are very charming” (p. 58); thirdly, by dividing actresses and ordinary women “Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination (…) But an actress! How different an actress is!” (p. 62).

The sentence “women are a decorative sex” (p. 58) explicates the misogynist tone that can be perceived whenever women are considered: probably an indirect hint to the homosexual setting of the story.

If I had to describe him in a few words, those may be: cynic, arrogant, immoral, independent, intelligent, self-confident and critic. I’ll discuss this while talking about his views and behavior during the chapters.

First of all, we can see that he doesn’t care about his marriage and wife:

10 – ‘I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet–we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the Duke’s–we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces.’

 And we can also see this careless in the relation he has with his wife, when she tells him:

57 – ‘You are dining our, I suppose? So am I. I shall see you at Lady Thornbury’s’

This shows that, as Lord Henry says in the first chapter, they only see each other from time to time and that their marriage is just appearance.

Related to marriage, we can talk about Lord Henry’s thoughts about women, which show his arrogance by considering women mere objects or stupid human beings, that cannot even appreciate beauty correctly:

58 – “My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.”

21 – “Women have no appreciation of good looks; at least, good women have not.”

31 – “Always! That is a dreadful word. It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last for ever.”

And, by the next example, he definitely shows that, for him, women are only elements for him to use them in order to achieve his objectives (in the example: gain reputation or have a good time):

58 – “I find that, ultimately, there are only two kinds of women, the plain and the coloured. The plain women are very useful. If you want to gain a reputation for respectability, you have merely to take them down to supper. The other women are very charming. They commit one mistake, however. They paint in order to try and look young. Our grandmothers painted in order to try and talk brilliantly. Rouge and esprit used to go together. That is all over now. As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied. As for conversation, there are only five women in London worth talking to, and two of these can’t be admitted into decent society.”

But it is not only about women that he has an immoral view (from our modern point of view). More than unethical, I would rather say that he lacks of ethics. He is only concerned about himself and his “experiments” and, as we can perfectly see in the next example, he raises individualism as the only possible moral value:

92 – “To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self,” he replied, touching the thin stem of his glass with his pale, fine-pointed fingers. “Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others. One’s own life–that is the important thing. As for the lives of one’s neighbours, if one wishes to be a prig or a Puritan, one can flaunt one’s moral views about them, but they are not one’s concern. Besides, individualism has really the higher aim. Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality”

We also can see this careless about moral values in the following quotes:

87 – “I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.”

16 – “…I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.”

And also here, where the narrator shows us his thoughts, and we see how he does not bother himself with poverty or other current moral and social issues:

20 – One’s own soul, and the passions of one’s friends–those were the fascinating things in life. He pictured to himself with silent amusement the tedious luncheon that he had missed by staying so long with Basil Hallward. Had he gone to his aunt’s, he would have been sure to have met Lord Goodbody there, and the whole conversation would have been about the feeding of the poor and the necessity for model lodging-houses. Each class would have preached the importance of those virtues, for whose exercise there was no necessity in their own lives. The rich would have spoken on the value of thrift, and the idle grown eloquent over the dignity of labour. It was charming to have escaped all that!

In the same way that he doesn’t seem to care about his wife, we can see how he doesn’t care either about Basil, who is supposed to be his friend. And we can imagine that, in certain point, he won’t care about Dorian either when he stops being a useful or interesting experiment to watch (actually he calls him silly boy on page 36, when he is saying hi doesn’t want the picture). We can see this when in the page 86 he tells Basil that Dorian is engaged to be married with a completely coldness, although he is very conscious of the feeling from Basil towards the lad. We can also notice this in the following example, when Lord Henry interrupts Basil, who was starting to say to Dorian that he didn’t want to forgive him the fact that he didn’t tell him about the engagement:

89 – “And I don’t forgive you for being late for dinner,” broke in Lord Henry, putting his hand on the lad’s shoulder and smiling as he spoke.

We can see there how he ignores Basil, who just started to say something really emotional, and changes the thread of the conversation to what he is interested in. As a last point, I’ll mention another quote, in the end of chapter six, where Lord Henry stands Basil up without remorse:

94 – “I love acting. It is so much more real than life. Let us go. Dorian, you will come with me. I am so sorry, Basil, but there is only room for two in the brougham. You must follow us in a hansom”

Lord Henry’s aesthetical views are quite simple: beauty is the only thing worth, and it is usually not compatible with intelligence. We can see this from the following quotes

9 – ‘But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid.’

29,30 – “And beauty is a form of genius– is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.”  “To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible….”

50 – “I can sympathize with everything except suffering,” said Lord Henry, shrugging his shoulders. “I cannot sympathize with that. It is too ugly, too horrible, too distressing. There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathize with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life’s sores, the better.”

87 – “Oh, she is better than good–she is beautiful”        

And, finally, one of the most important things is the influence that he exerts upon Dorian. And that we can see throw the following quotes:

45,46 – Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow…. There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence. No other activity was like it. To project one’s soul into some gracious form, and let it tarry there for a moment; to hear one’s own intellectual views echoed back to one with all the added music of passion and youth; to convey one’s temperament into another as though it were a subtle fluid or a strange perfume: there was a real joy in that. – he would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait. He would seek to dominate him–had already, indeed, half done so. He would make that wonderful spirit his own. There was something fascinating in this son of love and death.

56 – Lady Henry: “I always hear Harry’s views from his friends. Is the only way I get to know of them”

63 – “You could not have helped telling me, Dorian. All through your life you will tell me everything you do.”

68 – Certainly few people had ever interested him so much as Dorian Gray, and yet the lad’s mad adoration of some one else caused him not the slightest pang of annoyance or jealousy. He was pleased by it. It made him a more interesting study.

93 – “You will always like me, Dorian [...] A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? Yes, Dorian, you will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit”

From this last quote we can also notice Lord Henry’s overconfidence and arrogance, which is present all over the six chapters as we can see in the next examples:

92 – “Pleasure is the only thing worth having a theory about,” he answered in his slow melodious voice. “But I am afraid I cannot claim my theory as my own. It belongs to Nature, not to me. Pleasure is Nature’s test, her sign of approval. When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy”

Here he shows his theories as if they were the only possible truth.

31 – “You are glad you have met me, Mr. Gray,”

Here he assumes that everybody is glad to meet such an intelligent and distinguished person as him.

32 – “That is entirely due to me,” broke in Lord Henry. “Isn’t it, Mr. Gray?”

Here he takes all the merit when Basil says to Dorian that he never sat that quiet and perfectly.

The only left thing to say about Lord Henry is comment two last quotes that emphasize his lack of care about if the things he say are correct or not:

51,52 – He played with the idea and grew wilful; tossed it into the air and transformed it; let it escape and recaptured it; made it iridescent with fancy and winged it with paradox. The praise of folly, as he went on, soared into a philosophy [...]He was brilliant, fantastic, irresponsible. He charmed his listeners out of themselves, and they followed his pipe, laughing. Dorian Gray never took his gaze off him …

53 – “I quite forget what I said,” smiled Lord Henry. “Was it all very bad?”

Neus Giner