Journal One (warning, unintentionally pompous language. I'm sorry about that.)

My copy of Dorian Gray so graciously tells me, from the very beginning, that it is "unlikely that the 'rich odour', 'heavy scent' and 'delicate perfume' of the [rose, lilac and thorn] would have 'mingled together on the summer wind'". Huh. So much for the flowery atmosphere. Thus the first cracks start to appear in this delicate oeuvre, just as the words of Lord Henry begin to pave the first wrinkles of worry in Dorian's delicate cheek (not that those wrinkles would mar, in any way, his perfect face). Aestheticism is a big theme in The Portrait of Dorian Gray, dished out in heavy doses as it is in this first chapter: from the drawn-out description of the studio, to the presence of a dashing Adonis, the first chapter reminds one of a beautiful porcelain cup, almost fragile in its perfectness. But sometimes it isn't quite clear just how much of it is sincere and how much of it is deliberately set up to be smashed. 

Dorian begins as the epitome of boyhood, pure and untouched by life, until Lord Henry sashays into his life with his beautiful voice and tempting words. He praises Dorian for his beauty, and reminds him of a fact that has never actually occurred to the boy before: someday, his beauty will fade away, and he will no longer be charming. Life will no longer hand things to him, and he will not be loved. The importance of this own beauty comes crashing into Dorian's mind, and, seized by anxiety, he makes a feverish wish that his portrait take the burden of his age, so that his own face will never grow old. Basil Hallward, who obviously loves Dorian (whether it is a platonic, artistic love or a homosexual interest, it isn't clear), is pained by this turn of events, as he loved Dorian for his boyish innocence. Henry, on the other hand, is fascinated, and continues to plant seeds of vanity in the youth's mind. And it is on Henry that I will turn my focus.

How much of what he says directly reflects Wilde's own views? How much of it is later going to be contradicted? Wilde's somewhat defensive preface to Dorian Gray drips of a love for the aesthetic, as he said: "Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty." Such an importance he places on beauty! Is it so important as to erase the importance of morals ("No artist has ethical sympathies")? The entire novel of Dorian Gray, as we know, is the story of a clash between beauty and morals, between romance and reason--which side is Wilde on? Is Henry his spokesman, or his devil's advocate? Are Henry's words setting up the principal value of his novel, or is it creating a backdrop that will then be broken down? Surely he can't be arguing that depravity is excusable in the face of beauty--or is he?

Is Dorian's story a beautiful tragedy, or a sordid comedy? Is it the exquisitely crafted story of an exquisitely beautiful man who falls into the hands of the Devil and sells his soul? Or is it the story of one man who stumbles into squalor as he gives his all to keep his looks? Yes, the cup is heavily cracked, and what may look like an intricate pattern could turn out to be a stain. That is what I am set out to see in this book.