PODG #6

I found the rest of The Picture of Dorian Gray to be fairly interesting. The last chapter was by far my favorite. "When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was" (Orwell 165). I found this particular paragraph of the novel to be fairly interesting. Basil's portrait of Dorian changed due to the sin and evil he had committed throughout the book. At the end of the novel, Dorian attempted to ruin the portrait of himself, to rid the hideous face that he did not have, yet the portrait did. In a way, Dorian was destroying a part of himself that he did not know was part of his personality, or at least did not recognize it. This is significant because it shows that Dorian did not appreciate the changes he saw, even if they were on a portrait and not his physical changes.

This section of Orwell's The Picture of Dorian Gray further illustrates a drastic character change in Dorian. After our class discussion today, I noticed that Dorian is becoming more sinful as the book progresses, as Basil notices. In chapter twelve, Basil has an "intervention" with Dorian to explain Dorian's personality change due to an exterior factor, whom they both know to be Lord Henry. Basil is concerned for the well-being of his friend because many are talking about him behind his back, and says to Dorian, "'But you, Dorian, with your pure, bright, innocent face, and your marvellous untroubled youth--I can't believe anything against you. And yet I see you very seldom, and you never come down to the studio now, and when I am away from you, and I hear all these hideous things that people are whispering about you, I don't know what to say'" (Orwell 109). Basil does not believe that Lord Henry's influence on Dorian is beneficial. This situation relates to real-life issues amongst high school students. People will alter their moral standards to fit a societal role, or by giving in to peer pressure. Others may notice this change, and will try to get the influenced to realize what has happened to them. Basil is trying to accomplish this with Dorian, but is failing. After all, Dorian stabs Basil in the next chapter.