PoDG Ch. 11

1.) "He grew more and more enamored of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul" (Wilde 131).

Throughout the novel thus far, we have grappled with the question as to what purpose Dorian's portrait will serve to him. Will it give him the freedom of doing whatever he likes with no negative side effects? Or will it instead serve as a moral guide, a conscience, leading Dorian down the right path? It seems as though, in this chapter, however, our question is answered with a third option. The portrait serves both purposes. It both spurs him on with his life of sin and it causes him to think critically about that life in the process. Dorian remarks at how the painting changes, and yet he stays the same: "He would examine with minute care, and sometimes with a monstrous and terrible delight, the hideous lines that seared the wrinkling forehead or crawled around the heavy, sensual mouth, wondering sometimes which were the more horrible, the signs of sin or the signs of age" (131). Dorian sees the marks that plague his portrait but do not plague him, and he delights in the fact. He sees it as his way of treasuring life, and continues what he is doing: the very things that cause the marks in the first place. In this case, it forms a vicious cycle that Dorian is caught him. He sees the wrinkles, which only cause him to cherish his own youth beauty, which in turn will allow him to continue causing the wrinkles on the painting. The picture also, however, served as a horrid reminder of his sin: "For these treasures, and everything that he collected in his lovely house, were to be to him means of forgetfulness, modes by which he could escape, for a season, from the fear that seemed to him at times to be almost too great to be borne" (142). The portrait not only allows Dorian to do whatever he wishes, but also reminds him of the consequences. Knowing the horrible aging the portrait was undergoing, fear crept upon Dorian, that his life was causing it. The portrait shows him that, and he fears for it. He sees that the consequences do not affect him, but at the same time, is worried about those consequences, and tries to occupy his time with other things to forget about them.

2.) "And, certainly, to him Life itself was the first, the greatest, of the arts, and for it all the other arts seemed to be but a preparation" (132).

This concept comes up a lot in this chapter--the concept that life itself is more important than anything else. Dorian seems to live by this. He lives as a hedonist, solely focusing on living life and the arts are nothing to compared the feeling that you are truly alive. The arts teach you how to live, which is what Dorian sees in them. The arts are like the dress rehearsal for life: by succeeding in each of them, you know you are ready to experience the final show in the best way you can. By knowing how to conduct and express yourself through acting, music, and literature, you can live a better and finer life. Dorian lives this, because, "no theory of life seemed to him to be of any importance compared with life itself" (136). Dorian sole focus is on living a full and rich life, no matter what way he chooses to live it. All of those things are just warm-ups compared to actually living one's life.