PoDG Ch. 14

1.) "'You leave me no alternative. I have a letter written already. [...] If you don't help me, I must send it. If you don't help me, I will send it. You know what the result will be. But you are going to help me. It is impossible for you to refuse now. I tried to spare you. You will do me the justice to admit that. You were stern, harsh, offensive. You treated me as no man has ever dared to treat me--no living man, at any rate. I bore it all. Now it is for me to dictate terms'" (Wilde 175).

Dorian does some serious acting in this chapter. It is interesting to note Dorian's behavior in his interaction with Alan Campbell, a spurned friend that Dorian calls for. At first, he pleads with Campbell to help him, worrying over the consequences should Dorian be found out. All the time, he acts like a damsel in distress, waving around a handkerchief for the knight to save her. After Campbell refuses to help him, Dorian completely switches gears. He turns into a completely different person, from damsel in distress to dastardly villain. He has completely switched personalities. He goes on to say he tried to spare Campbell from whatever earth-shattering threat he wrote on the paper, making himself look better while condescending Campbell.It reminds me of the quote on page 146: "Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities" (146). Dorian did not really care what happened to Campbell, did not really care about the friendship they had. Campbell is only a tool for Dorian to manipulate. Dorian exemplifies the quote because his insincerity created an entirely new personality for him to masquerade. The new Dorian is actually quite scary. He says to Campbell that, "'You were stern, harsh, offensive. You treated me as no man has ever dared to treat me--no living man, at any rate'" (175). The only other man to treat Dorian sternly, harshly, and offensively was Basil, and look what happened to him. Dorian turns Basil's death from something he fears into something he can use to coerce Campbell to help him. Dorian has had a taste for evil, and now he cannot stop.

2.) "What was that loathsome red dew that gleamed, wet and glistening, on one of the hands, as though the canvas had sweated blood? How horrible it was!--more horrible, it seemed to him for the moment, than the silent thing that he knew was stretched across the table, the thing whose grotesque, misshapen shadow on the spotted carpet showed him that it had not stirred, but was still there, as he had left it" (178).

No one likes change. It complicates things a lot of the time. People grow accustomed to the norm, the familiar, and the regular. When something changes even slightly, it can screw everything up. It is just like new seating plans in school--the perfect example. A student has grown accustomed to a certain seat. They've acclimated themselves to their spot in the classroom, gotten used to the people around them, and made that seat their own. Then, suddenly, the student is given a completely new seat. It may not seem like a big deal, but in some way, it can be frightening. It brings with it a world of new things to get used to. The new seat does not feel like the old one. The student can not see the board in the same way. The people they had just gotten used to are halfway across the room. This seat, too, will take a while to get used to. No on like changes, and people fear the new and foreign. They do not know about it, and so they fear it. This is the case when Dorian sees the portrait contrasted with Basil's body. Normally, we would consider a dead body far worse than a painting, but in this case there is something morbidly comforting about Basil's corpse. The painting, as it has for the entire novel thus far, has changed. It now shows for all to see the literal blood on Dorian's hands. Basil, though, remains unchanged. His body has stayed in the exact same spot. It has not moved at all, and has not changed. There is something comforting about the familiar. Dorian is relieved to find that Basil's body is the one thing around him that has not changed.