PoDG Ch. 16-18

1.) "'To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.' Yes, that was the secret. He had often tried it, and would try it again now. There were opium-dens, where one could buy oblivion--dens of horror, where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new" (Wilde 189).

This is just like in Chapter 11. Dorian is using other vices to distract himself from the ones he's already given in to. By indulging in opium, he could forget everything that has happened to him. It is like the reset button on a video game. The only thing is, eventually, the same mistakes you made in the first level will catch up with you again. Dorian is looking for a clean white slate in a world full of black smudge marks. He's trying to find purity in drugs and the shady parts of town: "He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself" (193). His sins, especially Basil and Sibyl, are catching up with him. Those are two human lives that are no more because of his influence. Both are weighing down his conscience, and so he only wants oblivion: he wants everything to be erased and forgotten. That whole approach just seems childish to me, like he is some 5-year old. He messed up, and so now, instead of dealing with his wrongdoings, he wants a band-aid over his boo-boo and someone to kiss it to make it all better. Nothing is that easy, though. It is understandable, I guess, why he will not take responsibility for his actions. He is all about pleasure and a hedonist--nothing about responsibility would appeal to him.

2.) "Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible" (201).

Though I've never had a relationship, I think I've read and watched enough to understand this quote. When we love, we think that that love is the greatest, heavenliest thing imaginable. When that love does not work out, though, we think we did not truly love. then, when the next comes along, that love is the greatest. Hence, romance could be considered repetition. Just because it is a different love, does not mean that the severity of our passion is not any different. We still feel that same way. The last part of the quote applies particularly to Dorian: "We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible" (201). All Dorian tries to do is reproduce his pleasure. Dorian wants everlasting life, and so he tries to reproduce his 'great experience' as much as he can. That great experience is his youth, and so he lives as a youth, though now he should be nearly forty. He tries to act like a child, because he believes if he keeps acting like, his appetite for beauty will be quenched and he will stay beautiful.