PoDG Ch. 3

1.) "Yes, he would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait. He would seek to dominate him [...] He would make that wonderful spirit his own" (Wilde 40).

Lord Henry has an obsession with Dorian. Not a romantic obsession, exactly, but more like a child's obsession with a brand new toy. Henry, on his own, is very imposing. He establishes his own point of view as though it were law, and even argues for other stances for the sake of arguing. Dorian is the perfect person for him, then. Dorian is young, naive, and easily impressionable. He believes everything Henry says without question, which may explain why Henry argues his counterarguments: there is no one who argues against him. Even Basil merely says Henry does not believe what he says, not that Basil does not believe them. Lord Henry is very influential, and once he sees Dorian, he sees a new plaything in the making. It is a new chance for him to mold another in his vision, to influence someone who is easily influenced and who has never been influenced before, to our knowledge. Henry is making his own mini-me of his own design, an act he enjoys: "To hear one's own intellectual views echoed back to one with all the added music of passion and youth [...] there was a real joy in that" (39). Dorian is not the only character who is vain. Henry enjoys hearing someone else mimic his beliefs, because it tickles his ego. He was the one who taught someone so perfect how to behave a certain way. For Henry, this is all an act of pride.

2.) "'To get back one's youth one has merely to repeat one's follies.'" (44).

I think this will have a great influence on Dorian, like everything else Henry has said. Dorian is sitting only a few feet from Henry, and hears everything he says, so obviously this particular line would stick with him. Dorian is obsessed with remaining young. He dreads getting older and would give anything to not have to. Now Dorian hears Henry say that the secret to getting back one's youth is to repeat one's follies. Hence, I think Dorian will start to commit and recommit mistake, simply so that he will remain young. Henry goes on to say: "the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes" (44). It is a very devil-may-care type of attitude, which Dorian will most likely adopt. He eagerly wants to be like Henry, and contrariwise, Henry eagerly wants Dorian to be like him. If Dorian is constantly and purposefully committing these mistakes, however, the end result cannot be good. Is there not some moral or emotional backlash for willfully doing wrong? Dorian at this point probably does not know any difference between right and wrong, simply what Henry tells him. I believe that, since Henry has said this, Dorian will begin a streak of mistakes he will ultimately regret, all in the name of immortality.