Reading Questions - Chapter 2
Write 3-4 sentences answering each question
Some people feel that the first scenes in The Picture of Dorian Gray rely on themes from Genesis 2-3 of the Hebrew Bible (Christian bibles refer to this as the Old Testament).
Read the following section from the Hebrew Bible
1) Which character is most like the snake/ha’Satan? Explain your ideas.
I Would say Harry. He is angry with society it
seems but he is such a hypocrit. And it’s a sin to be a hypocrit. He will say something and controdict himself in the next sentence. He is always saying how no man has right to judge and he is ALWAYS judging. He’s very into how nothing can be predetermined, how you must find out through experimentation but he has soo many theories rooted in who knows what. He also is using Dorian for an experiment to amuse himself. He sees that Dorian is (or was I guess) pure and had a beautiful energy and his interest are sucking that energy and corrupting the purity. He exposes Dorian to a lot of fascinating things that test Dorian’s goodness and this is so much like the nature of the devil.
2) Which character is most like Adam? Explain your ideas.
Dorian. Dorian is most like Adam because he gives into temptation. He is so new like Adam and Naïve that he has no caution. He eats up what Harry tells him. He basically believes everything Harry says and really seems to be under some sort of spell cast by Harry. He had no thoughts or cares about his own beauty and that changed almost with a snap of the fingers. Then he became sick at the thought that he would not be beautiful forever and wished the painting would age instead of him. When he realized this wish came true, first, before knowing that Sybil had killed herself, he decided to be good, he did not want any more ugliness on his painting or on him. Then once he learned that Sybil killed herself, and then Harry gave him a big head by talking about the beauty of this trajedy and how it said something grand about Dorian that Sybil had killed herself for her love for him, now he liked the idea of being able to commit sins and not having them show on his body or face but being able to hide them away in the painting. So he decided he would take advantage of this phenomenon much like Adam decided he would eat the forbidden fruit.
your ideas.
Dorian, for a similar reason that he is like Adam. He gives into temptation. Another way he is like eve is that he lets people push him around.
sections? Explain your ideas.
I would say the person who is most divine is Dorian but I would not say he is like god. I don’t think any human is like god. But some of us are very powerful/ have special powers. I do think Dorian is an angel of some sort or some sort of incarnated divine creature. I think this because he was able to do magic with his wish and because of the way he is physically is very angel like. Also, in the beginning, his naïve nature was like someone who is not used to the planet earth.
13-14 affect Dorian Grey? What “Fresh impulses” does the boy have?
First Dorian made a whole new expression. Lord Henry got him thinking about things that had never crossed his mind. He has to ask Henry to stop talking so he could ponder this upsetting information. It stirred him “like music”. Henry’s theories were the start of Dorian losing his ignorance which lead to him losing his innocence because the more he knew the more he wanted to experience and feel.
painting and what stops him?
Because Dorian gets mad after realizing that beauty does not last forever and the painting will always look the same (or so he thinks at that time) while he will slowly decay. He feels the painting will mock him. He says he will kill himself whens he finds hes growing old. He is jealous of the picture and everything whos beauty will not die. Basil blames this behavior on Henry (whos fault it is)They are all starting to bicker and Basil is hurt and offended that this is going on after all he put into the painting. So in order to stop the bickering and to stop Dorian’s nonsense and maybe also out of some spite, he threatens to slash the painting and he is about to but Dorian jumps up and stops him saying “it would be murder”. I think on some level Dorian already knew all about the spell he had just cast with his wish.
love with Sybil Vane in Chapter III?
Because he discovered her sort of randomly one night at a low grade theater. She acted a different role every night of the week and she was a brilliant actress. He thinks her virtues are good enough to be seen by the world and he is determined to love her and make her a star. He becomes obsessed and goes every night. Henry has some sort of power of Dorian and so Dorian is just drawn to tell him everything.
Sybil perform in Chapter V?
Sybil’s acting is terrible and Basil, Henry and most of the audience leave long before the play is over. Dorian stays and then goes to find out what is wrong with Sybil.
event(s) in Chapter VI
Dragons were mentioned for the second time. This time it was a blue dragon bowl filled with yellow roses. Dragons are supernatural and they are also known to be the spirit guids of wizards. That’s just something small though. After Dorian sees the way the picture has changed then then feels bad for the way he treated Sybil and wants to make amends and marry her after all. So he pours his hear out in a letter. A little later, Henry comes by and tells Dorian that Sybil killed herself and he is barely upset. More relieved. Henry explains to Dorian how miserable he would have been if he had gotten married and goes on one of his rants about how it’s a beautiful trajedy and how Dorian is special to have had someone kill themselves for love of him. Dorian totally buys this all and his head gets even bigger. Dorian decides that the portrait will bare the burden of his shame. He decides to take advantage of this and he turns away from his insistance on having a pure soul.
I think Dorian is going to get more and more conceited do more and more bad, harmful and wrong things. I think Henry is going to ride on Dorian’s fame and continue to gas him up with all those theories and confuse him with all those contradictions and Basil is going to be sick with sadness. I think ish is gona go downnnnn. the waters r gona get rough!
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