Opinions on my weekly book.
Faust was a successful scholar in Germany who was not satisfied with the knowledge and worldy goods he had. That made him make a deal with the deal, and he traded his soul for boundless knowledge and endless materialistic objects. In exchange for all this, Faust is to go to hell after his life in the world was over. The Faust Legend is directly related to The Picture of Dorian Gray. The storyline and the psychological basis of this book is very similar to the legend and seems like Dorian Gray was inspired by the ancient tale. Dorian Gray, in the beginning of the novel, was a very handsome innocent young man who was naïve and fair. Two men were fascinated by his aura. They were Basil and Lord Henry. Basil was a renounced painter who fell under the spell of Dorian Gray. He was absolutely charmed by him and throughout the novel it is shown that he worshipped Dorian. Lord Henry, on the other hand, was all well spellbound by Dorian. But, Lord Henry thought of Dorian as an interesting topic of observation and influenced Dorian in bad ways. Like Faust, Dorian knew he had a lot in the materialistic world. He was handsome, rich, and educated. Unlike Faust, who was craving knowledge, Dorian wanted eternal beauty and youth. It is not really clear in the book how this transaction worked, but a painting of Dorian Gray aged and showed Dorian’s corrupt spirit while Dorian stayed young. Dorian began to notice that his painting aged when he broke the heart of a young girl, Sibyl. Dorian was fascinated by the idea of Hedonism, to live life only through pleasure. His road to corruption started by the suicide of Sibyl Vane. From then on, his flawless life and reputation began to spiral. Dorian’s sins began to become horrid and everytime a sin was committed, his picture started to look even more ghastly. I am not sure why his hunger for sin and corrupting began. His aging painting may have sparked it, but it is still confusing how his mind works, and what urges him to all this gruesome deeds. It makes me wonder, did the devil really make him do it? Or did Dorian let the devil inside of him through greed and youth? What motivation urged him to start impacting on young men, killing them and even ruining their reputation? Dorian Gray is still quite a mystery to me. At the end of the novel, did Dorian realize of his sins or did he kill himself by accident? What beauty and greed does to a man. Dorian’s fatal flaw was the fear of death and old age.
