When stories are told now a days, there seems to be a common
theme. There tends to always be a victim
in one character, and a villain in another.
All of the super hero movies coming out now are like that. Even in all the Harry Potter films, there was
a good guy (Harry and friends), and a bad guy (Voldemort and friends). This week in class we discussed if Dorian
Gray himself was a villain or victim.
While there are many reasons for why and why not he is a one thing and
not the other, why are we forced to choose between the two? I myself believe that he not one of the
options, but rather both. I feel that
Dorian was an innocent person until Lord Henry started teaching him of
desires. I feel that Lord Henry used
Dorian Gray as a puppet. This is when I believe
that Dorian is just a victim. When
Dorian gives into these desires, even when he knows that they are bad, he
shoves them aside and pretends it doesn’t happen. When Dorian realizes that his actions are
ruining the painting of himself, Dorian knows that this is a new portrait of
the person he is becoming. This is when I
feel Dorian is the villain in the book.
He may not be a villain to others, but he is a villain to himself. At the same moment, being a villain to
himself also makes him a victim to himself.
I agree with this. I feel like in the beginning of the novel, Dorian is being torn between Basil and Lord Henry, but eventually succumbs to Lord Henry's life. He is a victim to Lord Henry's lifestyle, but is a villain because he is inadvertently the cause of Sibyl's death and he kills Basil. But I'm not sure that he views his actions as "ruining the painting of himself." I saw it more as the painting is showing his true self, not that it is necessarily ruined.
ReplyDeleteThis is what makes the discussions interesting, Erik; we looked at both possibilities, but a third way may be the one that makes the most sense.
ReplyDelete