Sunday, December 21, 2008

Chapter 7.

"Kiss me again, my love. Don't go away from me. I couldn't bear it. Oh! dont go away from me. My brother...No; never mind. He didn't mean it. He was in jest....But you, oh! can't you forgive me for to-night? I will work so hard, and try to improve. Don't be cruel to me, because I love you better than anything in the world. After all, it is only once that I have not pleased you. But you are quite right, Dorian. I should have shown myself more of an artist. It was foolish of me; and yet I couldn't help it. Oh, don't leave me, don't leave me!" A fit of passionate sobbing choked her. She crouched on the floor like a wounded thing, and Dorian Gray, with his beautiful eyes, looked down on her, and his chiseled lips curled in exquisite disdain. There is always something ridiculous about the emotion of people whom one has ceased to love. Sibyl Vane seemed to him to be absurdly melodramatic. Her tears and sobs annoyed him.

Wilde uses an almost stream of consciousness style in Sibyl's dialogue only, it is outloud. We see this in the quick transitions of thought, and general incoherency; she goes from thinking of kissing to pleading him not to leave to worrying about her brother's threat to begging for forgiveness. This style of dialogue portrays Sibyl's innocence and purity. There is very little filtering between her thought and her speech. What she feels she expresses. Her inability to think, filter, then speak also portrays her distress and despair. Furthermore, Wilde uses a simile to compare her to "a wounded thing." By dehumanizing Sibyl, he accentuates her sad sad state. Sibyl is also dehumanized in being seen as melodramatic. Dorian had fallen in love with her because of her acting, and it is quite fitting that he now fall out of love with her because of her loss of acting skill. However, Dorian's seeing her as only a character and not an actual person devalues her life and strips her of her humanity. The purpose of Sibyl being characterized in this way is to juxtapose her pathetic state to Dorian's heartlessness. This passage highlights Dorian's change for the worse. We, the readers, see him turning from a sweet little kid to a disciple of the influential Lord Henry.

Also in Sibyl's speech is the repeated beseech not to leave her; this conveys her frighteningly strong attachment and dependance on Dorian that forms after only a few meetings. In the syntax, we see choppy sentences that show her franticness, and we also see the use of two ellipses bookending her reference to her brother. This draws attention to the reference, and we see the foreshadow in the line. The reader is reminded of her brother's omnious threat to kill Dorian if he ever treat his sister badly, and wonders if this threat will, in fact, be carried out.

In describing Dorian, Wilde utilizes gorgeous diction. Wilde describes Dorian as having "beautiful eyes," "chiseled lips," and even "exquisite disdain." Dorian is god-like and Sibyl is a small thing who has displeased him. Her lines evoke emotion in the reader her "I will work so hard, and try to improve" is terrible. Either she or I know very little of love. His degradation of her is throrough and absolute. Irony is created in the incongruity of such gorgeous details and such terrible actions.

"There is always something ridiculous about the emotion of people whom one has ceased to love." What a gorgeously hideous line.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Chapter 4.

"Sibyl? Oh, she was so shy, and so gentle.  There is something of a child about her.  Her eyes opened wide in exquisite wonder when I told her what I thought of her performance, and she seemed quite unconscious of her power."

Oscar Wilde characterizes Sibyl through childlike diction.  He uses the words shy, gentle, child, and wonder in order to make his point.  The way Sibyl is characterized is a lot like the way Dorian Gray was characterized when he first met Lord Henry.  The two are very similar.  Wilde also uses denotation to characterize Sibyl.  Her first name Sibyl means: a woman able to foretell the future, and her last name Vane, if we use vain instead, means: having or showing an excessively high opinion of one's appearance, abilities, or worth.  I think the denotation of her name, is a foreshadow of the role she will play.  Or maybe, because she and Dorian Gray are so alike, what happens to her will foretell what will happen to Dorian Gray. 
There is irony in the fact that Dorian Gray is the one characterizing Sibyl in this way because this is the same way he had been characterized by Lord Henry.  This represents a change in character.  Now that Dorian Gray is more like Lord Henry, I get the feeling that he will soon be influencing/corrupting young Sibyl.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Chapter 3.

"So that was the story of Dorian Gray's parentage.  Crudely as it had been told to him, it had yet stirred him by its suggestion of a strange, almost modern romance.  A beautiful woman risking everything for a mad passion.  A few wild weeks of happiness cut short by a hideous, treacherous crime.  Months of voiceless agony, and then a child born in pain.  The mother snatched away by death, the boy left to solitude and the tyranny of an old and loveless man.  Yes, it was an interesting background.  It posed the lad, made him more perfect as it were.  Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.  Worlds had to be in travail, that the meanest flower might blow..."

The tone of this passage was really romantic and fairy-tale-like compared to Lord Henry's "crudely" related version.  As the same story had just been told by Lord Henry's uncle, the reader sees the discrepancies in the writing styles and notices things about Lord Henry in the juxtaposition.  Lord Henry's dramatic diction reflects his romantic nature in that the reader sees how much he plays up each emotion with phrases like "voiceless agony" and "mad passion." In addition to this, this passage is a prime passage to convey Lord Henry's expertly executed artistry with words.  This single passage drew all of my attention; it's almost hypnotic the way Henry uses words.  This is an important characterization because Henry's skill with words was what captured Dorian Gray when they first met.  As uncomfortable Henry's words made him, Dorian Gray continued to seek his company because of this almost awesome power of Henry.  

Dorian Gray's parentage reminded me of that Oedipal guilt idea.  In the same way that Oedipus Rex inherited his parents' consequences, I believe Dorian Gray will suffer.  Especially because of the way Henry describes his birth, "a child born in pain," I can't help, but think Wilde will add, "and a child ending in pain," or something along those lines.  Basically I think Gray will not end well because of his mother's straying from standard societal ways. 

The syntax of the passage brings light to some ideas more than others.  Where Henry summarizes Gray's parentage in his own words, the structure of the lines are very short but vivid.  They follow that newspaper-headline sort of format.  "BEAUTIFUL WOMAN RISKS EVERYTHING FOR MAD PASSION." "MONTHS OF VOICELESS AGONY, AND THEN A CHILD BORN IN PAIN." This format enhances the function of the line.  The reader is given a repeat of what has happened in a concise but effective way.  But after the "Yes, it was an interesting background," things slow down.  The contemplative "Yes" helps in doing this because the reader senses Henry's thoughts slowing down, as well as the ellipsis at the end of the passage.  The added ellipsis also brings attention to the line preceding it because the way Henry lets the thought trail off makes the reader believe that it was an important one.  "Worlds had to be in travail, that the meanest flower might blow..."  This is a very odd line.  I think that it is just restating the line before in a prettier manner.  In order for something as beautiful as a flower to move or to sway, it needs to be disturbed by the laborious efforts of the worlds.  I think this line does not only refer to Dorian Gray's past, but also his future.  Terrible things happened to create a beautiful Dorian Gray, but in order for this beauty to persist, more terrible things have to happen.  Beauty is pain.