Sunday, January 11, 2009

Chapter 10.

"Hour by hour and week by week the thing upon the canvas was growing old.  It might escape the hideousness of sin, but the hideousness of age was in store for it.  The cheeks would become hollow or flaccid.  Yellow crow's feet would creep round the fading eyes and make them horrible.  The hair would lose its brightness, the mouth would gape or droop, would be foolish or gross, as the mouths of old men are.  There would be the wrinkled throat , the cold, blue-veined hands, the twisted body, that he remembered in the grandfather who had been so stern to him in his boyhood.  The picture had to be concealed.  There was no help for it."

Wilde's unattractive diction reveals Dorian's contempt for old age.  Words used are "hollow," "flaccid," "fading," "droop," "wrinkled," "blue-veined," and "twisted." These words are all related to the idea that beauty dies with age. Something once youthful, full, firm, lively, and nimble becomes old, flaccid, faded, droopy, wrinkled, blue-veined, and twisted.  This vivid description also reminds me of the flower motif because flowers have lively youths, but age comes quickly and the influence is powerful and unforgiving. Petals shrivel up, stems wilt, and colors fade. This passage helped me put the flower motif and beauty motif in perspective.  These things are always mentioned by Wilde because they are so greatly affected by age.  Time is an obstacle.  Also by using a parallel syntactical structure within the line, "It might escape the hideousness of sin, but the hideousness of age was in store for it," Wilde conveys Dorian's seeing sin and age as equal atrocities. 

It also seems that Dorian is disgusted by not only the idea of age but also by actual old people.  He attacks them directly in the line, "the mouth would gape or droop, would be foolish or gross, as the mouths of old men are," and the passage reveals that Dorian was not so fond of his own grandfather.  By associating a character with such a horrid description, the reader wonders about the significance of such a character. How big of an influence did Dorian's grandfather have on Dorian? Will this be the only mention of the stern old man?