Allie Specht

Ms. Wilson

AP English

January 31, 2014

Prose Passage 1:

"Basil, my dear boy, puts everything that is charming in him into his work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life but his prejudices, his principles, and his common sense. The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize."

"I wonder is that really so, Harry?" said Dorian Gray, putting some perfume on his handkerchief out of a large, gold-topped bottle that stood on the table. "It must be, if you say it. And now I am off. Imogen is waiting for me. Don't forget about to-morrow. Good-bye."

As he left the room, Lord Henry's heavy eyelids drooped, and he began to think. Certainly few people had ever interested him so much as Dorian Gray, and yet the lad's mad adoration of some one else caused him not the slightest pang of annoyance or jealousy. He was pleased by it. It made him a more interesting study. He had been always enthralled by the methods of natural science, but the ordinary subject-matter of that science had seemed to him trivial and of no import. And so he had begun by vivisecting himself, as he had ended by vivisecting others. Human life--that appeared to him the one thing worth investigating. Compared to it there was nothing else of any value. It was true that as one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could not wear over one's face a mask of glass, nor keep the sulphurous fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams. There were poisons so subtle that to know their properties one had to sicken of them. There were maladies so strange that one had to pass through them if one sought to understand their nature. And, yet, what a great reward one received! How wonderful the whole world became to one! To note the curious hard logic of passion, and the emotional coloured life of the intellect--to observe where they met, and where they separated, at what point they were in unison, and at what point they were at discord--there was a delight in that! What matter what the cost was? One could never pay too high a price for any sensation.

He was conscious--and the thought brought a gleam of pleasure into his brown agate eyes--that it was through certain words of his, musical words said with musical utterance, that Dorian Gray's soul had turned to this white girl and bowed in worship before her. To a large extent the lad was his own creation. He had made him premature. That was something. Ordinary people waited till life disclosed to them its secrets, but to the few, to the elect, the mysteries of life were revealed before the veil was drawn away. Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect. But now and then a complex personality took the place and assumed the office of art, was indeed, in its way, a real work of art, life having its elaborate masterpieces, just as poetry has, or sculpture, or painting.

Yes, the lad was premature. He was gathering his harvest while it was yet spring. The pulse and passion of youth were in him, but he was becoming self-conscious. It was delightful to watch him. With his beautiful face, and his beautiful soul, he was a thing to wonder at. It was no matter how it all ended, or was destined to end. He was like one of those gracious figures in a pageant or a play, whose joys seem to be remote from one, but whose sorrows stir one's sense of beauty, and whose wounds are like red roses.

Soul and body, body and soul--how mysterious they were! There was animalism in the soul, and the body had its moments of spirituality. The senses could refine, and the intellect could degrade. Who could say where the fleshly impulse ceased, or the psychical impulse began? How shallow were the arbitrary definitions of ordinary psychologists! And yet how difficult to decide between the claims of the various schools! Was the soul a shadow seated in the house of sin? Or was the body really in the soul, as Giordano Bruno thought? The separation of spirit from matter was a mystery, and the union of spirit with matter was a mystery also.” (47-48)

Prose Analysis Essay 1

In this passage Wilde creates a scene that allows him to showcase his views through the discussion occurring inside one of his very interesting character’s heads. Throughout the piece Wilde uses many pieces of parallelism to compare and contrast the good and the bad artists and poets, as well as compare the body and the soul. He makes the contrasts simple, and blunt, leaving no room for consideration of other thoughts. His beliefs on art specifically are enhanced greatly by his writing here as he discusses painting and poetry and literature. The main point at which he gets through these comparisons is that the true artists lost the wonderful things about them inside of their art, in order to make their art great. By not only saying this, but saying what makes a bad artist, Wilde is strikingly clear about his views.

As the passage progresses his focus shifts more to science, and humans, and observing them. It looks at how interesting life is through the use of comparisons, and explains the need for experience and what it will do for someone. His tone throughout the entire passage though is quite curious. It is as if he is saying here are my ideas, but I am still exploring them as well.  It is more of a discussion in Lord Henry’s mind concerning topics that are of interest, than a declaration of certain ideas. It also allows for him to create open discussion between his characters, concerning art foremost in this passage. While Wilde gives Lord Henry an internal monologue he is able to allow an exploration of some of his ideas through Lord Henry’s ever changing and wandering thoughts. As he thinks he goes into the topic of experience and says, “There were poisons so subtle that to know their properties one had to sicken of them” (47). Wilde is able to express the idea that some things need to be experienced to truly be appreciated and learned through the curiosity presented in the character of Lord Henry.

Later in the passage Wilde allows for Harry’s mind to wander deeper into the questions of life, now concerning body versus soul, and questioning the field of psychology. Harry expresses that Dorian Gray has both a beautiful mind and a beautiful soul, and it launches a discussion into deeper philosophical questions that obviously take claim to Wildes mind as he writes for his character with many rash, concrete opinions to linger on certain questions that have very intense concerning with life. Lord Henry appears to be plagued with questions, “How shallow were the arbitrary definitions of ordinary psychologists! And yet how difficult to decide between the claims of the various schools!”(48). There were so many different views to be explored and thought through, just as there were so many different approaches to art, and so many different approaches to life. Wilde is able to have curious discussion of these topics while delivering his opinion on them throughout this passage.

Works Cited

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1992. Print.