I
heard it before that my parents and relatives all marveled the beauty of my
brother in his crib. It’s no wonder why they anticipated so much about me
before I was born, a girl who was expected to be a next generation of Disney princess.
As it turned out, the first sentence I heard after I came out of this word was
from my dad – “Will she able to get married with this face?” A tragedy, really,
to know that the very first sentence I heard in this life was the miserable
disappoint of my face. As I was growing up, I could feel the power of beauty
from my brother in every way; even he does some incredibly silly mistake, it
was considered ‘cute’. He even got his first girlfriend when he was in kindergarten
and changed them almost every month. I must admit that beauty is really an easy
route for living a life; it has power different from knowledge or wisdom.
However in this book, the beauty is what drives Dorian. I believe that the
devil in this book didn’t come from Lord Henry, but Dorian himself in this way.
From the Book of
Ceremonial Magic, dark magic is based on one simple rule: give and take. If you
look at any fairytale regarding witches of dark magic, they all have some
serious default. For example, the witch may have the most beautiful face or can
fly with wings but will perish under the sun or melt by a simple bucket of
water. They made this trade with devils to gain what they want, but would have
to pay the price. This is the most basic logic of dark magic. In this logic, I
believe that devil is inside the portrait of Dorian. As Dorian exclaimed how he
wanted his portrait to olden instead of him, he’s made the trade with devil. The
price Dorian has to pay doesn’t show up vividly, but I guess I’ll soon reach it
in the end.
In my
perspective, Lord Henry is just an influential charming person who introduced
Dorian into new world and merely plays with his youth and beauty. He’s more
like a spectator watching an opera while Dorian goes wild. The devil that
really turns Dorian spoiled is ultimately the portrait. Portrait shows 200% of the
pure beauty in Dorian, the sole power in itself and also signifies Dorian’s
soul later on. Because of this portrait’s beauty in his first sight, Dorian
begins to realize his power of beauty (also from the influence of Lord Henry)
and begins to use his power of beauty in a new, evil sense, and the portrait
helps him maintain this beauty. Consequently, the portrait shows how corrupted Dorian
becomes as the story continues, revealing the pure evil inside the pure beauty
of Dorian. The portrait becomes the portrait of demon.
Interestingly, Basil is the one who created the devil of Dorian. If
Dorian has to pay the price, I believe Basil needs to do so too. The price
these two must pay… I believe would cost more than their life.
A continuation of what you discussed in your first journal, this is an interesting observation about basic fairytale magic. We see it all the time, but rarely pinpoint the common thread of a trade-off. If the natural world is altered, it is a short-lived anomaly that will seek to correct itself. Cinderella, vampires, and even Superman have to be careful. So that leaves us with a question... could Dorian have possibly kept his youth and beauty and married Sybil and lived happily? Or would Henry allow that? Or or or or.
답글삭제Good points and setup for what could have been a little deeper had you interacted with specific passages from the book. I like the personal approach and your ability to illustrate the question, but some digging would ice the cake. Good work though.