Portrait of Dorian Gray | Interpretation of Huang Yuning's Studio
It is recommended to play in WiFi environment.
About the author
Oscar Wilde is a man of the hour in Victorian English literature and a representative of the British aestheticism movement. Born in a Kochi family, Wilde was influenced by ancient Greek classics since childhood and studied at Trinity College in Dublin and Oxford University. Wilde's wild and uninhibited personality, coupled with his unconventional dress and performance style, made him famous far and wide across the ocean. In literary creation, Wilde was brilliant and turned all beings upside down. Besides the most popular satirical comedy, novels, poems, fairy tales and other genres are all involved, and dorian gray is his only novel. Influenced by Ruskin and Pater, the leading figures in the aestheticism movement, Wilde formed his own aestheticism art view on the basis of their thoughts and became the most powerful spokesman of the school.
About this book
Dorian gray tells a fable that seems absurd, but actually contains rich aesthetics and philosophy. Dorian Gray, a handsome aristocratic boy, made a wish on his portrait, hoping that he would stay young forever, so that the portrait would bear the vicissitudes of time and the traces of evil. Unexpectedly, he was stunned by one sentence. From then on, Dorian was no longer trapped in the ruthlessness of time. He squandered his life unscrupulously, and finally suffered the consequences. At the beginning of the novel's publication, its complex and novel image, unorthodox remarks and vague homosexual meaning attracted many criticisms and censures from the author Wilde.
Core content
Dorian gray is the only novel in Wilde's literary career. This novel was born in the harsh moral atmosphere of Victorian England, and at the same time, it was at the peak of the aestheticism movement. The novel's complex and novel image, deviant remarks and vague homosexual meaning shocked the whole critics as soon as it was published. In addition, the author Wilde's unruly personality and many factors finally pushed the topicality of this work to the peak of the times. Dorian gray has gorgeous language and delicate words. In the narrative form, it adopts folk stories, romantic legends, Gothic novels, suspense thrillers and other forms, which constructs Wilde's unique artistic style. The novel bears an obvious personal imprint of Wilde, and runs through his aestheticism thought of "the supremacy of art". This work has also become a window for Wilde to boldly and frankly show the mystery in the depths of his soul to the public.
, save it in your mobile phone, or share it with friends.
Hello, welcome to listen to a book every day. The book I read for you today is a classic literary masterpiece, The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
Dorian gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde, a British genius. When Oscar Wilde is mentioned, far more people know him than those who have read him. Wilde's popularity in the public mainly focuses on his preference for fancy clothes, his sharp wit and eloquence, and the gay lawsuit that directly led to his bankruptcy, imprisonment and eventual early death. He abruptly turned his life into a drama with climaxes, and the ups and downs were no less than any of his works. Based on the correlation with the novel, our focus today is not to discuss how Wilde took a sharp turn for the worse in his later life. The first thing we need to know is how he wasted the first half of his life.
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on June 1854. His father was the most famous expert in otology and ophthalmology in Ireland and even in Britain at that time, and his mother was also a famous talented woman in Ireland. She wrote many political articles against British oppression of Ireland. According to current standards, Wilde belongs to a typical high-level intellectual family background. Wilde showed great talent for classical literature since he was a child, and he also had the ability to never forget anything. He studied ancient Greek literature at Trinity College in Dublin and Oxford University. These karma created Wilde's arrogance.
1878 After graduating from Oxford University, Wilde settled in London. During the following 13 years, no particularly important works were published except the collection of short stories and the collection of fairy tales "Happy Prince". In sharp contrast to the low output of his creation, Wilde was famous for his strange clothes, high-profile behavior and lecture tour during this period. Wilde's second son, Wei 'an Helan, once described his father like this in The Biography of Wilde. "He sometimes wears a velvet coat with tassels, knee-length black stockings, a loose silk shirt with a big collar and a big green tie." It is also rumored that Wilde once walked on the most fashionable Piccadilly Street in London with a lily in his hand. It is conceivable that Wilde's maverick dress and behavior would cause controversy in the conservative social atmosphere at that time.
189 1 year later, Wilde ushered in a high-yield period of literary creation. His most important satirical comedies were staged in London Theatre one after another, causing a sensation. This craze crossed the Atlantic Ocean and spread all the way to new york. Let's take an example to see how popular Wilde was at that time. 1895, the ideal husband staged. Meanwhile, another literary master, Henry James, the author of turn of the screw, has always dreamed of conquering London with a play. However, his first play was a failure, and he was completely lost in the glory of Wilde. James even gave up writing plays. The success of these plays established Wilde's literary reputation and even directly promoted the revival of British theaters.
At this stage, Wilde's creative field is more and more extensive. Besides drama, he dabbled in novels, poems and fairy tales. His second collection of fairy tales, Pomegranate House, and literary criticism, Intention Collection, as well as the novel dorian gray that we are going to interpret today have been published one after another. Compared with his short life, these literary achievements are both rich and precious. Although from the perspective of orthodox literary history, Wilde's literary position is slightly inferior to that of Joyce, Bernard Shaw and Ye Zhi, he is undoubtedly an unrepeatable wonder in English literary circles in the late19th century. His name has become an aesthetic symbol, which is inseparable from the aestheticism movement.
What is the aestheticism movement? Simply put, this is a loosely organized anti-social movement that appeared in the field of art and literature in the late19th century. They have a famous slogan-"Art for Art's sake". Many people put it under Wilde's name, but it was first put forward by the French philosopher Cushing in 18 18. Wilde absorbed the essence of predecessors' thoughts and vigorously publicized it, eventually becoming the most powerful spokesman of the school. The whole aestheticism movement started in France and then spread all over Europe. Until the 1980s and 1990s of 19, a group of British writers, artists and literary theorists once again echoed the slogan of the French aestheticism movement decades ago and set off the second climax of the movement.
It must be pointed out that the resurgence of aestheticism in Britain was also related to the political environment in Britain at that time. Britain was in Victorian times. Queen Victoria's 64-year reign has opened the most brilliant period of politics, economy and science in British history. In sharp contrast to the strong national strength, public opinion has extremely suppressed moral concepts. The bad moral environment has caused great depression of human nature and brought about a deformed social form with decent appearance and restraint but dark heart. This era has not only produced a group of obedient people who abide by tradition and advocate moral norms, but also bred various eccentricities and rebellions. Wilde belongs to the latter. At that time, there were a group of such intellectuals in the society, who turned their eyes to the "palace of beauty" and tried to find another way out for their own creation, so the British version of aestheticism came into being.
Dorian gray is the only novel in Wilde's literary career. It was published when the aestheticism movement was in full swing, and it is recognized as the masterpiece of this school. There is a literary story about the appearance of this novel.
1889, an American publisher invited Conan Doyle to have dinner with Oscar Wilde. During the dinner, two writers were invited to write novels for the British edition of lippincott. With this gentleman's consent, Conan Doyle sent the second story of the Sherlock Holmes series, Four Signs, and Wilde sent a portrait of Dorian Gray. Conan Doyle also highly praised Dorian Gray's portrait in his memoir 1924, calling it "a book with high moral level", which was completely contrary to the views of mainstream British literary circles at that time.
The novel was first published in lippincott Monthly on July 1890, and was supplemented and revised by Wilde. It was officially published the following year, with a famous preface to Aestheticism. Under pressure, Wilde deleted some contents with obvious homosexual tendencies in the revision. Even so, the novel's complex and novel image, unorthodox remarks and vague homosexuality have attracted many criticisms from him. The press generally considers this book obscene, immoral, evil and crude. The Daily Chronicle commented on this book: "This book is the product of decadent French literature, a leper monster, a poisonous book, full of the stench of moral and spiritual decay." However, in the face of all kinds of accusations, Wilde was very excited. He wrote many long speeches to many newspapers to defend his works. Among them, part of the defense content also became the preface of the novel that was officially published later.
Although it is common for different viewpoints of a work to collide with each other, it is rare for this work to be subjected to widespread moral attacks and even personal attacks on the author. Dorian gray was born in the harsh moral atmosphere of Victorian England, and the background of the novel is precisely the Victorian period, aiming at the present. Wilde didn't want to hide his intention of satirizing this era in his works.
The story begins on a beautiful summer afternoon. The famous painter Bessel Hallward is showing him a masterpiece in the studio of his friend Lord Henry Wharton. This portrait shows a handsome boy. Bessel said that the man in the painting is a newly met noble son named Dorian Gray. He fell in love with Dorian's beauty at first sight and persuaded him to become his own model. Bessel praised Tao Ren's beauty beyond the scope of artistic expression and injected an unpredictable appeal into his art. Seeing that Bessel poured such strong personal feelings into the boy in the painting, the cynical Lord Henry became interested in Tao Ren.
While they were discussing the story of Dao Lian, the protagonist Dao Lian appeared. Lord Henry looked at him and he was stunned. Here, the novel describes the appearance of Tao Ren for the first time. "Bright red lips are elegant, blue eyes are calm, and there is a golden curly hair ... the frankness and pure enthusiasm of youth can be seen at a glance." In the process of painting, Lord Henry instilled a strong hedonistic view into Dorian, telling him that his youth is short and he needs to eat, drink and be merry in time. Originally innocent Tao Ren can't help but start to shake his doubts. When faced with Bessel's own portrait, Dorian suddenly had a wish: I hope I can stay young forever and let the portrait replace me.
From then on, Dorian began to thoroughly pursue sensory pleasure and enjoy life. Dorian met Sybil Wayne, a beautiful and kind actress, in a humble little theater and was fascinated by her beauty and acting skills. So he couldn't wait to tell Bessel and Henry, and warmly invited them to watch Sybil's performance. Unexpectedly, Sybil, who fell in love, was fascinated by Dorian's charm, and her performance was not up to standard, which made Dorian lose face in front of two friends. Wilde skillfully blended his aestheticism art view here, and said it through Tao Ren's mouth-art and reality are almost incompatible. Dorian actually likes Sybil in the character. When Sybil fell in love, liberated from her soul and wanted to return to reality, she lost her artistic soul and became vulgar on the stage. Dorian immediately abandoned her because she was "shallow, boring and stubborn".
When he got home, Dorian noticed that his portrait had changed a little, and his face was a little cold, which really surprised him. Tao Ren vaguely felt that his wish seemed to have come true, but he couldn't believe it. After a night of mental torture, just as Dorian was trying to get back together with Sybil, Lord Henry brought the news that Sybil had died-Sybil had committed suicide in despair. Dorian deeply regretted what she said last night, but Henry was very clever to appease Dorian and convince him that Sybil's death was not his fault. This incident made Dorian understand that in the future, this portrait will become a mirror reflecting his soul, instead of letting him bear the consequences of succumbing to temptation and degeneration. Most importantly, Dorian Gray accepted the contract of the devil. He put the portrait on the shelf and never showed it to anyone again.
In the next eighteen years, Tao Ren went downhill day by day, and his portrait became more ugly and ferocious with every evil deed, but Tao Ren's appearance remained youthful and beautiful. He lived a double life under the cover of that portrait: pure in appearance, innocent and spotless, but in fact he did many despicable things. Many young people like his looks, worship him, approach him, make friends with him, and become lovers, all of which are finally ruined by him. Dorian's journey to sin is inseparable from his two good friends.
First of all, Lord Henry. He himself is a cynical, cynical aristocrat, who always packages his poison with deviant but humorous remarks. He regarded Tao Ren as his own experiment, and led Tao Ren to the point of no return step by step by indulging in debauchery and selling his soul. As for the painter Bessel, he is completely different from Lord Henry. Seeing Dorian's fall, Bessel was deeply saddened, but like Lord Henry, he also had an unshirkable responsibility. Bessel's tragedy stems from his excessive worship of physical beauty, and it is precisely because of his excessive worship of the physical beauty of Daolian that Daolian bred terrible vanity and desire, and was further bewitched by Lord Henry's thoughts. Until the end, Bassel died tragically at the hands of Tao Ren because he saw the secret of the portrait, which was somewhat Bassel's own fault.
Killing Bessel brought Dorian's sin to a climax. Not only that, Dorian also threatened his former friends to help him destroy the body with chemical reagents. This horrible plot of destroying the corpse gives this novel the color of gothic novel, which is a popular horror novel type in Britain in the late18th century. At this time, Tao Ren's face in the portrait has become morbid beyond measure: his expression is hideous and evil, his hair is sparse, his lascivious lips are bright red, and his original blue eyes are turbid. After Tao Ren's murder, a wet, shiny red dew appeared on one hand of the portrait.
In order to escape from sin, Dorian went to the dirty opium den to have fun, only to meet Sybil's brother James. Tao Ren got rid of James who was bent on revenge with sweet words, but James soon realized that Tao Ren was the ungrateful man who abandoned his sister. While Tao Ren was shivering, James was accidentally killed by a hunter because he was hiding in the bushes during hunting time at a party. Dorian stared at the body and knew that he was no longer in danger.
People who knew the details died one after another, but Dorian could not bear the mental torture. He confessed to Lord Henry that he intended to turn over a new leaf from now on. With luck, Dorian had hoped to do something good to alleviate the evil desire in the portrait, but when he took out the painting, he found that the people in the painting had not changed except the eyes and corners of the mouth. Doan can't bear these crimes and will follow him all his life. He decided to destroy the cursed portrait with the knife that killed Bessel-but when the knife pierced the chest of the person in the painting, it also pierced Donne's own chest. People found Dorian Gray lying dead on the ground, gaunt and ugly, but the portrait hanging on the wall did not change at all, still radiant, "full of youth and rare beauty".
Dorian Gray's literary model is not the first. The most similar and famous literary image is Dr. Faust. In order to explore the ultimate knowledge and experience the true meaning of life, Faust made a deal with the demon Mephistopheles with his dead soul. The nature of this transaction is exactly the same as Dorian Gray's secret wish. Although the image of the devil did not appear in Wilde's works, Lord Henry took the place of the devil. Under his temptation, Dorian made a wish to make the portrait old and ugly as the price of staying young forever. The difference between them is that Faust sold his soul for knowledge and power, while Tao Ren sold his soul for youth and pleasure. Wilde endowed this ancient literary theme with a brand-new form.
Plato once mentioned an allusion in The Republic, which was called "The Ring of Jugus". Poor shepherd Jugges accidentally got a ring and possessed invisible magic. Jorges asked Socrates, "If anyone can have such a ring, who will be honest and law-abiding?" Socrates replied that although a person's body is invisible, his soul will be distorted by the sins he committed. This paradox makes people think: when a person knows that his behavior will not be detected, can he still control himself from doing some evil things? Dorian Gray is the man wearing Chugs' ring. He did evil without being found. The only flaw is the portrait, which is a mirror reflecting his soul. Through this mirror, Bessel discovered Dorian's ugly and twisted soul.
The novel has a clever ending. It is ironic that Tao Ren accidentally committed suicide when he tried to abandon evil and get rid of ugly soul. From a positive point of view, his death is undoubtedly the liquidation of past sins, and this liquidation is thorough and absolute. Wilde does not intend to sublimate the ending and come to a redemption ending with religious feelings. From a moral standpoint, we may understand that once a person's soul has fallen, it can't be a good person again by making up for it, and only death can be used as an apology. Correspondingly, this novel is far from anti-moral, and even has some simple and simple warning significance. The "high moral standard" seen by Conan Doyle in his novels is probably understood from this angle.
However, it is too narrow to measure the meaning of literary works only from the moral level. Wilde once had an interesting self-report about what was expressed in Dorian Gray's portrait. He said, "Bessel is my image, Lord Henry is my image in the eyes of the world, and Dorian is the image I want to be." That is to say, in Wilde's view, these three characters all reflected their own shadows from different aspects, and * * * jointly explained his aesthetic concept. This concept is both Henry's bewitch and vanity, and Bessel's persistent pursuit of the external form of beauty. It also includes reflection on the essence of beauty, reflection on the conflict between aestheticism and morality, and regret for the ultimate destruction of beauty. We don't need to ask which character represents the author's position. What we need to feel is how Wilde expressed these most concerned propositions in the form of stories. Once we go beyond moral standards and re-examine this work, what we see is not only a Victorian novel with homosexual color, but also a masterpiece with distinct Wilde style, which embodies its artistic aesthetic and moral pursuit.
In the narrative form of the novel, dorian gray adopts many forms, such as folk stories, romantic legends, Gothic novels, suspense and thrillers, and constructs Wilde's unique artistic style. The language of the novel is gorgeous and the words are exquisite. The descriptions and descriptions of environment, architecture, music and images in large sections not only reveal Wilde's personal worship and fascination with ancient Greek culture, but also publicize his artistic view of "imitating art in life". Even in the eleventh chapter of the novel, Wilde introduced many luxuries, such as jewelry, embroidery, tapestries, spices, etc., and Tao Ren's imaginative literary fantasy-dazzling, overwhelmed, all kinds of pleasure merged into a river here, reflecting Wilde's unrestrained aesthetic and artistic characteristics.
Dramatic narration is also a major feature of this novel, which is closely related to Wilde's identity as a "born dramatist". As we mentioned earlier, Wilde's famous social satirical comedy still has strong vitality and is sought after by the world. This is not only because Wilde viciously satirized and castigated the hypocrisy and absurd habits of the British upper class at that time, but also because these comedies are full of dramatic elements that can attract audiences, such as coincidence, misunderstanding and mutation. In dorian gray, Wilde spared no effort to use this technique to achieve exaggerated dramatic effect. For example, the day after Dorian abandoned Sybil, just as Dorian repented all night and wanted to go to Sybil to make up for his mistake, Lord Henry brought the girl's death, and Dorian instantly had the favorable conditions to unload the moral burden; As for the accidental death of Sybil's younger brother, it is exactly the same. Just as Tao Ren was in a state of panic and fear of James' revenge all day, he saw each other's bodies.
Wilde has always been witty, and he is good at telling people in his works that Dorian Gray and Lord Henry are born masters, such as "The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it", "Only superficial people don't judge a book by its cover", "Men get married because they are tired, women get married because they are curious, and both sides are disappointed", "There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is that no one talks about you" ... These humorous and amazing words are also indirect. Therefore, Wilde's style and the form he adopted not only reflected his creative characteristics, but also served the content of the novel, so that the form and content were well unified.
1900, Wilde died tragically in Paris, suffering from poverty and illness. In his life, he didn't see a critic overturn his novel. In today's increasingly relaxed social and moral environment, even the legalization of gay marriage has gradually become the mainstream trend. When we reread Dorian Gray's portrait, those hypocritical moral attacks in the early years have already vanished. Today, Wilde has become the person who has been read and translated into the most national languages in Europe after Shakespeare. Wilde's ideal is to clean up the filth of reality with beautiful art, and to face up to the ugliness and darkness of reality is to explain his idea of "art first". Aestheticism has become a form of his spiritual rebellion. Dorian gray is just a window for Wilde to boldly and frankly show the mystery of his soul to the public.
abstract
Finally, let's review the knowledge points in this issue.
1. Oscar Wilde was a genius of English literature at the end of 19. His unconventional clothes and witty eloquence, as well as the gay lawsuit that led to his ruin and imprisonment, are still talked about by the public.
2. As a representative of the British aestheticism movement, Wilde's creative fields involve novels, plays, poems and fairy tales, and dorian gray is the only novel in Wilde's literary career.
The Portrait of Dorian Gray was born in the late Victorian era. As soon as the novel was published, its deviant remarks and vague homosexuality immediately caused an uproar in the conservative British literary world and society at that time, attracting many criticisms and attacks for the author. Dorian, Lord Henry and Bessel, the three characters in the novel, all reflect Wilde's own shadow from different aspects and jointly explain his aesthetic thought. Once we go beyond moral standards and re-examine this work, what we see is not only a Victorian novel with homosexual color, but also a masterpiece with distinct Wilde style, which embodies its artistic aesthetic and moral pursuit.
Fourthly, in narrative form, dorian gray adopts many forms, such as folk stories, romantic legends, gothic novels and suspense thrillers, which constructs Wilde's unique artistic style. The language of the novel is gorgeous and the words are delicate. The descriptions and descriptions of environment, architecture, music and images in large sections not only reveal Wilde's personal worship and fascination with ancient Greek culture, but also publicize his artistic view of "imitating art in life".
5. Wilde's humorous remarks are also reflected in the characters in the novel, and humorous aphorisms and humorous dialogues run through. Through these humorous and amazing words, the cynicism and gorgeous and decadent hedonism of the characters are indirectly reflected.
Screenwriter: Huang Yuning Studio
Brain map: Moses
Interpretation: Jack Sugar
Open the App and listen to good books.