Day 9: The Picture of Dorian Gray

For anyone who has taken high school English, you have probably heard of Dorian Gray. No? How about Oscar Wilde? With no formal introduction prior to this movie made from a book, one may be a little lost. I only remembered bits and pieces from a book report back in high school, so I chose to do a little research.

Oscar Wilde, the author, was quite a colorful little fella. Writing many plays including The Importance of Being Earnest, he had some success as a writer. However, his reputation is what most people commit to memory, not his works. Being arrested for gross indecency put a bit of a strain of his marriage, and he died a few years after being released from prison of cerebral meningitis.

Oscar's character, Dorian Gray, is one that many would be unwilling to relate to. The movie begins and we find that Dorian is the object of almost everyone's affection. And why not? He is handsome, confident, and has an air of innocence about him. After a self-portrait is created for him, he changes. He realizes that he will grow old and unwanted, but the painting will stay the same. Instantly he is a changed man. He becomes vain, caring not for the people around him. He moves in a world that is his own, destroying beauty, while he himself stays beautiful. While he grows older in age, his portrait ages. Dorian stays young and fresh from outward appearances, while his portrait, covered by an old cloth, becomes more repulsive, a sponge soaking in all of his sins.

I think the premise of the movie, not the movie itself, is what makes it so great. Every time we do something wrong, we get a little uglier, but nobody knows about it from appearances. To bare ones soul is a brave thing indeed! To have to show the world how truly ugly or beautiful we are would help us, hopefully, become better people because we would have a visual moral indicator guiding us.

I want to end with a quote from the movie. "To become the spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life." How true this can be when we are faced with difficult decisions and choose to opt out of our own lives. We choose to medicate instead of feeling the pain. We step outside of our lives, not to get a better perspective, but to take a vacation from ourselves. We fill our time with busywork so we won't have to think about ugly things we have done or said. In the end, just as in the end of the movie, penance will have to be paid. We will be judged. It makes one wonder, what would your portrait look like out from under the cover?

Next movie: McLibel