/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2634551]

Who has read The Picture of Dorian Gray or anything else by Oscar Wilde?

Can we entreat ourselves to have a moment of discussion centering on the role of Henry Wotton?

This story is out of control.

[Anonymous No.2634602]

Picture of Dorian Gray was an amazing book. I loved the character of Sir Henry thoroughly. His constant witticisms were a source of laughs and also thought-provoking throughout the novel. Great book.

If you haven't read his play 'The Importance of Being Earnest', I highly recommend it. It's also hilarious and a great satire of Victorian society.

[Anonymous No.2634614]

I've read "The Importance of Being Earnest" in high school and was utterly hysterical. Once you get past the idiosyncrasies and laughable human condition they're all in, yes, it seeks to provide much insight to that society.

However, Picture of Dorian Gray, I feel, goes so far beyond that it's disgusting.
I honestly had the faintest as to what it was really about until, you know, the murder.

Even then, up until that point I became very obsessed with Henry's character and all Wilde aims him to be in the story, in life.

He is the impossible personified, so beautifully crafted to be imperfect that your only choice is to hate him lovingly.

Do you know anyone like that?

He just stirs me entirely.

[Anonymous No.2634615]

Dorian Gray = What Wilde wanted to be.
Henry Wotton = How everyone saw him as.
Basil = Who he felt he really was.

[Anonymous No.2634621]

>>2634615

/thread

[Anonymous No.2634623]

>>2634615

Can you elaborate?
It is very clear to me now, however, what is your interpretation?

[Anonymous No.2634900]

>>2634623

Dorian Gray, to me, is Wilde wanting to be as beautiful as his capacity for creating beauty through language is in addition to being able to dive into the world's taint while still being relatively pure (being homosexual without the extreme prejudice of his time).

In public, he used paradox to enhance his persona which Lord Wotton is a master of. Wilde used to be mocked for his rakish manner of dress until he started talking in public like a sexy professor Snape. He pretty much had Wotton's sense of social control and influence.

Now with Basil...whew. His obsession with Dorian mirrors Wilde's with Lord Alfred Douglas. Not to mention their insecurities.

[Anonymous No.2634902]

>>2634614
nigga you gay

[Anonymous No.2634908]

>>2634902

[Anonymous No.2634932]

>>2634900

The Basil explanation is misinformed...to an extent. Wilde didn't meet Douglas until after Dorian was published, but I'm sure his earlier relationships were of the same nature when it comes to power play. Wilde being the one who fawns, of course.