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Feb 04, 2016Porkbellytacos rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
At it’s core, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a meditation on moral philosophy. One can imagine the main characters of the book in an almost cartoonish manner: Basil, the angel, perched upon Dorian’s left shoulder begging him to realize his potential. Lord Henry, dressed in red standing, upon Dorian’s right shoulder ranting paradoxically about hedonism, art and love. Dorian struggling between the two. It is clear that Oscar Wilde deserves his place in the cannon of literature. This book, however, just didn’t quite hit the mark. The philosophy in this book was shallow. That is, it exhibited a shallow understanding of the philosophy’s it discussed. You could tell Wilde was familiar with certain concepts, but the story itself only dealt with issues in their most simple sense. The writing, however, is unmistakably good. Kind of. I think The Picture of Dorian Gray was written for the wrong medium. It should have been a play. That way Lord Henry’s monologues could have been actual monologues. Nothing about Oscar’s descriptions of anyone’s emotions lent anything necessary to the story, or at least could have been portrayed as easily through dialogue and acting. Lending itself to this theory is the fact that Oscar Wilde is known also as a very talented playwright. This, I feel, would have given the story more life and avoided the moments where I think Wilde’s literary lyricism actually took away from the story instead of added to it. 5/10.