Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapter 13-14

Chapter thirteen starts with Dorian leading Basil up to the room where the portrait is. Before opening the door Dorian states "You are the one man in the world who is entitled to know everything about me. You have more to do with my life than you think." page 169. This is a clever way for Dorian to "tell" Basil about the painting without actually revealing anything. Dorian reveals the painting to Basil and Basil is extremely taken aback. It takes a while for Basil to actually come to terms with the truth of the matter. Which is that the painting is indeed the one that he had made years ago. When Basil asks how it can be possible, Dorian reminds him of the wish he made years ago when he was first introduced to Lord Henry.

Basil takes the blame how Dorian's situation turned out he states, "I worshiped you too much. I am punished for it. You worshiped yourself too much. We are both punished."page 172. With this statement you can see that Basil feels guilty for how Dorian turned out. He believes that if he had not put so much importance on Dorian's beauty, then none of this would have happened. Dorian is suddenly seized by an extreme hatred toward Basil and stabs him to death. At this point Dorian seems to disconnect from reality. His attitude toward the whole crime is similar to the one he had toward Sybil's suicide. "The secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation." page 174. Basically he plans to ignore the whole situation in hopes that it all goes away.

The next morning Dorian awakes perfectly calm and happy, that is until the realization of the events of the previous night comes back to him. He sends for Alan Campbell to come to his aid. While he awaits him, he tries to distract himself by reading and then he reflects on his former friendship with Alan. It is unclear as to why they no longer associate with one another, but it is safe to assume that Dorian is the cause. There was a time when they were inseparable then there came a time when Alan wanted nothing to do with him. Alan reluctantly comes to Dorian's aid and when Dorian reveals the true nature of his crime Alan wants nothing to do with it. Dorian ends up blackmailing Alan forcing him to dispose of the body. It is unknown what Dorian has on Alan, but it must be something extremely bad to convince Alan to dispose of the body. Also, when Dorian went to cover up the portrait it is seem that it has once again changed. There is blood on the hands, showing that it reflects his most recent crime.

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