sibyl vane, dorian and basil

Question 1

the novel presents three intriguing characters who all represent

Answer 1

•in different ways the relationship between art and life, contemplation and action, beauty and ethics

Question 2

neither lord henry, basil hallway or dorian…

Answer 2

•embody the ideal they aspire, and they all fail catastrophically in one way or another

Question 3

lord henry is a cynic who

Answer 3

•manipulates dorian into doing the things he advocates, but it too frightened to do himself

Question 4

in this view, henry is a..

Answer 4

•tired man who wants to live vicariously through a younger, more beautiful specimen who has the ability (or so lord henry supposed) to experience life as lord henry believes it ought to be experienced

Question 5

lord henry is the chief vechile in the novel for

Answer 5

•wildes epigrammatic wit , and his aesthetic ideal needs to be taken seriously

Question 6

what, then, does lord henry stand for?

Answer 6

•a clue to his governing aesthetic can be found in the opening scene of the novel, which takes place in basils studio

Question 7

how is basils studio introduced

Answer 7

•the door is open, the rich sights, sounds, and smells of the adjoining garden, as the light summer wind blows, are vividly described

Question 8

where’s henry seen in the opening scene

Answer 8

•characteristically taking it easy by lying on the divan, but he’s aware of all the sensory life going on around him- the heavy scent of the lilac, the almost unbearable beauty of the laburnum blossoms, the “sullen murmur” of the bees

Question 9

just as importantly, lord henry is aware of

Answer 9

•the shadows cast on the curtains by the flight of the birds, which reminds him of Japanese artists, who “through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion”

Question 10

this passages suggests lord henry’s..

Answer 10

•ideal, which is to cultivate an intensity of experience whilst paradoxically remaining unbothered and untroubled by it

Question 11

this ideal is fully realized through…

Answer 11

•the contemplation of art, which permits the observer the privilege of being at once involved and uninvolved

Question 12

it’s in this sense that art is superior to life, as wilde so often claimed,, and

Answer 12

•this is what henry is driving at when he instructs the malleable mind of dorian on how to react to the suicide of sibyl vane

Question 13

lord henry tells dorian to view sibyls suicide as

Answer 13

•a scene of some Jacobean tragedy
•he means that tragic drama has the power to evoke in the spectator a full and sympathetic response, but one that doesn’t engulf him or her in actual grief

Question 14

lord henry here is a spokesman for

Answer 14

•the position wilde staked out in his essay “The Critic as Artist”

Question 15

what does lord henry say about viewing sibyls death

Answer 15

•”Art does not hurt us.”
•”We weep, but we are not wounded.”
•in this view, art shields people from the harshness of actual existence. it’s to be preferred to life as life, unlike art, lacks form

Question 16

dorian is convinced by lord henry’s argument and he..

Answer 16

•changes the way he responds to sibyls death, recovering his equanimity (or so he thinks)

Question 17

ofc, dorian’s fatal mistake according to lord henry’s philosophy was…

Answer 17

•getting his emotions tied up with sibyl in the first place as that has inflicted a wound on the invisible lvl of life (lvl or soul, or conscience, reflected by the changing painting) that extracts a bitter price further down the road

Question 18

it’s to avoid wounds like these that Wilde argues in “The Critic as Artist”…

Answer 18

•for the superiority of contemplation over action, being (or more precisely, becoming) over doing

Question 19

this is why art, he says, can have nothing to do with ethics, since..

Answer 19

•ethics only applies to the sphere of action. this is why lord henry appears to withdraw from life and only seek perfection in art

Question 20

yet there’s another side to lord henry’s philosophy..

Answer 20

•in contrast to the inward impulse is the push outward, the desire for the sensory world

Question 21

lord henry advocates a life of..

Answer 21

•passionate personal experience, to be enjoyed most fully in youth, where the sense are at their sharpest

Question 22

he’ll have nothing of self denial, as he tells dorian

Answer 22

•”Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us.”

Question 23

henry’s “new Hedonism”

Answer 23

•in which novel sensations are sought to keep the flame of life from going out in the dullness of routine and habit, demands the courage to yield to temptation (another wildean paradox)

Question 24

lord henry explained to dorian that

Answer 24

•if he doesn’t act on these impulses, his life won’t be as beautiful and he’ll grow sick with longing

Question 25

to remain a spectator of life and at the same time fulfill every desire of one’s sensual nature is

Answer 25

•a paradox; it suggests the coexistence of opposite values

Question 26

it’s the art of feeling life without feeling it…

Answer 26

•the art of touching whilst remaining untouched. paradoxes like these often lead to the sphere of mysticism

Question 27

indeed, the book lord henry gave dorian, and which

Answer 27

•fascinated and influenced him deeply, sometimes seems to him like a work of mystical philosophy

Question 28

it’s the concrete material form, shaped into beauty, which holds their attention.

Answer 28

•as wilde put it, attributing the though to Walter Pater in “The Critic as Artist”:
“Who… would exchange the curve of a single rose-leaf for that formless intangible Being which Plato raises so high?”

Question 29

if in his personal life, as opposed to what he advise Dorian,

Answer 29

•henry embraces the first rather than the second part of the paradox - detachment rather than involvement - his protégé dorian leans to the other side

Question 30

totally under lord henry’s spell…

Answer 30

•this refined young man with high ideals adopts his mentors words to the best of his ability

Question 31

dorian tells basil he understands what henry says about set and the “artistic temperament”, and he quotes Henry approvingly that

Answer 31

•”To become the spectator of one’s own life… is to escape the suffering of life.”

Question 32

even though dorian has few original thoughts in his head, he still manages to..

Answer 32

•think in lofty terms about the new hedonism, leading to the birth of a new spirituality, dominated by an instinct for beauty

Question 33

but dorian doesn’t succeed in living the paradox.

Answer 33

•more involved in the world than lord henry and giving full rein to his love of beauty and his quest for novel sensations, he allows himself to become a poisonous influence on those around him

Question 34

dorian becomes indifferent to his actions, which

Answer 34

•not only destroys other people, but also leaves him fatal marred, despite the illusion- for that, ultimately is what it is- generated by his unchanging youthful beautiful appearance

Question 35

detached contemplation becomes callous disregard. in his attempt,

Answer 35

•following lord henry’s dictum “to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the sense by means of the soul,” dorian succeeds in satiating only one and corrupting the other

Question 36

in terms of the Art/Life dichotomy, he deserts the calm serenity of art in favor of the sordidness of life

Answer 36

•this becomes crystal cost as dorian takes the hansom cab to the opium den the day after he murdered basil
•”Ugljness that had once been hateful to him because it made things real, became dear to him for that very reason.”

Question 37

the 3rd main character basil hallward, can also be..

Answer 37

•analyzed in terms of this dichotomy between art and life, detachment and involvement

Question 38

basil confessed to dorian in chapter 9 that

Answer 38

•when he first began painting portraits of him, he managed to retain the proper artistic distance from the subject: “it had all been what art should be, unconscious, ideal, and remote.”

Question 39

but when basil painted dorian not in classical costume, but as himself,

Answer 39

•his personal feelings entered into the painting: he revealed too much of himself in it and this is why he at first decided not to exhibit the painting

Question 40

when basil allowed himself to become infatuated with dorian, he commits the same error (from lord henry’s perspective, that is)..

Answer 40

•that dorian died with sibyl vane. he showed himself to be drawn out of the sphere of art into that of life, and nothing good results from it

Question 41

as dorian later approaches basil…

Answer 41

•You met me, flattered me, and taught me to be vain of my good looks.”
•basil then must bear his share of responsibility for encouraging dorian on the path that proves so destructive to him as well as others

Question 42

however basil, unlike lord henry and dorian, doesn’t divorce his principle as an artist from his moral and ethical awareness

Answer 42

•this is what makes him the most sensible, and perhaps least interesting, character out of the three main characters

Question 43

basil is the voice of conscience that…

Answer 43

•speaks to dorian when the younger man is intent on ignoring his own conscience

Question 44

basils shocked by dorian’s callous demeanor after..

Answer 44

•sibyl vanes death, and his moral concern about dorian’s dissolute life is what precipitates basils murder, since dorian can’t bear to listen to basils insistence that dorian should pray for repentance

Question 45

it’s in this moment, through the agency of basil, that..

Answer 45

•a thematic framework quite different from the concerns of art and life, beauty and ethics and contemplation and action enters the novel

Question 46

this new thematic framework is

Answer 46

•the christian scheme of sin, followed by repentance and possibility of redemption

Question 47

when dorian finally feels remorse and desires to change his life..

Answer 47

•he moves to a different sphere than lord henry, who refuses to take seriously anything he says on that subject

Question 48

lord henry, apparently ignorant of the course that dorian’s life has taken…

Answer 48

•believes him still to be as perfect as his handsome appearance suggests
•this failure of lord henry to respond to events of the real world is presented in extreme form when dorian confesses to the murder of basil

Question 49

lord henry’s response is prompted by his aesthetics, rather than

Answer 49

•any moral or practical concern
•he says that dorian doesn’t have the vulgarity to commit a murder

Question 50

this last glance at lord henry may be wildes way of

Answer 50

•demonstrating that lord henry’s detachment involves him in illusions no less damaging than those which dorian had for long entertained about his own life

Question 51

the worship of art & beauty may have its place, but

Answer 51

•it proves to be an inadequate guide through the troubled maze of real human experience