Chapter 1 reading journal of 'The picture of Dorian Gray'

With its beautiful fragrance and fluorescent colors, a flower attracts insects to make them disseminate its pollens. The first chapter of the novel serves a purpose analogous to that of a flower, in that the initial chapter is responsible for drawing readers to read and contemplate on a book’s content, gradually ‘disseminating’ the value and magnificence of the book itself. I would like to describe the chapter 1 of the novel ‘The picture of the Dorian Gray’ as a flower that emanates irresistible redolence, making the readers of the novel immersed in its eloquent use of vivid visual descriptions and intellectually refined conversation between Basil and Lord Henry.

Oscar Wilde’s mastery of visual descriptions in chapter 1 was an element that nourishes the elegance and beauty of chapter 1. While I found the content of chapter 1 itself not so much intriguing, which was mainly about intellectual concern of a morose artist Basil who refuses to publicize his masterpiece, vivid descriptions of sceneries were so graceful that I managed to keep my gaze on each page of the novel, ardently seeking for more literary sketches that would inspire my imagination and evoke the sense of beauty that the garden emanates. For instance, there was a phrase

‘Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-colored blossoms of the laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs.’  

In fact, branches of the laburnum are drooped down as if they are incapable of sustaining the weight of their flowers. However, instead of describing laburnum as ‘flowers that are too heavy to be sustained by their branches’, Oscar Wilde described that branches as incapable of bearing the ‘flame-like beauty’ of the flowers. Such description  not only elaborately expresses the splendor of laburnum but also demonstrates a beautiful creativity in expression by endowing ‘weight’ to emphasize florid beauty of the flowers. There were certainly other visual descriptions that served as great pleasures during reading but unable to be carried on this essay, or the journal will be a heap of citations.

     Lord Henry’s eloquence was another element worth noticing in chapter 1. I conceive the content of the conversation between Basil and Lord Henry not so much inspiring or impressive, since the artistic concern and credo of Basil seemed to exist in dimension different from that where my perception and comprehension lay. Nevertheless, Lord Henry’s ability to endow powerful cogency on his immoral beliefs was very impressive. For example, Lord Henry stated that ‘one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties.’ Who would perceive such statement as moral? However, such phrase no longer seems so much unethical when Lord Henry states

‘When we meet,—we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to

the duke’s,— we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces. My wife is very good at it,—much better, in fact, than I am. She never gets confused over her dates, and I always do.’

With his charming eloquence and ability to cover his unconventional unethical thoughts with an intelligent sense of humor, Lord Henry conveys his unacceptable thoughts like a flow of water that furtively permeates into unconsciousness and alters listeners’ philosophy and beliefs. Maybe because of such incredible yet baneful talent of Lord Henry, Basil ardently rejected Lord Henry’s desire to meet Dorian Gray in order to prevent Lord Henry from taking Dorian Gray away from the realm of Basil’s fantasy and admiration. Nevertheless, Lord Henry’s overwhelming speech ability made Basil’s assertions almost seem merely as a whining of a child. In fact, Lord Henry reminded me of an extremely talented attorney that defends his guilty client with such a compelling persuasion that he seems to be able to trick the entire court to believe the suspect as innocent despite blatant egregiousness of the client’s crime. On the other hand, Basil seemed to be a hapless lawyer who cannot defend his client even with compelling and copious evidence. In other words, Lord Henry’s great talent as a persuasive speaker served as a pleasure for me during reading chapter 1.

     In a nutshell, Oscar Wilde successfully made the first chapter of his novel impressive by his skillful use of visual descriptions and eloquence of immoral yet charming character Lord Henry. Overall, chapter 1 was a carefully adorned entry of the novel, greeting readers to continue their journey on ‘The picture of Dorian Gray’. How will Lord Henry affect Dorian Gray? What will be the fate of the relationship between Basil and Dorian Gray? With these questions lingering inside my head, I am ready to step further into the novel through the beautiful and graceful entrance.