How did Lord Henry affect Dorian Gray?

      Heraclitus stated that nothing endures but change. At least regarding Dorian Gray in the novel 'Picture of Dorian Gray', Heraclitus is definitely correct. In Oscar Wilde's fictitious world portrayed in the novel, Dorian's initial naivete, beauty, and youth, no matter how much they seemed immutable and indelible, could never escape the ineluctable grasp of change. Why did Dorian, who once possessed such unblemished beauty and youth, eventually degrade into a narcissistic villain? Regarding various intellectual matters and social influence that amalgamated and deteriorated Dorian Gray, the answer to that question cannot be simple. However, it is important to note that Lord Henry played a key role in deteriorating Dorian Gray's morality by hindering his repentance and luring him into the world of new hedonism.

     

     Lord Henry is a vane to Dorian's morality in that he made Dorian Gray obtuse about gravity of his sins. While Dorian Gray taints himself and those around him with unremitting vice he indulges in, Lord Henry serves as a trigger for such misdeeds. The conversation between Dorian and Lord Henry after the tragic suicide of Sibyl incontrovertibly demonstrates Lord Henry's ability to disintegrate one's conscience into pieces. It is true that it was Dorian who abandoned Sibyl and drove her into extreme misery that eventually begot her suicide. However, Lord Henry's excessive self-indulgence in expressing his beliefs worsens the situation by hindering Dorian Gray's sincere regret about his brutal decision that destroyed tender Sibyl. For instance, Henry stated,

Some one has killed herself for love of you. I wish I had ever had such an experience. It would have made me in love with love for the rest of my life.

In other words, for Lord Henry, Sibyl's death merely serves to satiate his desire for aestheticism and dramatic love. For him, others merely exist to please his senses and impulses, indicating his extreme immorality, egocentrism, and abnormal pursuit of aestheticism. However, Lord Henry inculcates his improper thoughts into Dorian Gray by using his unconscientious yet enthralling rhetoric, persuading Dorian to indulge himself in another aesthetic pleasure, which is indicated as opera in chapter 8, and gradually forget the death of Sibyl. Due to Lord Henry, Dorian's primary importance in his life becomes satisfcation of sensual impulses and desire for beauty instead of maintaining humanity.

     Lord Henry further plunges Dorian Gray into unfathomable pit of immorality by introducing him to the world of hedonism. Most of people have a strong desire to maintain their scintillating youth and physical beauty, and Dorian is no exception. However, while such desire had resided in unconsciousness of Dorian Gray before he encountered Lord Henry, it soared to the surface of consciousness with the help from Lord Henry. For example, when Lord Henry first occupied himself in a conversation with Dorian, he stated

"I believe that if one man were to live his life out fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream,—-I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal"

His claim implies that pursuit of Hedonism is a worthy attempt, and in combination with his compelling eloquence that has pernicious impacts on others' ideology and demeanors, Lord Henry manages to intrigue Dorian with the idea of Hedonism. Lord Henry's success in galvanizing Dorian to ponder about the pursuit of pleasure and eternal youth serves as an outset of Dorian's future infamy, since Dorian later justifies his immorality by designating satisfaction of indulgence and impulse as a supreme value. In other words, Lord Henry's introduction of hedonism in front of Dorian Gray serves as a foothold for Dorian's moral degradation.

     Overall, it is evident that Lord Henry did have a profound influence on Dorian Gray, since Dorian's incapability to sincerely regret about his grave sins and his inordinate pursuit of hedonism are all tragic outcomes of Lord Henry's immoral attempts to manipulate a naive, young gentleman. Joker, an incarnation of evil in a movie 'Dark night', stated that 'Madness is like gravity. All you need is a little push." Yes, all Lord Henry required was 'a little push' to trap Dorian in a quagmire of endless infamy. In fact, all he needed was his tongue to completely sway Dorian side to side.By portraying such gullible human spirit, Oscar Wilde brilliantly delivers the importance to be more discerned and moderate when dealing with one's desire. 

Dream of one nerd

 “Wang Jing!”
I woke up, drowsy and annoyed. I slowly lifted my head that throbbed after being pressed on the hard surface of a wooden desk for a long time. My classmates were staring at me for the moment and went back to their own futile businesses. My physics teacher ‘Sumting Wong’ called my name again with his unusually strident voice, waving my physics exam sheet in front of the classmates.

“Come and take your exam sheet quickly Wang Jing. You are the first place in physics exam again!”

The teacher grinned, showing his rusty dentures.

He looked disgusting.

Hiding my great annoyance and disgust with a benign smile, I politely stepped towards Mr. Wong and gratefully took my exam sheet with a large, red A+ written on it.

A+ was my savior who will someday extricate me from my detestable reality in school and endow me wings that would lift me up to the top of the society I am belong to. School failed to carry out its role as an educational institute, students were disappointingly boorish, teachers wallowed in lassitude, and most of all, there was no one who could embrace me wholeheartedly. Therefore, I had an extremely strong desire to escape to upper class of society.

There, I thought, would be people who are more talented, passionate, responsible, and civilized.

There, I thought, would be someone worthy enough to devote my love and passion into.

There, I thought, would be nothing that makes me disappointed and lonely.

However, invisible barricades in modern society hindered my access to such ‘utopia’. The barricades demanded me to show that I am qualified enough to penetrate them and savor unimaginable merits that the upper class can offer. Therefore, I strived to attain excellent academic achievements to enter a prestigious college, the most credible route that guarantees membership to the upper class. To reach the summit of invisible hierarchy in modern society, I decided to abandon my friends, happiness and morality. These possessions are invaluable, but they were too florid and burdensome for a climber to carry when attempting to conquer a precipitous mountain so-called society. Instead, I packed myself with more utilitarian equipments to reach my desired destination: hard-heartedness, rationality, and inclemency. People started to call me ‘nerd’ when they saw me struggling for my dream. Nevertheless, my firm resolution turned out to be fruitful when I received a score report embellished with A+ and an accolade awarded to the student who has the highest GPA in school. I was moving closer to my goal everyday. But did I feel contented? Did I feel satisfactory when I abandoned everything that I once cherished to ‘go up’?

A rusty bell attached on a ceiling began to rang, ruthlessly breaking my contemplation. Physical education class arrived again, a moment I despised the most. My classmates grabbed their sports uniforms and hurried out of the classroom as if they were trying to vanish away from my sight. A group of girls ran past me, their golden hairs leaving a pleasant scent of shampoo. I gratefully inhaled the sweet smell, filling myself with deep fantasy about girls again. Having never talked with girls in my life, I have considered girl as a subject of fantasy and a veiled existence that is an enigma itself. To me, girl was like a bundle of beautiful and exotic flowers locked in a glass showcase. All I could do was simply to savor its glamour and enchanting scent strong enough to penetrate through the glass showcase. If the flowers walked out of their showcase by themselves, I would have gratefully seized them. But that never happened. With the sweet scent of shampoo still lingering in my nose, I dreamily walked towards a locker room to change my clothes. I suddenly burped, my habitual behavior that became more frequent when I became too immersed in my thought. Burping kicked me out of the fantasy by replacing its sweet redolence with odious smell of tuna sandwich that I had for lunch. Looking around me, I realized there was no one next to me in a locker room. I could hear distant yet exuberant shouting from a football field. The shouting delivered a strong sense of camaraderie that was no longer my possession. Overwhelming loneliness crept into my heart as if trying to ruthlessly break the already fragile existence into parts. I firmly grabbed my sports uniform, struggling to drive away the feelings that would weaken me.

The rusty bell rang again, indicating the end of the school. Facing the sunset that drenched the sky with crimson beauty, I dragged my tired feet toward my home. Feeling that the sunset was the most beautiful one I had ever seen in my life, I decided to sit on a bench under a lone cherry tree standing beside a fence of my school and breathed in the beauty of the scene. To enjoy a pleasurable respite from suffocating life, I took out my smart phone and started to watch my favorite Korean webtoon. I used to watch the Korean webtoon translated into Chinese, but feeling that translated version cannot deliver the webtoon’s unique charm, I decided to learn Korean to comprehend the Korean webtoon. When I reached the level in which I could easily comprehend Korean webtoon, I felt the relationship between me and the webtoon becoming more intense and intimate. Korean webtoon was a source of mental healing in that it has enthralling ability to drag its readers into its own fantasy world and make them oblivious of their reality while reading it. As I was happily scrolling down the screen, enjoying every scene in the webtoon, a short conversation between two protagonists caught my attention.

“I hate companions. I consistently have to check if they are better than me when I am with others.”

“Then… Doesn’t it mean that you are lonely?”

     

     The second phrase pierced into my heart and made a fissure in it. The webtoon that was once my panacea turned into a malicious villain that stabbed knife into my heart. Immense loneliness oozed out from the fissure. I struggled to scoop the loneliness and put it back deep in my heart to make myself unaware of it. But I failed. Loneliness kept pouring out. I felt myself being weakened as if I was suffering hemorrhage. Loneliness soon soaked every part of my soul and body. I haplessly knelt on the ground. Tears kept running down, drenching crimson paving blocks with dark spots when tear drops splashed on the ground. I kept crying and crying and crying…. There was no one next to me. 

What a smile....

It was a hot sunny day when I and other KMLA students reluctantly dragged our feet toward school buses to visit Hyun Choongsa, a place to memorialize one of Korea’s greatest generals Lee Sunshin. My dark traditional Korean costume continued to suppress my body that was already suppressed by exorbitant heat, and my brain persistently cursed my school for enforcing us to wear such costume. My physical and mental stress began to burgeon when I realized that the bus I was supposed to take does not turn on an air conditioner. Traveling one hour and a half in an oppressing bus crammed with a bunch of KMLA students, I began to feel a need to express my distress to prevent myself from being tormented by aftermath after suffering such extreme mental stress. Suddenly, I gazed at a plastic water bottle in my right hand. There must have been telepathy between the bottle and me. The plastic water bottle gently shook its content as if it is luring its owner to make use of it. I crumpled the bottle, hoping that deforming its shape can serve as an exit to express my distress. Nevertheless, crumpling did me no good. Then, I looked at my friend sleeping at the back. A brilliant thought swept across my head.

Here is the realization of my brilliant idea. Yes, it is me, tilting my dear plastic water bottle above my friend’s head. I anticipate some degree of repugnance and laughter when you see this photo. Well, a memorable photo does not necessarily have to be visually attractive, does it? In the photo, water is lingering precariously at the fringe of the bottle that I am holding on, but my friend is so deeply immersed in his unconsciousness that he is unable to sense snickering around him and water sloping from side to side right above his nostrils. As you can see, I am about to pour water on my sleeping friend’s face in the photo. To celebrate such an honorable moment, I tried to make a facial expression that would candidly express my sensation. Here is the result: me smiling in naive yet treacherous manner. My another friend who was sitting right behind me gladly took out his expensive Canon camera to record the momentous event, a part of the memory of KMLA life that will later be recounted and put smile on faces of those who will still recollect vicarious pleasure they felt while watching the jocular moment recorded in the photo.

       
       Some readers may wonder why I picked such photo as my most memorable photograph in my life, since my ridiculous face can be a subject of laughter and mockery when others see it. Nevertheless, the photo is special in that it reflects forgotten immature and naive aspect of my ego. No one can maintain naivety throughout his or her life, and I am no exception. It has been only two years since I have become a member of KMLA family, but harsh school life, sense of responsibility, and stress that I have to bear with as a KMLA student have devastated my spryness and have made be a solemn nerdy student. I am not criticizing KMLA, since losing childish naivety also means a process of becoming more mature. However, making changes entails lose of something that was once so valuable and fundamental for me. I sometimes feel depressed and regretful when I realize that I am rapidly relinquishing my original values and ideals to pace up with my circumstances where everything occurs swiftly and those who are slow to adept eventually fall back. Fortunately, God has endowed human beings the ability to ‘remember’. I can still ride my time machine in my head to contemplate and become deeply immersed into my reminiscence to evoke feelings that Taeyoon today can no longer experience. Though recollections are often involuntarily distorted and embellish past memories with ornate cover that exaggerates certain parts of my memory, reminiscence that can put smile on one’s face is certainly an important possession that has a tonic effect. Therefore, the photo above is an important medium for me to relax and evoke the sensation that I have forgone or forgotten. The facial expression that seems to be devoid of present worries, doubts, or resentment is certainly an essential legacy from past Taeyoon that connects me with the past.

     
        The photo also takes its significance as a map that will lead me to the memory of KMLA life when I become too aged to revoke KMLA school life without any clue. When I was a child, I always felt reluctant to stand in front of a camera. I did not like the dark, cold gaze of an inanimate object, and I was afraid of the thought that I might lose my sense of uniqueness after being depicted on a white coating film by a camera. But as I grew up, I began to accumulate so many valuable memories and experience that I failed to recognize their worth at the moment when I was a part of them. However, I realized that without photographs I could not recollect the experience and sensation that I long to remember. No matter how much effort I put in to cling to such precious reminiscence, the flow of time is inexorable and will eventually sweep away what I value from my head. Thus, I felt the strong need to record my daily experience and events that I consider negligible or insignificant in the present but will be regarded as invaluable moments in the future. The photo above is another part of my effort to inscribe details of my daily life. Though I felt resentful about visiting Hyun Choongsa(and I still do feel mild resentment about it), I have no doubt that such experience will become an another essential possession stored in my memory chamber that I will visit again and again. When I visit the chamber, photographs will serve me as a guide to find specific memories that I want when I am no longer able to find the trace of KMLA life among hodgepodge of memories in my head.

       The most important element of a photograph is the messages it implies, not what it depicts. When you look at a photo, try to sense the world it attempts to convey. A photo that looks humorous on the surface may indirectly portray a brutal world, while a photo tainted with a mark of depression may suggest a hint of hope. You can see how deep the implied messages of photographs can be by looking at my two paragraphs of long, serious contemplation derived from the photo that seems ridiculous and meaningless. A photograph is an extremely attractive piece of art that contains unfathomable depth which can be observed only by those who have keen eyesight.