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English Literature books summary

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English Literature books summary

that Victor saw the red mark. Then he picks up the book Lord Henry sent

him. It is a fascinating book from the first page. It is a plot-less novel,

a psychological study of a young Parisian who spends all his life trying to

realize all the passions and modes of thought of previous ages. It is

written in the style of the French Symbolistes. He finds it to be a

poisonous book. He can’t put it down. It makes him late to dinner with Lord

Henry.

CHAPTER 11

For years afterwards, Dorian Gray continues to feel the influence of

the book Lord Henry gave him. He gets more copies of the book from Paris

and has them bound in different colors. He thinks of the book as containing

the story of his life. He feels himself lucky to be different from the

novel’s hero in respect to aging. While the novel’s hero bemoans his loss

of youthful beauty, Dorian Gray never loses his youth. He reads the

passages over and over again reveling in his difference from the hero in

this respect.

People in his social circle often hear dreadful things about Dorian

Gray, but when they look at him and see his fresh, young looks, they

dismiss the rumors as impossible. Dorian is often gone from home for long

periods of time and never tells anyone where he has gone. He always returns

home and goes straight upstairs to see the portrait’s changes. He grows

more and more in love with his own beauty. He spends much time in a sordid

tavern near the docks and thinks with pity of the degradation he has

brought on his soul.

Most of the time, though, he doesn’t think of his soul. He has "mad

hungers that [grow] more ravenous as he [feeds] them."

He entertains once or twice a month with such lavish fare and such

exquisite furnishings that he becomes the most popular of London’s young

men. He is admired by all the men who see him as a type of man who combines

the real culture of a scholar with the grace of a citizen of the world. He

lives his life as if it were an art work. His style of dressing sets the

standard of all the fashionable shops.

He worships the senses in many different forms. He lives the new

Hedonism, that Lord Henry has told him of. He enjoys the service of the

Catholic Church for its ritual and its pathos. Yet, he never embraces any

creed or system of thought because he refuses to arrest his intellectual

development. He studies new perfumes and experiments with them endlessly.

He devotes himself for long periods to the study of all kinds of musical

forms from all over the world. He even studies the stories written about

the music, the stories of magic and death. He takes of the study of jewels

for a while, collecting rare and precious jewels from all over the world

for the pleasure of looking at them and feeling them. He collects stories

about jewels as part of animals and stories of jewels which caused death

and destruction. For a time, he studies embroideries of all sorts and the

stories that attach to them. He collects embroideries and tapestries from

all over the world. He especially loves ecclesiastical vestments. The

beautiful things he collects are part of his methods of forgetfulness. He

wants to escape the fear that sometimes seems to overwhelm him.

After some years, he becomes unable to leave London for any purpose

because he cannot bear to be away from the portrait for any length of time.

Often when he’s out with friends, he breaks off and rushes home to see if

the portrait is still where it should be and to ensure that no one has

tampered with the door. He develops a desperate fear that someone might

steal the portrait and then everyone would know about him.

Most people are fascinated with Dorian Gray, but some people are

distrustful of him. He is almost banned from two clubs. He is ostracized by

some prominent men. People begin to tell curious stories about him hanging

around with foreign sailors in run down pubs and interacting with thieves

and coiners. People talk about his strange absences. He never takes notice

of these looks people give him. Most of them see his boyish smile and can’t

imagine that the stories could be true. Yet the stories remain. Sometime

people notice women, who at one time adored him, blanch when he walks in a

room in shame or horror. To most people, the stories only increase his

mysterious charm. According to Lord Henry, society doesn’t care about

morality in its aristocratic members, only good manners.

Dorian Gray can’t imagine why people reduce human beings to a single,

"simple, permanent, reliable essence." For Dorian, people enjoy myriad

lives and sensations; they change radically from time to time. Dorian likes

to look at the portrait gallery of his country house. He wonders about his

ancestors and how their blood co- mingled with his own. He looks at Lady

Elizabeth Devereaux in her extaordinary beauty and realizes her legacy to

him is in his beauty and in his love of all that is beautiful.

He also thinks of his ancestors as being in literature he has read.

These characters have influenced him more even than his family members

have. The hero of the central novel of his life has certainly been his

greatest influence. He also loves to think of all the evil heroes about

whom he has read: Caligula, Filippo, Due of Milan, Pietro Barbi, the

Borgia, and many more. He feels a "horrible fascination" with all of them.

He knows he has been poisoned by the French Symboliste book. He thinks of

evil as nothing more than a mode of experiencing the beautiful.

CHAPTER 12

It is the ninth of November, not long before Dorian Gray will turn 38

years old. He is walking home late one night when he sees Basil Hallward.

He becomes suddenly afraid to have contact with his old friend whom he

hasn’t seen in many months, but Basil sees him and stops him. Basil says

he’s been waiting for him all evening and has just given up. He insists on

coming back inside with Dorian because he says he has something important

to tell him.

Inside, Dorian acts as though he’s bored and wants to go to bed. Basil

insists on talking. He says he is going to Paris in one hour’s time and

will be taking a studio there for six months. He tells Dorian that he is

always having to defend Dorian’s name wherever he goes. He thinks Dorian

must be a good person because he looks so beautiful. He says he knows sin

tells on people’s faces after a while, so he has a great deal of trouble

believing the stories. However, the evidence has piled up and is quite

compelling. He names several young men who have lost very promising

reputations after being extremely close to Dorian. He names several young

women, including Lord Henry’s sister, who have lost their reputations. Lady

Gwendolyn, Lord Henry’s sister, has suffered such a fall that she is not

even allowed to see her own children any more. He mentions the stories of

people who have seen Dorian spending time in "dreadful houses" and in "the

foulest dens in London." He mentions the stories of what happens at

Dorian’s country house.

Basil urges Dorian to have a good influence on people instead of a bad

one. He tells Dorian that it is said that he corrupts everyone with whom he

becomes intimate. He has even seen a letter shown to him by Lord

Gloucester, one of his best friends, that his wife wrote to him on her

death bed. It implicated Dorian Gray in her debasement. Basil sums up by

saying that he doesn’t know that he even knows Dorian any more. He says

that he can’t say without seeing Dorian’s soul and only God can do that.

At his last words, Dorian goes white with fear and repeats the words

"To see my soul!" He laughs bitterly and tells Basil that he will see his

soul that very night. He will let Basil look on the face of corruption.

Basil is shocked and thinks Dorian is being blasphemous. He stands over

Basil and tells him to finish what he has to say to him. Basil says Dorian

must give him a satisfactory answer to all the stories about him that very

night. Dorian just tells him to come upstairs with him. He says he has

written a dairy of his life from day to day and that it never leaves the

room in which it is written.

CHAPTER 13

The two men climb the stairs and Dorian lets Basil in the room

upstairs. He lights the lamp and asks Basil again if he really wants an

answer to his question. Basil does, so Dorian pulls the curtain from the

portrait and shines the light on it, saying he is delighted to show Basil

because Basil is the only man in the world entitled to know all about him.

Basil cries out in horror when he sees the portrait. He stares at it for a

long time in amazement, not believing at first that it is the same portrait

he painted all those years ago.

Dorian is leaning against the mantle shelf watching Basil’s reaction

with something like triumph expressed on his face. Dorian tells him that

years ago when he was a boy, Basil had painted this portrait of him,

teaching him to be vain of his looks. Then he had introduced him to Lord

Henry who explained to him the wonder of youth. The portrait had completed

the lesson in the beauty of youth. When he had seen it in the first moment,

he had prayed that he should change places with it, never changing and

aging, but letting the picture do so. Basil remembers the prayer. He

thinks, however, that it must be impossible. He tries to find some logical

explanation for the degradation of the beauty of the portrait. He thinks

perhaps the room was damp or that he had used some kind of poor quality

paints. He says there was nothing evil or shameful in his ideal that he

painted that day. This, instead, is the face of a satyr. Dorian says it is

the face of his soul.

Basil begins to believe it is true and then realizes what it means. It

means that all that is said of Dorian is true and that his reputation isn’t

even as bad as he is. He can hear Dorian sobbing as he begins to pray. He

asks Dorian to join him in prayer. He says Dorian worshipped himself too

much and now they are both punished.

Dorian tells him it’s too late. Basil insists that it isn’t. He begins

to pray. Dorian looks at the picture and suddenly feels an overwhelming

hatred for Basil. He sees a knife lying nearby and picks it up. He walks

over and stands behind Basil and stabs him in the neck several times. When

he is finished, he hears nothing but blood dripping. He goes to the door

and locks it. He is horrified to look at Basil’s body.

He goes to the window and sees a policeman outside and an old woman.

He tries not to think about what has happen. He picks up the lamp because

he knows the servant will miss it from downstairs, and he goes downstairs,

locking the door behind him.

Everything is quiet in the house. He remembers that Basil was supposed

to leave for Paris that night and had even sent his heavy things ahead of

him. No one had seen him come back inside after he left his house earlier

that evening. No one will begin to wonder about him for months to come. He

puts Basil’s bag and coat in a hiding place, the same place where he hides

his disguises. Then he puts on his own coat, goes outside, and knocks on

the door. His servant opens the door and he asks him what time it is. Then

he tells him to wake him at nine the next morning. The servant tells him

Mr. Hallward came by and Dorian exclaims over having missed him.

Inside his library again, he picks up the Blue Book and finds the name

of Alan Campbell. He says this is the man he wants.

CHAPTER 14

Dorian Gray wakes with a smile the next morning at nine o’clock,

feeling well rested. He gradually recalls the events of the night before.

He feels sorry for himself and loathing for Basil. Then he realizes that

Basil’s body remains upstairs in he room. He fears that if he thinks too

much on what happened he will go crazy. He gets up and spends a long time

choosing his outfit and his rings. He has a leisurely breakfast and reads

his mail, throwing away a letter from a lover, remembering one of Lord

Henry’s misogynist sayings about women, that they have a awful memory. He

writes two letters and sends one to Mr. Alan Campbell by his manservant.

He smokes a cigarette and sketches for a while, but every face he

sketches looks like Basil’s. He lies down on the sofa and tries to read

Gautier’s Emaux et Camees. He enjoys the images in the book of the beauties

of Venice. It reminds him of his visit there. He was with Basil and he

remembers Basil’s joy over the work of Tintoret. He tries to read again and

then begins to worry that Alan Campbell might be out of town.

Five years ago, he and Alan had been great friends. Now they never

speak. Alan always leaves the room when Dorian comes in at any party they

both attend. Alan is a scientist, but when he and Dorian were together, he

was also in love with music. They were inseparable for a year and a half.

Then they quarreled and have not spoken since. Alan has given up music in

favor of science. Dorian becomes hysterical with anxiety as he waits.

Finally, the servant announces that Mr. Campbell has arrived.

Dorian loses all anxiety and plays the part of the gracious host. Alan

Campbell is stiff with disapproval and hatred. He wants to know why Dorian

has called him. Dorian tells him there is a dead body in a room at the top

of the stairs and he needs Campbell to dispose of it. Alan tells him to

stop talking. He says he will not turn him in, but that he will not have

anything to do with it. Dorian tells him he wants him to do it because of

Alan’s knowledge of chemistry. He wants him to change the body into a

handful of ashes. He at first says it was a suicide, but then admits that

he murdered the man upstairs. Dorian begs him to help and Alan refuses to

listen. Finally, when he is sure he can’t convince him,

Dorian writes something down and tells Alan to read it. Alan is

shocked at what he reads. Dorian says if Alan won’t help him, he will send

a letter to someone and ruin Alan’s reputation. He tells Alan he is

terribly sorry for him for what he will have to do, but tries to console

him by saying he does this sort of thing all the time for the pursuit of

science so it shouldn’t be too horrible for him.

Finally, Alan says he needs to get things from home. Dorian won’t let

him leave. He makes him write down what he needs and sends his servant to

get the equipment. Then when it arrives, he sends his servant away for the

day to get some orchids in another city. He and Alan carry the equipment

upstairs. At the door, Dorian realizes he has left the portrait uncovered

for the first time in years. He rushes over to it to cover it. He sees that

on the hands, there is a red stain. He covers it and then leaves the room

to Alan without looking at the body.

Long after seven o’clock that evening, Alan comes downstairs and says

it is finished. He says he never wants to see Dorian again. Dorian thanks

him sincerely, saying he saved him from ruin. When Campbell leaves, Dorian

rushes upstairs and sees there is no trace of the body.

CHAPTER 15

That evening, Dorian Gray goes to a dinner party at Lady Narborough’s

house. He looks perfectly dressed and perfectly at ease. The party is small

and the guests boring. Dorian is relieved when he hears that Lord Henry

will be coming. When Lord Henry arrives late, he carries on in his usual

way with one aphorism after another much to Lady Narborough’s amusement.

Dorian, for his part, cannot even eat. He is noticeably distracted. Lady

Narborough asks him several times what is the matter and when the men are

left alone after dinner for their cigars, Lord Henry questions him. Lord

Henry asks him where he went the night before since he left the party

early. Dorian first says he went home, then he says he went to the club,

then he corrects himself again and says he walked around until half past

two when he got home and had to ask his servant to let him in.

The two men chat a little longer. Dorian is planning a party at his

country house the next weekend and they discuss the guest list. Dorian is

interested in a Duchess and has invited her and her husband. Lord Henry

warns him against her, saying she is too smart, and that women are best

when they are weak and ignorant. Dorian finally says he must leave. He goes

home and opens the hiding place where he has put Basil Hallward’s coat and

bag. He puts them on the fire and waits until they are completely burned

up. Then he sits and looks at a cabinet for a long time fascinated.

Finally, he gets up and gets a Chinese box out of it. He opens it and

finds inside a green paste with a heavy odor. He hesitates with a strange

smile and then puts the box back and closes the cabinet. He gets dressed

and leaves the house. He hails a cab telling the man the address. The cab

driver almost refuses since it is too far, but Dorian promises him a huge

tip and they drive off toward the river.

CHAPTER 16

It is raining and cold as Dorian rides to the outskirts of the city.

The ride is extraordinarily long. He hears over and over again Lord Henry’s

saying that one can cure the soul by means of the sense and can cure the

sense by means of the soul. He heard Lord Henry say that on the first day

he met him. He has repeated it often over the years. Tonight it is all he

can think of to calm himself through the long drive. The roads get worse

and worse. People chase the cab and have to be whipped away by the driver.

Finally, they arrive and Dorian gets out.

He goes into a building and passes through several dirty and poor

rooms. He passes through a bar where a sailor is slumped over a table and

two prostitutes are jeering at a crazy old man. He smells the odor of opium

and feels relieved. However, when he goes into the opium den, he is

unhappily surprised to see Adrian Darlington.

Adrian tells him he has no friends any more and doesn’t need them as

long as he has opium. Dorian doesn’t want to be in the same place with the

young man about whom Basil Hallway had just spoken the night before. He

buys Adrian a drink and is bothered by a prostitute. He tells her not to

speak to him and gives her money to leave him alone. He tells Adrian to

call on him if he ever needs anything and then he leaves. As he is leaving,

one of the prostitutes calls out to him "There goes the devil’s bargain."

He curses her and she says, "Prince Charming is what you like to be called,

ain’t it?" As she says this the sailor who has been asleep jumps up and

runs after Dorian.

Outside, Dorian is wishing he hadn’t run into Adrian Singleton and

cursing fate. He hurries along when he is suddenly grabbed from behind and

shoved against the wall. A gun is shoved into his face. Dorian calls out

and the man tells him to be quiet. The man tells him to make his peace with

God before he dies. He says he is James Vane, brother of Sibyl Vane, who

killed herself after Dorian ruined her. He plans to leave for India that

night and will kill Dorian before he goes. Dorian suddenly thinks of a way

out. He asks James when his sister died. James tells him it was eighteen

years ago. Dorian tells James to look at his face under the light.

James drags him to the street light and looks at him. He sees a face

that is too young to have been a young lover eighteen years ago. H releases

Dorian feelings shocked that he might have killed the wrong man.

After Dorian is gone, the prostitute comes out of the darkness and

tells James he should have killed the man. She says he has made a bargain

with the devil to remain looking young. She says the same man had ruined

her eighteen years ago and left her to become a prostitute. He is nearly

forty years old now. She swears she is telling the truth. He runs away from

her but sees no trace of Dorian Gray.

CHAPTER 17

It is one week later and Dorian Gray is entertaining guests at his

country estate, Selby Royal. He is chatting with the Duchess of Monmouth

when Lord Henry interrupts them. Lord Henry has decided to begin calling

everyone Gladys as a means to combat the ugliness of names in the modern

world. He engages the Duchess in a witty repartee about women and about

values in general. The Duchess at one point mentions that Dorian’s color is

very poor. He seems not to be feeling well. Dorian tries but does not do

well in keeping up with their conversation. Finally, he volunteers to go to

the conservatory to get her some orchids for her dress that evening.

When he is gone, Lord Henry tells the Duchess that she is flirting

disgracefully with Dorian. She jokes with him in return. He teases her that

she has a rival in Lady Narborough. She asks Lord Henry to describe women

as a sex. He says women are "Sphinxes without secrets." She notices that

Dorian is taking a long time and suggests going to find him when they hear

a crash. They rush into the conservatory to find Dorian fainted away on the

floor. They carry him in to the sofa and he gradually comes awake. He asks

Lord Henry if they are safe inside. Lord Henry tells him he just fainted

and must stay in his room instead of coming down to dinner.

Dorian insists he will come down to dinner. At dinner, he is wildly

gay. Every once in a while, he feels a thrill of terror as he recalls the

face of James Vane looking at him through the window of the conservatory.

CHAPTER 18

The next day, Dorian Gray remains in his house afraid to leave it for

fear of being shot by James Vane. The second day brings its own fears as

well, but on the third day, Dorian wakes up and feels that he has been

imagining things. He tells himself that James Vane has sailed away on his

ship and will never find him in life.

After breakfast, he talks to the Duchess for an hour in the garden and

then he drives across the part to join the shooting party. When he gets

close, he sees Geoffrey Clouston, the Duchess’s brother. He joins Geoffrey

for a stroll. Suddenly, a rabbit appears out of the bush and Geoffrey aims

for it. Dorian tells him not to shoot it, but Geoffrey shoots anyway.

Instead of the rabbit falling, a man who was hidden by the bush falls. The

two men think it was one of the beaters (the men hired to beat the bushes

so the wildlife will run and the hunters will be able to shoot at it).

Geoffrey is annoyed at the man for getting in front of the gunfire. Lord

Henry comes over and tells Dorian they should call off the shooting for the

day to avoid appearing callous. Dorian is awfully upset by the shooting.

Lord Henry consoles him, saying the man’s death is of no consequence,

though it will cause Geoffrey some inconvenience. Dorian thinks of it as a

bad omen. He thinks he will be shot. Lord Henry laughs his fears away,

telling him there is no such thing as destiny.

They arrive at the house and Dorian is greeted by the gardener who has

a note from the Duchess. He receives it and walks on. They discuss her.

Lord Henry says the Duchess loves him. Dorian says he wishes he could love

but that he’s too concentrated on himself to love anyone else. He says he

wants to take a cruise on his yacht where he will be safe. As they talk,

the Duchess approaches them.

She is concerned bout her brother. Lord Henry says it would be much

more interesting if he had murdered the man on purpose. He says he wishes

he knew someone who had committed murder. Dorian blanches and they express

concern for his health. He says he will go lie down to rest.

Lord Henry and the Duchess continue their talk. He asks her if she is

in love with Dorian. She avoids answering. He asks if her husband will

notice anything. She says her husband never notices and she wishes he would

sometimes.

Upstairs in his room, Dorian lies on his sofa almost in a faint. At

five o’clock he calls for a servant and tells him to prepare his things for

his leave-taking. He writs a note to Lord Henry asking him to entertain his

guests. Just as he is ready to leave, the head keeper is announced. He says

the man who was shot was not one of the beaters, but seems to have been a

sailor. No one knew the man. Dorian is wildly excited at the thought hat it

might be James Vane. He rushes out to go and see the body. When the cloth

is lifted from the face, he cries out in joy because it is the face of

James Vane. He rides home with tears of joy knowing he’s safe.

CHAPTER 19

Lord Henry tells Dorian he doesn’t believe him when he says he is now

going to be good. He says Dorian is already perfect and shouldn’t change at

al. Dorian insists that he has done many terrible things and has decided to

stop that and become a good person. He says he’s been staying in the

country lately and has resolved to change. Lord Henry says anyone can be

good in the country. Dorian says he has recently done a good thing. He

wooed a young girl as beautiful as Sibyl Vane was and loved her. He has

been going to see her several times a week all month. They were planning to

run away together and suddenly he decided to leave her with her innocence.

Lord Henry says the novelty of the emotion must have given Dorian as much

pleasure as he used to get in stealing the innocence of girls. Dorian begs

Henry not to make jokes about his reform. Lord Henry asks him if he thinks

this girl will now ever be able to be happy after she was loved by someone

as beautiful and graceful as he is. Now she will be forever dissatisfied

with love. He wonders if the girl will even commit suicide.

Dorian begs Henry to stop making fun of him. He tells him he wants to

be better than he has been in life. After a while, he brings up the subject

of Basil’s disappearance. He asks Henry what people are saying about it and

wonders if anyone thinks foul play was involved. Henry makes light of it.

He imagines that Basil fell off a bus into the Seine and drowned. Dorian

asks Henry what he would think if he said he had killed Basil. Henry laughs

at the idea, saying Dorian is too delicate for something as gross as

murder.

Lord Henry says he hates the fact that Basil’s art had become so poor

in the last years of his life. After Dorian stopped sitting for him, his

art became trite.

Lord Henry begs Dorian to play Chopin for him and talk to him. Dorian

begins playing and remembers a line from Hamlet that reminds him of the

portrait Basil painted of him: "Like the painting of a sorrow,/ A face

without a heart." He repeats the line over again thinking how much it suits

the portrait Basil painted of him.

Lord Henry thinks of a line he heard when he passed by a preacher in

the park last Sunday: "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world

and lose his own soul?" Dorian is shocked at the saying and wonders why

Henry would ask him this question. Henry laughs it off and moves on to

another topic.

Henry urges Dorian to stop being so serious. He tells him he looks

better than he ever has and wonders what his secret is for warding off old

age. He revels in the exquisite life Dorian has led and wishes he could

change places with him. He tells Dorian his life has been a work of art.

Dorian stops playing and tells Lord Henry that if he knew what he had done

in life, he would turn from him.

Lord Henry urges Dorian to come to the club with him. He wants to

introduce him to Lord Poole, Bournemouth’s eldest son who has been

imitating Dorian and wants to meet him terribly. He then suggests that

Dorian come to his place the next day and meet Lady Baranksome who wants to

consult him about some tapestry she is going to buy. He asks Dorian why he

no longer sees the Duchess and guesses that the Duchess is too clever, one

never liking being around clever women. Finally, Dorian leaves after

promising to come back later.

CHAPTER 20

The night is beautiful. Dorian walks home from Lord Henry feeling good

about himself. He passes some y young men who whisper his name. He no

longer feels the thrill he used to feel when he is spoken of with such

reverence by young men. He wonders if Lord Henry is right, that he can

never change. He wishes he had never prayed that the portrait bear the

burden of his age. He knows that his downfall has come because he has never

had to live with the consequences of his actions.

He gets home and looks in a mirror. He feels sickened by the idea that

youth spoiled his soul. He throws down the mirror smashing it on the floor.

He tries not to think of the past. Nothing can change it. He knows Alan

Campbell died without telling anyone of Dorian’s secret. He doesn’t even

feel too badly about the death of Basil. He doesn’t forgive Basil for

painting the portrait that ruined his life. He just wants to live a new

life.

He thinks of Hetty Merton and he wonders if the portrait upstairs has

changed because of his good deed toward her. He gets the lamp and rushes up

the stairs, hopeful that the portrait will have already begun to change

back to beauty. When he gets there, he is horrified to see that the

portrait looks even worse. Now the image has an arrogant sneer on its face.

More blood has appeared on its hands and even on its feet.

Dorian wonders what he should do. He wonders if he will have to

confess the murder before he will be free of the guilt of it. He doesn’t

want to confess because he doesn’t want to be put in jail.

He wonders if the murder will follow him all his life. Finally he

decides to destroy the portrait. He finds the knife he used to kill Basil.

He rushes to the portrait and stabs at it.

Downstairs on the street below, two men are passing by when they hear

a loud scream. They rush for a policeman who knocks on the door, but no one

comes. The men ask the policeman whose house it is. When they hear it is

Dorian Gray’s, they sneer and walk away. Inside, the servants rush up to

the room from whence the sound came. They try the door but it’s locked. Two

of them go around by way of the roof to get in through the window. When

they get inside, they find Dorian Gray stabbed in the heart and above him a

glorious portrait of him hanging on the wall. The man stabbed on the floor

is wrinkled and ugly. They don’t eve recognize him until they see the rings

on his fingers.

CONFLICT

PROTAGONIST

Dorian Gray, a man who is jolted out of oblivion at the beginning of

the novel and made aware of the idea that his youth and beauty are his

greatest gifts and that they will soon vanish with age.

ANTAGONIST

Lord Henry Wotton, the bored aristocrat who tells Dorian Gray that he

is extraordinarily beautiful. He decides to dominate Dorian and proceeds to

strip him of all his conventional illusions. He succeeds in making Dorian

live his life for art and forget moral responsibility.

A secondary antagonist is age. Dorian Gray runs from the ugliness of

age throughout his life. He runs from it, but he is also fascinated with

it, obsessively coming back again and again to look at the signs of age in

the portrait.

CLIMAX

The climax follows Sibyl Vane’s horrible performance on stage when

Dorian Gray tells her he has fallen out of love with her because she has

made something ugly. Here, Dorian rejects love for the ideal of beauty. The

next morning, he changes his mind and writes an impassioned letter of

apology, but too late; Sibyl has committed suicide.

OUTCOME

Dorian Gray becomes mired in the immorality of his existence. He

places no limit on his search for pleasure. He ruins people’s lives without

qualm. His portrait shows the ugliness of his sins, but his own body

doesn’t. His attempts at reform fail. He even kills a messenger of reform--

Basil Hallward. Finally, he kills himself as he attempts to "kill" the

portrait. He dies the ugly, old man and the portrait returns to the vision

of his beautiful youth.

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946)

Type of Work: Fantasy / science fiction novel

Setting: England; late nineteenth century, and

Principle Characters:

The Time Traveller, an inquisitive, scientific man

Weena, a future woman

Story Overview

One Thursday evening, four or five men assembled for dinner at a

friend's home near London. But as the evening passed, their host failed to

appear. Finally, at half past seven the guests agreed it was a pity to

spoil a good dinner and seated themselves to a delicious meal. The main

topic of their conversation was time travel, a subject their host had

seriously argued as a valid theory during an earlier dinner.

He had gone so far as to show them the model of a curious machine he

had built, which, he declared, could travel through the fourth dimension -

time. While the guests conversed, the door suddenly opened and in limped

their host. He was in a state of disarray. His coat was dusty, dirty and

smeared with green; his hair was markedly grayer than the last time they

had seen him, his face pale, and his expression haggard and drawn as if by

intense suffering. As he stumbled back through the door in tattered,

bloodstained socks, he promised his guests that be would return shortly

with an explanation for his actions and appearance.

Soon after, the gentleman did reappear, and commenced with his

remarkable story:

That morning, his machine at last completed, he had begun his journey

through time. Increasing the angle of his levers, at first he was able to

maintain a sense of time and place. His laboratory still looked the same,

but slowly its image dimmed. Then, faster and faster, night followed day,

until the palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous grayness.

New questions sprung up in the Traveller's mind: What had happened to

civilization? How had humanity changed?

Now he saw great and splendid architecture rising about him, while

the surrounding expanse became a richer green, with no interruptions made

by winter. The Time Traveller decided to stop.

He fell from his machine to find himself at the foot of a colossal,

winged, sphinx-like figure carved out of white stone on a bronze pedestal.

The huge image, outlined by early morning mist, made him somewhat ill at

ease. Then he noticed figures approaching, - slight creatures, perhaps four

feet high, very beautiful and graceful, but indescribably frail. These

beings advanced toward the Time Traveller, laughing without fear, and began

touching him all over. "So these are the citizens of the future," he mused.

They acted like five-year old children, and the Traveller was disappointed

with their lack of intelligence and refinement.

These gentle people, called Eloi, bore their visitor to a towering

building that appeared ready to collapse. Their world in general seemed in

disrepair - a beautiful, tangled waste of bushes and flowers; a long-

neglected and yet weedless garden. The Eloi served their guest a meal that

consisted entirely of fruit. During this repast, they all sat as close to

the Time Traveller as they could.

With much difficulty he began to learn their language, but the Floi,

with their very short attention spans, tired easily of teaching him. That

evening the Traveller began to hypothesize how these people, who all looked

identical, dressed alike, and reacted to life in the same way, had evolved.

Perhaps, he thought, mankind had overcome the numerous difficulties of life

facing it in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Under new conditions

of perfect comfort and security, perhaps power and intellect - the very

qualities he most valued - had no longer been necessary. He decided that he

had emerged into the sunset of humanity; a vegetarian society - for he had

noticed no animals - where there was no need for either reasoning or

strength. As night drew near, the Time Traveller suddenly realized that his

time machine had vanished. Engulfed by the fear of losing contact with his

own age and being left helpless in this strange new world, he flew into a

desperate rampage, a futile attempt to find his machine.

Soon the voyager's panic faded as he realized his machine was

probably inside the huge stone figure near the spot where he had "landed."

He pounded on the bronze doors without effect, but he was certain he had

heard some voice from inside - a distinct little chuckle. Calm, welcome

sleep, finally overcame the adventurer, and he reasoned that in time he

would succeed in breaking into the stone behemoth to regain his machine.

Another day passed. The Time Traveller came to realize that he had

been wrong about the little beings. The Eloi had no machinery or appliances

of any kind, yet they were clothed in pleasant fabric and their sandals

were fairly complex specimens of metalwork. Perhaps this was a truly

advanced society.

Later, the Time Traveller rescued an Eloi woman from drowning. Her

name was Weena. Weena, unable to vocally express her gratitude and regard

for the Time Traveller, slept by his side in the dark. This took great

courage because the Eloi feared darkness and never ventured from their

buildings after sunset. This point also puzzled the Time Traveller: If the

Eloi lived in a perfect society, then why were they afraid of the dark?

On the fourth day of his adventure, the Traveller came across other

earth creatures. These subterranean, ape-like vermin were called Morlocks.

Summoning courage, the Time Traveller warily descended into their world to

learn what he could about them. There he found the machines that he had not

seen above ground. Morlocks were apparently another race of man's

descendants, no longer able to tolerate the sun-lit surface of the planet.

Here were the enemies who had taken his time machine. By their smell and

appearance they were obviously carnivores.

Suddenly the Traveller understood why the Eloi feared darkness. They

were like fatted calves, kept well and healthy, only to be seized and eaten

when the Morlocks grew hungry. Eloi society wasn't perfect after all.

A few days later, Weena and the Time Traveller set out to search for

a weapon they could use to break into the pedestal where the machine was

hidden. Coming across an ancient museum, they collected matches, some

camphor for a candle, and, most important of all, an iron mace. The sun was

setting as they emerged from the museum. Though filled with a sense of

doom, and having several miles of forest between them and safety, they

nevertheless started for home in the shadowy darkness.

Morlocks proceeded to close in on them along the way. The beasts were

temporarily driven off each time the Time Traveller lighted a match, but

finally, in an effort to slow them down, he ignited a larger fire. In

minutes the entire forest was in flames. The Traveller was able to escape -

but Weena was lost in the flames. Standing on a knoll, he looked out over

the burning wasteland, and mourned the loss of his devoted Eloi friend.

When morning came, the Time Traveller began retracing his steps to

the place where he bad originally landed. On the way he pondered how brief

the reign of human intellect had been. Our priceless, heroic, human

existence had been traded for a life of comfort and ease.

Now, as the voyager approached the stone relic, he found the door of

the pedestal open. Inside was his time machine. It was an obvious trap, but

the Morlocks had no idea how the device worked. The Traveller sprinted to

his machine and adjusted the lever, while fighting off several Morlocks.

Then he found himself enveloped by the same welcome grey light and tumult

he had before observed. He had escaped that dismal future.

The visit to the Eloi took place in the year 802,701. The Time

Traveller next journeyed through millions of years, seeing even more alien

creatures than before. Finally halting thirty million years after he had

departed, he found a distant age where the sun no longer shone brightly. In

bitter cold and deathly stillness, the horrified Traveller started back

toward the present.

The guests listened with mixed emotions to the last of this tale.

Their host seemed sincere; but was such a feat possible? A few days later

one of his friends came to hear more. Again, the Traveller excused himself,

asking his guest to wait momentarily and he would be back with evidence of

this excursion. Three years elapsed and the Time Traveller had not

reappeared. He was considered by his friends as a lost wanderer, somewhere

in time.

Ulysses by J.Joyce

Chapter One: Telemachus

When James Joyce began writing his novel Ulysses, he had in mind a

creative project that brought together aspects of his two major works

Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, while at the same time

incorporating aspects of Homer's epic The Odyssey. The novel Ulysses

encompasses a total of eighteen chapters, tracing the actions of various

Dubliners beginning at 8 am on the day of June 16, 1904.

Chapter One opens with the breakfast of three young men: Haines, a

British student who is in Dublin on temporary leave from Oxford; Malachi

"Buck" Mulligan, a medical student; and Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist

from Portrait and the central character in the first three chapters of

Ulysses. The three young men are living in Martello Tower, for which only

Stephen pays rent as he is the one who has rented it from the Ministry of

War. We immediately discover that there are tense relations between

Mulligan and Stephen; particularly, Stephen feels increasingly ostracized,

as Mulligan and Haines become closer. Further, Buck spares no sympathy in

his constant tormenting of Stephen in regards to the recent death of his

mother, Mary Dedalus. Stephen is, in general, the butt of most of

Mulligan¹s jokes.

Particularly, Mulligan teases Stephen that he is responsible for his

mother's death because upon seeing her on her deathbed, he refused her

pleas for him to pray, having distanced himself from organized religion. In

this, Mulligan jokes that his aunt has refused to allow him to keep company

with Stephen, as his apostasy is made worse by being the murderer of his

mother. Further, Stephen feels distanced from Haines; Stephen feels that

Haines is somewhat patronizing in his attitude towards Stephen's desire to

become a poet. Haines is a British native and both Mulligan and Stephen

despise him, though Mulligan masks his true thoughts with hypocrisy and

flattery. Haines appears as a spoiled student and a shallow thinker. He

argues that British oppression is not the cause of Ireland¹s problems;

rather "history" is to blame. Interrupting the young men's conversation

about Ireland and its international politics, an old lady arrives to

deliver the morning milk and Stephen finds that he is forced to pay the

bill. Soon after breakfast, the three men leave the Tower to walk along the

beach. After making plans to meet Stephen at a bar called the Ship around

noon, Mulligan asks him for his key to the tower. After, forfeiting his key

to Mulligan, Stephen departs from his two roommates, feeling that he has

been usurped from his position.

Chapter Two: Nestor

Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23


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