PODG Ch. 12-13

Stephen Simmons-Uvin
Ap English/Mr. George
3/21/10
PODG Ch. 12-13

"'What is it that one was taught to say in one's boyhood? 'Lead us not into temptation. Forgive us our sins. Wash away our iniquities''" (Wilde 162).

Repentance and religion have been very popular recurring themes in the books that we have read so far in the year, and in all of these books like The Crucible, and The Scarlet Letter, religion has seemed to play a similar role in the sense that it has offered stability and opportunity, if willing to take it. However, in The Picture of Dorian Grayreligion plays no role at all, it is simply granted the honor of being briefly mentioned in the novel. Although it was mentioned briefly in this chapter, Basil's eagerness to repent and redeem not only his "sins," but Dorian's as well simply represents Basil's goodness, and Dorian's triumphant evil. The two represent the conflict between heaven and hell, the complete polar opposites of each other, which is why Dorian is unable to accept possibilities being presented by a person like Basil. He is evil incarnate and hell on earth and Basil is the fallen angel.

"There was a stifled groan and the horrible sound of someone chocking with blood...He stabbed him twice more, but the man did not move. Something began to trickle on the floor"(162).

Although this seems like a climactic event in the novel where Dorian has officially succumbed to the greatest level of evil perpetuated violence, I must disagree. As a reader, this scene did not seem all that important. The lack of description and detail of the murder made it feel like this short scene was insignificant and that something like this has been happening over the years, and will continue to happen. Wilde's writing style is much more different than many other writers, because each writer's style is unique, but the vast majority of writers choose to flesh out their major scenes or climactic events in order to bring attention to them, which makes it seem like Wilde doesn't fail to "flesh out" this event, but chooses not to because it is insignificant. As a reader, Basil's murder is an attention grabber simply because it is the death of a main character in the novel. Wilde tends to over indulge himself in pointless, lengthy descriptions of insignificant things such as the atmosphere, and tends to go on detailed rampages about completely random things. Ironically enough, he chooses not to over crowd this scene with intensive detail, and indirectly hints, through his lack of vivid imagery, that Basil's murder was not a shocking event. I personally believe that murder will become as familiar to the reader as the title of the book.