Friday, March 15, 2013

13-16

In this part of the story we see the implementations of Dorian having no soul. How does this affect how he feels mentally about his actions? Will he ever be able to repent for what he has done?

20 comments:

  1. Yes, there are several parts in the last past chapters where I see a reference to Dorian not having a soul. Alan mentions it to Dorian when Dorian is forcing him to do his dirty work, "Your life? Good heavens! what a life that is! You have gone from corruption to corruption, and now you have culminated in crime" (Wilde 162). Alan has recognized the fact that Dorian is not as good as he seems, his life is tainted and worthless because of his actions. It doesn't matter that he is beautiful; he is still leading a horrible life.
    Although other characters like Alan see his bad behavior Dorian doesn't understand the serious consequences behind his actions. He realizes that he has sinned but thinks that he can repent for them by filling his other senses like Lord Henry had told him years before. This is why he escapes to the opium dens, "To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul" (Wilde 174).
    I don't believe that he will ever be able to repent for what he has done; he killed a man, corrupted many other innocent boys and purposely manipulated everyone around him. His actions have gone too far to ever hope for forgiveness.

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  2. In this part of the novel it seems like Dorian does not have a soul but I think he does. As Dorian participates in more and more sin and evil his soul and humanity is pulled away from him and placed in his portrait. While his soul diminishes Dorian has a harder time discerning good from evil. We see that Dorian does not feel guilt for his actions and he pretends the past is nothing but the past. But Dorian does feel fear for what he has done and James Vance is returning from Dorian's past to haunt him. To cope with his actions Dorian puts on a mask of calm and control. But inwardly I thank Dorian regrets his actions and his youth. However, Dorian has no hope of repentance. To repent means you make up or fix your wrong actions. There is no way for Dorian to correct killing Basil or ruining the lives of others.

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  3. Dorian at many points acts as if he could care less about the things he does but at others be see him mourning over the sins he has committed. I believe Dorian will have to learn what it’s like to once again take responsibility for his actions before he can hope to repair his soul. I believe it will take something drastic for him to realize that this is the case. Some examples of how this might happen is Dorian having a life or death encounter, having Lord Henry find out and disassociate with him, or having someone exhibit the portrait for many people to see. I believe Dorian will repent for his sins at the very last possible moment in hopes to receive entrance into heaven.

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  4. Although he has no soul he has some feelings. Unfortunatley these feelings are not the right ones to be having when he has his actions. Having no soul allows him to kill someone who is very close to him. He will not be able to repent for this because he will not have the feeling to repent of it. His sins will not go away because he has no feeling of them being on him. I don't think he cares mentaly about his actions. I don't see how he could. I think your soul is a lot like your conscience if not the same thing. When he lost his soul he has no way of knowing that his actions are wrong he just knows that he needs to cover up what he has done so he doesn't get into trouble for it. I do believe that he can get his soul back in a way. If he can relize that what he is doing is not right with the help of Lord Henry then he might be able to repent as well.

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  5. Dorian appears as if he has no soul because of his indifference towards other people's suffering, but I think he does have a soul that is displayed by the painting. Dorian does start to feel bad about what he has done, and that is the reason he wants to go to the opium dens. He believes that occupying his senses with good feelings will drown out his guilt for the sins that he has committed. I do not think that Dorian will ever repent for his sins because he has already done too much and will not be able to change. He enjoys living only for himself too much to change his ways.

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  6. Dorian tends to sacrifice his soul, for whatever he deems pleasurable. Our soul is a symbol for what makes us who we truly are, and Dorians actions show that he does not care about his soul. His actions show that Dorian's mind is in the wrong place. His mind happens to be in a place where he is so absorbed in his own selfish wants that all Dorian truly cares about is making himself feel better. This puts him in a bad position mentally because Dorian is on his way to becoming someone who does not care about the world, but only cares about himself. I think that there is always room for repentance, but only if Dorian makes the decision to confess that all his past actions are wrong, because only after he confesses, will he realize what he's done wrong.

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  7. I believe that Dorian does have a soul and that soul is captured in the portrait. Whenever Dorian sins the painting, or his soul becomes older and darker. The portrait is a reflection of Who Dorian is on the inside. I agree with Brendan47 when he states that our soul is what makes us who we truly are. Dorian Does not care about his soul and is living in the moment doing what ever pleases the eye. I think the view of life of pursuing beauty and pleasures puts Dorian in a bad mindstate because he has already experienced so much and will continue to experience with life that it will end up hurting him resulting in death. He has already started smoking opium, what will be next? I believe their is alwyas room for repentance. He will have to face everything he has done wrong and confront his actions. When that happens he will realize that his life has been led astray by his selfish actions.

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  8. Unless Dorian is able to retrieve back his soul, he will will not be able to repent for his sins. It seems that being a soulless man also extracts any ability to care about others. Many of his so called friendships have ended this way, and he feels no remorse over any of it. Yet when it comes to situations in which his own self is in trouble, that is when we see him worry, yet it never seems to be that he feels any regret. Take his actions with Basil. He showed in a large way how much he doesn't care for others by actually killing Basil when his temper got short. Even after, his worries were not that he took a poor mans life, yet had to find a way to protect himself. He will never feel guilt for what he has done, and therefore will never repent them.

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  9. It affects Dorian's mentality because Dorian keeps doing horrible things and keeps sinning more and more, yet he does not show one bit of guilt. He does not show remorse for any of his horrible actions in the slightest bit, and displays to us how he cares about literally nothing but himself. Dorian has let the wrong things corrupt his mind, and now his mentality doesn't concern anything but himself. I do not think Dorian will ever be able to repent for anything that he has done, nor do I think he would ever care to repent for his sins. All of his sins don't matter to him at all, and none of his horrible actions have caused him to feel bad or guilty in any way, so I don't think he would even care about being forgiven.

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  10. I think Dorian having no soul directly correlates to how he will make his decisions. With no conscience or morals, he is likely to make terrible decisions that will lead to some sort of tragic and self inflicted downfall.

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  11. Without a soul, there is no point in Dorian repenting. You cannot repent if no soul is present. So, in hopes of a fairly happy ending, which I see as unlikely, Dorian, or most likely someone else, will have to find a loophole in his faustian pact in order to right the wrongs that Dorian has committed. I am not completely sure if ALL remorse and guilt was removed with the removal of his soul, because he does show some distress, hence he ventures to the opium bar.

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  12. Without a soul, mentally Dorian cannot comprehend his actions. He does not know right from wrong as shown from his actions killing Basil. He can now sin and feel no moral feelings that what he has done is bad. I do not think he can repent for his actions because he does not believe they are wrong. Without a soul there is nothing to be forgiven and wiped clean.

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    Replies
    1. Having no souls means not having any remorse for any of your actions. Mentally, Dorian, will not care about his actions because he doesn't have a soul to know good and bad. He will never be able to repent for all of his sins and wrongdoings because without a soul, one can not repent.

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  13. Without a soul, there's really nothing for Dorian to repent for. The point of repentance is to suffer for your sins in order to save your soul. If there's nothing to save, there's nothing to repent for.

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  14. Dorian, in my Opinion will not repent for his actions. Even though the book portrays Dorian as a soulless man, i find it hard to believe that he is truly soulless, just extremely selfish and self-consumed. In order for Dorian to begin to realize that his actions have a consequence he needs to figure out what is causing him to be so soulless. Is it Lord Henry? Maybe, and most likely but the true monster to that he needs to confront is himself. I think once he figures out who he really is then he can go forward and make an effort to cope what his actions are for what he has done.

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  15. While the book progresses, we see that Dorian spends less time feeling guilty and more time worrying about his own well being. I don't believe that he'll be able to repent for his sins since he's responsible for the destruction and loss of so many lives. One simply cannot make up for that.

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  16. Dorian has been slowly losing him self and finding himself less guilty. He has grown very selfish and i think that he has gone to far and lost him self to repent.

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  17. I think this is how dorian will live the rest of his life until it eventually kills him. I think he is so obsessed with himself and his pursuit of happiness that I don't think one he is willing to change and two he can go back from his past.

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  18. I dont think you could say that Dorian has no soul, i think his hedonistic lifestyle is just consuming his thoughts and decision making making. His pursuit of happiness is flawed and temporary, thus the ultimate feeling will be loss through hedonism

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  19. The soul is representative of guilt. Dorian has no guilt and therefore has no soul. When his decisions finally catch up with him in his pursuit of happiness he will pay for his actions.

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