The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Bible states that bad company corrupts good morals (Proverbs 4:14-15). Do you believe that this is true, or do you believe that people look for friends who reflect and accept their inappropriate desires (i.e. they are already corrupt)? How do you justify your stance? Where do you think that Dorian Gray sits on the spectrum when he meets Lord Henry? Is he innocent, or is he looking for a reason to become corrupt? What contextual evidence makes you think this?

I think that both views have some credit to them. I think that bad company does corrupt good morals, but I think that people look for friends that reflect, accept or demonstrate their inappropriate desires. I think a person can have good morals and want to be a good person, but still seek out those that make them feel "comfortable". 

I believe that we are fallen in nature. I believe that our fallen nature means that we do not make "right" choices without some effort. We naturally want to put ourselves first, love ourselves and take the easy way out. Making the conscious choice to do good and live a life that is acceptable in the eyes of our creator is not easy. So, when we get around those that are taking the easy way out and living according to their selfish nature we want to follow them. It's harder to survive by good moral while swimming in immorality.

Dorian is a hard character to pin down because we see two different versions of him. We see the beautiful and pure version that Basil tells us about. We also see the selfishness and darkness that Lord Henry points out in Basil's descriptions. Basil paid Dorian great praise and Dorian soaked it up. I think that Dorian was preying off of Basil's good intentions and feeding his selfish pride from the very beginning. So, in my honest opinion, I think that Dorian is just like every living human. He is trapped by his fallen nature. He wants to be good, wants to be pure (as Basil tells him he is), but the seduction of the easy life is always nipping at his heels. Lord Henry is just persuasive enough to slow Dorian down and let the selfishness catch up.

Jane Eyre (The Movie)

The story revolves around Jane and her life. It starts out with her running away from something in her past and being taken into the home of a well off family. As she recovers from her escape, the family housing her asks for her story. They can't understand how she ended up out in the middle of the nowhere. The story moves into a series of flashbacks that tell her story and the secrets that are hiding there, some not her own. The question, as the end of the movies draw near, is whether or not Jane can live with the secrets thar are brought to light.

The movie, unlike many other book-to-film projects, was actually satisfying. The movie tried to keep several motifs alive from the novel. One most notable themes is that of the fire. However, there were some major problems with the film. The film was very quiet and their more antiquated speech made it hard to hear. A second problem I found was that there was a lot of slow, quiet scenes to the film. There is only so much a confused or longing look can do for an audience.

I thought that the story itself was a little flimsy, but it ws still good to sit through. The secrets that the film was trying to push as huge, came across (probably due to our more accepting lifestyle) as silly. This movie, along with a lot of older books, have lost the deep meanings over the years.