Wednesday, December 24, 2014

How does Dorian commit himself to a hedonist lifestyle?

"Moral duty is fulfilled through the pursuit of
pleasure"--one definition of hedonism.  Of course, Dorian commits himself to this after
having been tainted by both Lord Henry and the book that Lord Henry entices Dorian to
read.  Before either of these, Dorian was an innocent who cared about others and their
feelings.  Afterward, his chief intent was to live for himself and for his own
amusement.  He did this by carelessly throwing away meaningful relationships, attending
engagements but showing up late, indulging in opium dens and lewd love affairs with
members of both genders, and ruining the lives of others simply because they were unable
to keep up with lifestyle and remain lovely looking as Dorian did. Late nights,
frequenting the poor parts of town for their X-rated entertainments, loose women,
alcohol, drugs--all of these tend to show the tell-tale signs in dark circles under the
eyes, fatigue, addiction, disease.  People were simply unable to believe that Dorian was
guilty of the things the rumors reported because his face and stature did not show the
signs of wear and tear as his companions' faces did.  Unbeknownst the everyone else,
Dorian's sins were blatantly displayed on the canvas of his portait, which caused him to
commit murder to protect his secret.

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