So I’m reading the book now and I feel like I need to add a disclaimer that I’m not in it to analyse every detail, nor am I that much into 1800s literature. I will miss the meaning of something here and there because of the older English used or maybe because that something is too abstract and poetic and that’s fine. With classics like this, I don’t mind missing something here and there, as long as I understand the fundamental story.
When it came to Chapter 9 of the book, which is a relatively long chapter, mind you, I’m about halfway through and I’ve been lost since the second page. When I say lost, I mean I’m so lost that I can’t even tell you on the most general level what the chapter even is about.
It’s all contemplation by Dorian Gray and it is quite vague and winding. Is the whole point of the chapter just to show us, the reader, that Dorian Gray is now a very contemplative, hedonistic, narcissistic, superficial, overly romanticising man, to the extent that he is now boring and insufferable? Is Oscar Wilde using this creative way of showing us rather than telling us that this is the case?
Thanks for helping me understand. Was pretty much hooked during the previous chapters but I’m struggling to power through this one. The good thing is that even though I’m not processing what I’m reading, it’s still well-written in a sense that it flows smoothly and spoils the imagination, which is not surprising since it’s coming from a wordsmith such as Oscar Wilde.
by Loriol_13