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English Literature books summary |
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English Literature books summarythat Victor saw the red mark. Then he picks up the book Lord Henry sent him. It is a fascinating book from the first page. It is a plot-less novel, a psychological study of a young Parisian who spends all his life trying to realize all the passions and modes of thought of previous ages. It is written in the style of the French Symbolistes. He finds it to be a poisonous book. He can’t put it down. It makes him late to dinner with Lord Henry. CHAPTER 11 For years afterwards, Dorian Gray continues to feel the influence of the book Lord Henry gave him. He gets more copies of the book from Paris and has them bound in different colors. He thinks of the book as containing the story of his life. He feels himself lucky to be different from the novel’s hero in respect to aging. While the novel’s hero bemoans his loss of youthful beauty, Dorian Gray never loses his youth. He reads the passages over and over again reveling in his difference from the hero in this respect. People in his social circle often hear dreadful things about Dorian Gray, but when they look at him and see his fresh, young looks, they dismiss the rumors as impossible. Dorian is often gone from home for long periods of time and never tells anyone where he has gone. He always returns home and goes straight upstairs to see the portrait’s changes. He grows more and more in love with his own beauty. He spends much time in a sordid tavern near the docks and thinks with pity of the degradation he has brought on his soul. Most of the time, though, he doesn’t think of his soul. He has "mad hungers that [grow] more ravenous as he [feeds] them." He entertains once or twice a month with such lavish fare and such exquisite furnishings that he becomes the most popular of London’s young men. He is admired by all the men who see him as a type of man who combines the real culture of a scholar with the grace of a citizen of the world. He lives his life as if it were an art work. His style of dressing sets the standard of all the fashionable shops. He worships the senses in many different forms. He lives the new Hedonism, that Lord Henry has told him of. He enjoys the service of the Catholic Church for its ritual and its pathos. Yet, he never embraces any creed or system of thought because he refuses to arrest his intellectual development. He studies new perfumes and experiments with them endlessly. He devotes himself for long periods to the study of all kinds of musical forms from all over the world. He even studies the stories written about the music, the stories of magic and death. He takes of the study of jewels for a while, collecting rare and precious jewels from all over the world for the pleasure of looking at them and feeling them. He collects stories about jewels as part of animals and stories of jewels which caused death and destruction. For a time, he studies embroideries of all sorts and the stories that attach to them. He collects embroideries and tapestries from all over the world. He especially loves ecclesiastical vestments. The beautiful things he collects are part of his methods of forgetfulness. He wants to escape the fear that sometimes seems to overwhelm him. After some years, he becomes unable to leave London for any purpose because he cannot bear to be away from the portrait for any length of time. Often when he’s out with friends, he breaks off and rushes home to see if the portrait is still where it should be and to ensure that no one has tampered with the door. He develops a desperate fear that someone might steal the portrait and then everyone would know about him. Most people are fascinated with Dorian Gray, but some people are distrustful of him. He is almost banned from two clubs. He is ostracized by some prominent men. People begin to tell curious stories about him hanging around with foreign sailors in run down pubs and interacting with thieves and coiners. People talk about his strange absences. He never takes notice of these looks people give him. Most of them see his boyish smile and can’t imagine that the stories could be true. Yet the stories remain. Sometime people notice women, who at one time adored him, blanch when he walks in a room in shame or horror. To most people, the stories only increase his mysterious charm. According to Lord Henry, society doesn’t care about morality in its aristocratic members, only good manners. Dorian Gray can’t imagine why people reduce human beings to a single, "simple, permanent, reliable essence." For Dorian, people enjoy myriad lives and sensations; they change radically from time to time. Dorian likes to look at the portrait gallery of his country house. He wonders about his ancestors and how their blood co- mingled with his own. He looks at Lady Elizabeth Devereaux in her extaordinary beauty and realizes her legacy to him is in his beauty and in his love of all that is beautiful. He also thinks of his ancestors as being in literature he has read. These characters have influenced him more even than his family members have. The hero of the central novel of his life has certainly been his greatest influence. He also loves to think of all the evil heroes about whom he has read: Caligula, Filippo, Due of Milan, Pietro Barbi, the Borgia, and many more. He feels a "horrible fascination" with all of them. He knows he has been poisoned by the French Symboliste book. He thinks of evil as nothing more than a mode of experiencing the beautiful. CHAPTER 12 It is the ninth of November, not long before Dorian Gray will turn 38 years old. He is walking home late one night when he sees Basil Hallward. He becomes suddenly afraid to have contact with his old friend whom he hasn’t seen in many months, but Basil sees him and stops him. Basil says he’s been waiting for him all evening and has just given up. He insists on coming back inside with Dorian because he says he has something important to tell him. Inside, Dorian acts as though he’s bored and wants to go to bed. Basil insists on talking. He says he is going to Paris in one hour’s time and will be taking a studio there for six months. He tells Dorian that he is always having to defend Dorian’s name wherever he goes. He thinks Dorian must be a good person because he looks so beautiful. He says he knows sin tells on people’s faces after a while, so he has a great deal of trouble believing the stories. However, the evidence has piled up and is quite compelling. He names several young men who have lost very promising reputations after being extremely close to Dorian. He names several young women, including Lord Henry’s sister, who have lost their reputations. Lady Gwendolyn, Lord Henry’s sister, has suffered such a fall that she is not even allowed to see her own children any more. He mentions the stories of people who have seen Dorian spending time in "dreadful houses" and in "the foulest dens in London." He mentions the stories of what happens at Dorian’s country house. Basil urges Dorian to have a good influence on people instead of a bad one. He tells Dorian that it is said that he corrupts everyone with whom he becomes intimate. He has even seen a letter shown to him by Lord Gloucester, one of his best friends, that his wife wrote to him on her death bed. It implicated Dorian Gray in her debasement. Basil sums up by saying that he doesn’t know that he even knows Dorian any more. He says that he can’t say without seeing Dorian’s soul and only God can do that. At his last words, Dorian goes white with fear and repeats the words "To see my soul!" He laughs bitterly and tells Basil that he will see his soul that very night. He will let Basil look on the face of corruption. Basil is shocked and thinks Dorian is being blasphemous. He stands over Basil and tells him to finish what he has to say to him. Basil says Dorian must give him a satisfactory answer to all the stories about him that very night. Dorian just tells him to come upstairs with him. He says he has written a dairy of his life from day to day and that it never leaves the room in which it is written. CHAPTER 13 The two men climb the stairs and Dorian lets Basil in the room upstairs. He lights the lamp and asks Basil again if he really wants an answer to his question. Basil does, so Dorian pulls the curtain from the portrait and shines the light on it, saying he is delighted to show Basil because Basil is the only man in the world entitled to know all about him. Basil cries out in horror when he sees the portrait. He stares at it for a long time in amazement, not believing at first that it is the same portrait he painted all those years ago. Dorian is leaning against the mantle shelf watching Basil’s reaction with something like triumph expressed on his face. Dorian tells him that years ago when he was a boy, Basil had painted this portrait of him, teaching him to be vain of his looks. Then he had introduced him to Lord Henry who explained to him the wonder of youth. The portrait had completed the lesson in the beauty of youth. When he had seen it in the first moment, he had prayed that he should change places with it, never changing and aging, but letting the picture do so. Basil remembers the prayer. He thinks, however, that it must be impossible. He tries to find some logical explanation for the degradation of the beauty of the portrait. He thinks perhaps the room was damp or that he had used some kind of poor quality paints. He says there was nothing evil or shameful in his ideal that he painted that day. This, instead, is the face of a satyr. Dorian says it is the face of his soul. Basil begins to believe it is true and then realizes what it means. It means that all that is said of Dorian is true and that his reputation isn’t even as bad as he is. He can hear Dorian sobbing as he begins to pray. He asks Dorian to join him in prayer. He says Dorian worshipped himself too much and now they are both punished. Dorian tells him it’s too late. Basil insists that it isn’t. He begins to pray. Dorian looks at the picture and suddenly feels an overwhelming hatred for Basil. He sees a knife lying nearby and picks it up. He walks over and stands behind Basil and stabs him in the neck several times. When he is finished, he hears nothing but blood dripping. He goes to the door and locks it. He is horrified to look at Basil’s body. He goes to the window and sees a policeman outside and an old woman. He tries not to think about what has happen. He picks up the lamp because he knows the servant will miss it from downstairs, and he goes downstairs, locking the door behind him. Everything is quiet in the house. He remembers that Basil was supposed to leave for Paris that night and had even sent his heavy things ahead of him. No one had seen him come back inside after he left his house earlier that evening. No one will begin to wonder about him for months to come. He puts Basil’s bag and coat in a hiding place, the same place where he hides his disguises. Then he puts on his own coat, goes outside, and knocks on the door. His servant opens the door and he asks him what time it is. Then he tells him to wake him at nine the next morning. The servant tells him Mr. Hallward came by and Dorian exclaims over having missed him. Inside his library again, he picks up the Blue Book and finds the name of Alan Campbell. He says this is the man he wants. CHAPTER 14 Dorian Gray wakes with a smile the next morning at nine o’clock, feeling well rested. He gradually recalls the events of the night before. He feels sorry for himself and loathing for Basil. Then he realizes that Basil’s body remains upstairs in he room. He fears that if he thinks too much on what happened he will go crazy. He gets up and spends a long time choosing his outfit and his rings. He has a leisurely breakfast and reads his mail, throwing away a letter from a lover, remembering one of Lord Henry’s misogynist sayings about women, that they have a awful memory. He writes two letters and sends one to Mr. Alan Campbell by his manservant. He smokes a cigarette and sketches for a while, but every face he sketches looks like Basil’s. He lies down on the sofa and tries to read Gautier’s Emaux et Camees. He enjoys the images in the book of the beauties of Venice. It reminds him of his visit there. He was with Basil and he remembers Basil’s joy over the work of Tintoret. He tries to read again and then begins to worry that Alan Campbell might be out of town. Five years ago, he and Alan had been great friends. Now they never speak. Alan always leaves the room when Dorian comes in at any party they both attend. Alan is a scientist, but when he and Dorian were together, he was also in love with music. They were inseparable for a year and a half. Then they quarreled and have not spoken since. Alan has given up music in favor of science. Dorian becomes hysterical with anxiety as he waits. Finally, the servant announces that Mr. Campbell has arrived. Dorian loses all anxiety and plays the part of the gracious host. Alan Campbell is stiff with disapproval and hatred. He wants to know why Dorian has called him. Dorian tells him there is a dead body in a room at the top of the stairs and he needs Campbell to dispose of it. Alan tells him to stop talking. He says he will not turn him in, but that he will not have anything to do with it. Dorian tells him he wants him to do it because of Alan’s knowledge of chemistry. He wants him to change the body into a handful of ashes. He at first says it was a suicide, but then admits that he murdered the man upstairs. Dorian begs him to help and Alan refuses to listen. Finally, when he is sure he can’t convince him, Dorian writes something down and tells Alan to read it. Alan is shocked at what he reads. Dorian says if Alan won’t help him, he will send a letter to someone and ruin Alan’s reputation. He tells Alan he is terribly sorry for him for what he will have to do, but tries to console him by saying he does this sort of thing all the time for the pursuit of science so it shouldn’t be too horrible for him. Finally, Alan says he needs to get things from home. Dorian won’t let him leave. He makes him write down what he needs and sends his servant to get the equipment. Then when it arrives, he sends his servant away for the day to get some orchids in another city. He and Alan carry the equipment upstairs. At the door, Dorian realizes he has left the portrait uncovered for the first time in years. He rushes over to it to cover it. He sees that on the hands, there is a red stain. He covers it and then leaves the room to Alan without looking at the body. Long after seven o’clock that evening, Alan comes downstairs and says it is finished. He says he never wants to see Dorian again. Dorian thanks him sincerely, saying he saved him from ruin. When Campbell leaves, Dorian rushes upstairs and sees there is no trace of the body. CHAPTER 15 That evening, Dorian Gray goes to a dinner party at Lady Narborough’s house. He looks perfectly dressed and perfectly at ease. The party is small and the guests boring. Dorian is relieved when he hears that Lord Henry will be coming. When Lord Henry arrives late, he carries on in his usual way with one aphorism after another much to Lady Narborough’s amusement. Dorian, for his part, cannot even eat. He is noticeably distracted. Lady Narborough asks him several times what is the matter and when the men are left alone after dinner for their cigars, Lord Henry questions him. Lord Henry asks him where he went the night before since he left the party early. Dorian first says he went home, then he says he went to the club, then he corrects himself again and says he walked around until half past two when he got home and had to ask his servant to let him in. The two men chat a little longer. Dorian is planning a party at his country house the next weekend and they discuss the guest list. Dorian is interested in a Duchess and has invited her and her husband. Lord Henry warns him against her, saying she is too smart, and that women are best when they are weak and ignorant. Dorian finally says he must leave. He goes home and opens the hiding place where he has put Basil Hallward’s coat and bag. He puts them on the fire and waits until they are completely burned up. Then he sits and looks at a cabinet for a long time fascinated. Finally, he gets up and gets a Chinese box out of it. He opens it and finds inside a green paste with a heavy odor. He hesitates with a strange smile and then puts the box back and closes the cabinet. He gets dressed and leaves the house. He hails a cab telling the man the address. The cab driver almost refuses since it is too far, but Dorian promises him a huge tip and they drive off toward the river. CHAPTER 16 It is raining and cold as Dorian rides to the outskirts of the city. The ride is extraordinarily long. He hears over and over again Lord Henry’s saying that one can cure the soul by means of the sense and can cure the sense by means of the soul. He heard Lord Henry say that on the first day he met him. He has repeated it often over the years. Tonight it is all he can think of to calm himself through the long drive. The roads get worse and worse. People chase the cab and have to be whipped away by the driver. Finally, they arrive and Dorian gets out. He goes into a building and passes through several dirty and poor rooms. He passes through a bar where a sailor is slumped over a table and two prostitutes are jeering at a crazy old man. He smells the odor of opium and feels relieved. However, when he goes into the opium den, he is unhappily surprised to see Adrian Darlington. Adrian tells him he has no friends any more and doesn’t need them as long as he has opium. Dorian doesn’t want to be in the same place with the young man about whom Basil Hallway had just spoken the night before. He buys Adrian a drink and is bothered by a prostitute. He tells her not to speak to him and gives her money to leave him alone. He tells Adrian to call on him if he ever needs anything and then he leaves. As he is leaving, one of the prostitutes calls out to him "There goes the devil’s bargain." He curses her and she says, "Prince Charming is what you like to be called, ain’t it?" As she says this the sailor who has been asleep jumps up and runs after Dorian. Outside, Dorian is wishing he hadn’t run into Adrian Singleton and cursing fate. He hurries along when he is suddenly grabbed from behind and shoved against the wall. A gun is shoved into his face. Dorian calls out and the man tells him to be quiet. The man tells him to make his peace with God before he dies. He says he is James Vane, brother of Sibyl Vane, who killed herself after Dorian ruined her. He plans to leave for India that night and will kill Dorian before he goes. Dorian suddenly thinks of a way out. He asks James when his sister died. James tells him it was eighteen years ago. Dorian tells James to look at his face under the light. James drags him to the street light and looks at him. He sees a face that is too young to have been a young lover eighteen years ago. H releases Dorian feelings shocked that he might have killed the wrong man. After Dorian is gone, the prostitute comes out of the darkness and tells James he should have killed the man. She says he has made a bargain with the devil to remain looking young. She says the same man had ruined her eighteen years ago and left her to become a prostitute. He is nearly forty years old now. She swears she is telling the truth. He runs away from her but sees no trace of Dorian Gray. CHAPTER 17 It is one week later and Dorian Gray is entertaining guests at his country estate, Selby Royal. He is chatting with the Duchess of Monmouth when Lord Henry interrupts them. Lord Henry has decided to begin calling everyone Gladys as a means to combat the ugliness of names in the modern world. He engages the Duchess in a witty repartee about women and about values in general. The Duchess at one point mentions that Dorian’s color is very poor. He seems not to be feeling well. Dorian tries but does not do well in keeping up with their conversation. Finally, he volunteers to go to the conservatory to get her some orchids for her dress that evening. When he is gone, Lord Henry tells the Duchess that she is flirting disgracefully with Dorian. She jokes with him in return. He teases her that she has a rival in Lady Narborough. She asks Lord Henry to describe women as a sex. He says women are "Sphinxes without secrets." She notices that Dorian is taking a long time and suggests going to find him when they hear a crash. They rush into the conservatory to find Dorian fainted away on the floor. They carry him in to the sofa and he gradually comes awake. He asks Lord Henry if they are safe inside. Lord Henry tells him he just fainted and must stay in his room instead of coming down to dinner. Dorian insists he will come down to dinner. At dinner, he is wildly gay. Every once in a while, he feels a thrill of terror as he recalls the face of James Vane looking at him through the window of the conservatory. CHAPTER 18 The next day, Dorian Gray remains in his house afraid to leave it for fear of being shot by James Vane. The second day brings its own fears as well, but on the third day, Dorian wakes up and feels that he has been imagining things. He tells himself that James Vane has sailed away on his ship and will never find him in life. After breakfast, he talks to the Duchess for an hour in the garden and then he drives across the part to join the shooting party. When he gets close, he sees Geoffrey Clouston, the Duchess’s brother. He joins Geoffrey for a stroll. Suddenly, a rabbit appears out of the bush and Geoffrey aims for it. Dorian tells him not to shoot it, but Geoffrey shoots anyway. Instead of the rabbit falling, a man who was hidden by the bush falls. The two men think it was one of the beaters (the men hired to beat the bushes so the wildlife will run and the hunters will be able to shoot at it). Geoffrey is annoyed at the man for getting in front of the gunfire. Lord Henry comes over and tells Dorian they should call off the shooting for the day to avoid appearing callous. Dorian is awfully upset by the shooting. Lord Henry consoles him, saying the man’s death is of no consequence, though it will cause Geoffrey some inconvenience. Dorian thinks of it as a bad omen. He thinks he will be shot. Lord Henry laughs his fears away, telling him there is no such thing as destiny. They arrive at the house and Dorian is greeted by the gardener who has a note from the Duchess. He receives it and walks on. They discuss her. Lord Henry says the Duchess loves him. Dorian says he wishes he could love but that he’s too concentrated on himself to love anyone else. He says he wants to take a cruise on his yacht where he will be safe. As they talk, the Duchess approaches them. She is concerned bout her brother. Lord Henry says it would be much more interesting if he had murdered the man on purpose. He says he wishes he knew someone who had committed murder. Dorian blanches and they express concern for his health. He says he will go lie down to rest. Lord Henry and the Duchess continue their talk. He asks her if she is in love with Dorian. She avoids answering. He asks if her husband will notice anything. She says her husband never notices and she wishes he would sometimes. Upstairs in his room, Dorian lies on his sofa almost in a faint. At five o’clock he calls for a servant and tells him to prepare his things for his leave-taking. He writs a note to Lord Henry asking him to entertain his guests. Just as he is ready to leave, the head keeper is announced. He says the man who was shot was not one of the beaters, but seems to have been a sailor. No one knew the man. Dorian is wildly excited at the thought hat it might be James Vane. He rushes out to go and see the body. When the cloth is lifted from the face, he cries out in joy because it is the face of James Vane. He rides home with tears of joy knowing he’s safe. CHAPTER 19 Lord Henry tells Dorian he doesn’t believe him when he says he is now going to be good. He says Dorian is already perfect and shouldn’t change at al. Dorian insists that he has done many terrible things and has decided to stop that and become a good person. He says he’s been staying in the country lately and has resolved to change. Lord Henry says anyone can be good in the country. Dorian says he has recently done a good thing. He wooed a young girl as beautiful as Sibyl Vane was and loved her. He has been going to see her several times a week all month. They were planning to run away together and suddenly he decided to leave her with her innocence. Lord Henry says the novelty of the emotion must have given Dorian as much pleasure as he used to get in stealing the innocence of girls. Dorian begs Henry not to make jokes about his reform. Lord Henry asks him if he thinks this girl will now ever be able to be happy after she was loved by someone as beautiful and graceful as he is. Now she will be forever dissatisfied with love. He wonders if the girl will even commit suicide. Dorian begs Henry to stop making fun of him. He tells him he wants to be better than he has been in life. After a while, he brings up the subject of Basil’s disappearance. He asks Henry what people are saying about it and wonders if anyone thinks foul play was involved. Henry makes light of it. He imagines that Basil fell off a bus into the Seine and drowned. Dorian asks Henry what he would think if he said he had killed Basil. Henry laughs at the idea, saying Dorian is too delicate for something as gross as murder. Lord Henry says he hates the fact that Basil’s art had become so poor in the last years of his life. After Dorian stopped sitting for him, his art became trite. Lord Henry begs Dorian to play Chopin for him and talk to him. Dorian begins playing and remembers a line from Hamlet that reminds him of the portrait Basil painted of him: "Like the painting of a sorrow,/ A face without a heart." He repeats the line over again thinking how much it suits the portrait Basil painted of him. Lord Henry thinks of a line he heard when he passed by a preacher in the park last Sunday: "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Dorian is shocked at the saying and wonders why Henry would ask him this question. Henry laughs it off and moves on to another topic. Henry urges Dorian to stop being so serious. He tells him he looks better than he ever has and wonders what his secret is for warding off old age. He revels in the exquisite life Dorian has led and wishes he could change places with him. He tells Dorian his life has been a work of art. Dorian stops playing and tells Lord Henry that if he knew what he had done in life, he would turn from him. Lord Henry urges Dorian to come to the club with him. He wants to introduce him to Lord Poole, Bournemouth’s eldest son who has been imitating Dorian and wants to meet him terribly. He then suggests that Dorian come to his place the next day and meet Lady Baranksome who wants to consult him about some tapestry she is going to buy. He asks Dorian why he no longer sees the Duchess and guesses that the Duchess is too clever, one never liking being around clever women. Finally, Dorian leaves after promising to come back later. CHAPTER 20 The night is beautiful. Dorian walks home from Lord Henry feeling good about himself. He passes some y young men who whisper his name. He no longer feels the thrill he used to feel when he is spoken of with such reverence by young men. He wonders if Lord Henry is right, that he can never change. He wishes he had never prayed that the portrait bear the burden of his age. He knows that his downfall has come because he has never had to live with the consequences of his actions. He gets home and looks in a mirror. He feels sickened by the idea that youth spoiled his soul. He throws down the mirror smashing it on the floor. He tries not to think of the past. Nothing can change it. He knows Alan Campbell died without telling anyone of Dorian’s secret. He doesn’t even feel too badly about the death of Basil. He doesn’t forgive Basil for painting the portrait that ruined his life. He just wants to live a new life. He thinks of Hetty Merton and he wonders if the portrait upstairs has changed because of his good deed toward her. He gets the lamp and rushes up the stairs, hopeful that the portrait will have already begun to change back to beauty. When he gets there, he is horrified to see that the portrait looks even worse. Now the image has an arrogant sneer on its face. More blood has appeared on its hands and even on its feet. Dorian wonders what he should do. He wonders if he will have to confess the murder before he will be free of the guilt of it. He doesn’t want to confess because he doesn’t want to be put in jail. He wonders if the murder will follow him all his life. Finally he decides to destroy the portrait. He finds the knife he used to kill Basil. He rushes to the portrait and stabs at it. Downstairs on the street below, two men are passing by when they hear a loud scream. They rush for a policeman who knocks on the door, but no one comes. The men ask the policeman whose house it is. When they hear it is Dorian Gray’s, they sneer and walk away. Inside, the servants rush up to the room from whence the sound came. They try the door but it’s locked. Two of them go around by way of the roof to get in through the window. When they get inside, they find Dorian Gray stabbed in the heart and above him a glorious portrait of him hanging on the wall. The man stabbed on the floor is wrinkled and ugly. They don’t eve recognize him until they see the rings on his fingers. CONFLICT PROTAGONIST Dorian Gray, a man who is jolted out of oblivion at the beginning of the novel and made aware of the idea that his youth and beauty are his greatest gifts and that they will soon vanish with age. ANTAGONIST Lord Henry Wotton, the bored aristocrat who tells Dorian Gray that he is extraordinarily beautiful. He decides to dominate Dorian and proceeds to strip him of all his conventional illusions. He succeeds in making Dorian live his life for art and forget moral responsibility. A secondary antagonist is age. Dorian Gray runs from the ugliness of age throughout his life. He runs from it, but he is also fascinated with it, obsessively coming back again and again to look at the signs of age in the portrait. CLIMAX The climax follows Sibyl Vane’s horrible performance on stage when Dorian Gray tells her he has fallen out of love with her because she has made something ugly. Here, Dorian rejects love for the ideal of beauty. The next morning, he changes his mind and writes an impassioned letter of apology, but too late; Sibyl has committed suicide. OUTCOME Dorian Gray becomes mired in the immorality of his existence. He places no limit on his search for pleasure. He ruins people’s lives without qualm. His portrait shows the ugliness of his sins, but his own body doesn’t. His attempts at reform fail. He even kills a messenger of reform-- Basil Hallward. Finally, he kills himself as he attempts to "kill" the portrait. He dies the ugly, old man and the portrait returns to the vision of his beautiful youth. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946) Type of Work: Fantasy / science fiction novel Setting: England; late nineteenth century, and Principle Characters: The Time Traveller, an inquisitive, scientific man Weena, a future woman Story Overview One Thursday evening, four or five men assembled for dinner at a friend's home near London. But as the evening passed, their host failed to appear. Finally, at half past seven the guests agreed it was a pity to spoil a good dinner and seated themselves to a delicious meal. The main topic of their conversation was time travel, a subject their host had seriously argued as a valid theory during an earlier dinner. He had gone so far as to show them the model of a curious machine he had built, which, he declared, could travel through the fourth dimension - time. While the guests conversed, the door suddenly opened and in limped their host. He was in a state of disarray. His coat was dusty, dirty and smeared with green; his hair was markedly grayer than the last time they had seen him, his face pale, and his expression haggard and drawn as if by intense suffering. As he stumbled back through the door in tattered, bloodstained socks, he promised his guests that be would return shortly with an explanation for his actions and appearance. Soon after, the gentleman did reappear, and commenced with his remarkable story: That morning, his machine at last completed, he had begun his journey through time. Increasing the angle of his levers, at first he was able to maintain a sense of time and place. His laboratory still looked the same, but slowly its image dimmed. Then, faster and faster, night followed day, until the palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous grayness. New questions sprung up in the Traveller's mind: What had happened to civilization? How had humanity changed? Now he saw great and splendid architecture rising about him, while the surrounding expanse became a richer green, with no interruptions made by winter. The Time Traveller decided to stop. He fell from his machine to find himself at the foot of a colossal, winged, sphinx-like figure carved out of white stone on a bronze pedestal. The huge image, outlined by early morning mist, made him somewhat ill at ease. Then he noticed figures approaching, - slight creatures, perhaps four feet high, very beautiful and graceful, but indescribably frail. These beings advanced toward the Time Traveller, laughing without fear, and began touching him all over. "So these are the citizens of the future," he mused. They acted like five-year old children, and the Traveller was disappointed with their lack of intelligence and refinement. These gentle people, called Eloi, bore their visitor to a towering building that appeared ready to collapse. Their world in general seemed in disrepair - a beautiful, tangled waste of bushes and flowers; a long- neglected and yet weedless garden. The Eloi served their guest a meal that consisted entirely of fruit. During this repast, they all sat as close to the Time Traveller as they could. With much difficulty he began to learn their language, but the Floi, with their very short attention spans, tired easily of teaching him. That evening the Traveller began to hypothesize how these people, who all looked identical, dressed alike, and reacted to life in the same way, had evolved. Perhaps, he thought, mankind had overcome the numerous difficulties of life facing it in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Under new conditions of perfect comfort and security, perhaps power and intellect - the very qualities he most valued - had no longer been necessary. He decided that he had emerged into the sunset of humanity; a vegetarian society - for he had noticed no animals - where there was no need for either reasoning or strength. As night drew near, the Time Traveller suddenly realized that his time machine had vanished. Engulfed by the fear of losing contact with his own age and being left helpless in this strange new world, he flew into a desperate rampage, a futile attempt to find his machine. Soon the voyager's panic faded as he realized his machine was probably inside the huge stone figure near the spot where he had "landed." He pounded on the bronze doors without effect, but he was certain he had heard some voice from inside - a distinct little chuckle. Calm, welcome sleep, finally overcame the adventurer, and he reasoned that in time he would succeed in breaking into the stone behemoth to regain his machine. Another day passed. The Time Traveller came to realize that he had been wrong about the little beings. The Eloi had no machinery or appliances of any kind, yet they were clothed in pleasant fabric and their sandals were fairly complex specimens of metalwork. Perhaps this was a truly advanced society. Later, the Time Traveller rescued an Eloi woman from drowning. Her name was Weena. Weena, unable to vocally express her gratitude and regard for the Time Traveller, slept by his side in the dark. This took great courage because the Eloi feared darkness and never ventured from their buildings after sunset. This point also puzzled the Time Traveller: If the Eloi lived in a perfect society, then why were they afraid of the dark? On the fourth day of his adventure, the Traveller came across other earth creatures. These subterranean, ape-like vermin were called Morlocks. Summoning courage, the Time Traveller warily descended into their world to learn what he could about them. There he found the machines that he had not seen above ground. Morlocks were apparently another race of man's descendants, no longer able to tolerate the sun-lit surface of the planet. Here were the enemies who had taken his time machine. By their smell and appearance they were obviously carnivores. Suddenly the Traveller understood why the Eloi feared darkness. They were like fatted calves, kept well and healthy, only to be seized and eaten when the Morlocks grew hungry. Eloi society wasn't perfect after all. A few days later, Weena and the Time Traveller set out to search for a weapon they could use to break into the pedestal where the machine was hidden. Coming across an ancient museum, they collected matches, some camphor for a candle, and, most important of all, an iron mace. The sun was setting as they emerged from the museum. Though filled with a sense of doom, and having several miles of forest between them and safety, they nevertheless started for home in the shadowy darkness. Morlocks proceeded to close in on them along the way. The beasts were temporarily driven off each time the Time Traveller lighted a match, but finally, in an effort to slow them down, he ignited a larger fire. In minutes the entire forest was in flames. The Traveller was able to escape - but Weena was lost in the flames. Standing on a knoll, he looked out over the burning wasteland, and mourned the loss of his devoted Eloi friend. When morning came, the Time Traveller began retracing his steps to the place where he bad originally landed. On the way he pondered how brief the reign of human intellect had been. Our priceless, heroic, human existence had been traded for a life of comfort and ease. Now, as the voyager approached the stone relic, he found the door of the pedestal open. Inside was his time machine. It was an obvious trap, but the Morlocks had no idea how the device worked. The Traveller sprinted to his machine and adjusted the lever, while fighting off several Morlocks. Then he found himself enveloped by the same welcome grey light and tumult he had before observed. He had escaped that dismal future. The visit to the Eloi took place in the year 802,701. The Time Traveller next journeyed through millions of years, seeing even more alien creatures than before. Finally halting thirty million years after he had departed, he found a distant age where the sun no longer shone brightly. In bitter cold and deathly stillness, the horrified Traveller started back toward the present. The guests listened with mixed emotions to the last of this tale. Their host seemed sincere; but was such a feat possible? A few days later one of his friends came to hear more. Again, the Traveller excused himself, asking his guest to wait momentarily and he would be back with evidence of this excursion. Three years elapsed and the Time Traveller had not reappeared. He was considered by his friends as a lost wanderer, somewhere in time. Ulysses by J.Joyce Chapter One: Telemachus When James Joyce began writing his novel Ulysses, he had in mind a creative project that brought together aspects of his two major works Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, while at the same time incorporating aspects of Homer's epic The Odyssey. The novel Ulysses encompasses a total of eighteen chapters, tracing the actions of various Dubliners beginning at 8 am on the day of June 16, 1904. Chapter One opens with the breakfast of three young men: Haines, a British student who is in Dublin on temporary leave from Oxford; Malachi "Buck" Mulligan, a medical student; and Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist from Portrait and the central character in the first three chapters of Ulysses. The three young men are living in Martello Tower, for which only Stephen pays rent as he is the one who has rented it from the Ministry of War. We immediately discover that there are tense relations between Mulligan and Stephen; particularly, Stephen feels increasingly ostracized, as Mulligan and Haines become closer. Further, Buck spares no sympathy in his constant tormenting of Stephen in regards to the recent death of his mother, Mary Dedalus. Stephen is, in general, the butt of most of Mulligan¹s jokes. Particularly, Mulligan teases Stephen that he is responsible for his mother's death because upon seeing her on her deathbed, he refused her pleas for him to pray, having distanced himself from organized religion. In this, Mulligan jokes that his aunt has refused to allow him to keep company with Stephen, as his apostasy is made worse by being the murderer of his mother. Further, Stephen feels distanced from Haines; Stephen feels that Haines is somewhat patronizing in his attitude towards Stephen's desire to become a poet. Haines is a British native and both Mulligan and Stephen despise him, though Mulligan masks his true thoughts with hypocrisy and flattery. Haines appears as a spoiled student and a shallow thinker. He argues that British oppression is not the cause of Ireland¹s problems; rather "history" is to blame. Interrupting the young men's conversation about Ireland and its international politics, an old lady arrives to deliver the morning milk and Stephen finds that he is forced to pay the bill. Soon after breakfast, the three men leave the Tower to walk along the beach. After making plans to meet Stephen at a bar called the Ship around noon, Mulligan asks him for his key to the tower. After, forfeiting his key to Mulligan, Stephen departs from his two roommates, feeling that he has been usurped from his position. Chapter Two: Nestor Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 |
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