In order to pursue eternal youth, modern people spend a lot of money on the face to carve out a delicate appearance, a pair of fresh masks attached to the soul. Fleeting appearance, aging life, time does not forgive people, and we are not willing to let go of their own. If one day you made a contract with the Devil, who promised you eternal youth in exchange for selling him your soul, and you had no chance to go back on it, would you take it? The hero of the novel Dorian Gray signed such a life and death contract, in order to this invincible and disadvantageous beautiful face, he finally went to a road of no return.
When Dorian Gray was a young, unworldly man, he was a model for the painter Basil. Basil was fascinated by Dorian because of his beauty and purity of soul, and he regarded Dorian’s beauty as the source of his own creation. That day Basil’s friend Lord Henry came to visit him, and when Lord Henry met Dorian, he was struck by the young man’s natural beauty, and at the same time he was sorry. He thought that Dorian was not a man who could please himself, that he had not obeyed his nature. Lord Henry said something to Dorian, and it was these words that deeply affected the pure Dorian, who for the first time had desire. Dorian looked at Basil’s picture of him, and for a long time he would not take his eyes off it. At last he made a wish that he would always look as young and beautiful as the person in the picture. And his wish came true. From then on, Dorian’s immortal face remained unchanged until his death, but his life was ruined and degraded, all because of his obedience to his desire.
Each of us has some desires to a greater or lesser extent, which may be money, fame, status, or the pursuit of material enjoyment rather than all forms of work. Every desire may be derived from dissatisfaction with the existing life, or it may be based on the casual words of others. But the origin of desire is their own soul this fertile soil. The desire for beauty, the desire to retain happiness, and the rejection of pain, is human nature, self-paralysis and wakefulness separated by the pursuit of the so-called mask. We all think that if we wear a mask for a long time, it will grow on our face, and then we will tell ourselves that it is something we already have. However, as time goes by, you will find that the mask is corrosive, it erodes our soul, makes us not believe in the truth, deceives others and also deceives ourselves. What you call charm makes you forget your original intention. You give in to your desires when you need self-discipline, and guilt will gnaze you as you get older. You will find that the beauty you want to pursue is never the gorgeousness of the skin, but the pure beauty in the soul, this kind of beauty is the need for constant irrigation in the mind, rather than external grandiosity can be easily exchanged.
When Dorian met his first love in the theater, although the status of the girl he was longing for was not matched with him, but it was pure enough, and the characters in the performance were vivid, which let Dorian suddenly fell into the joy of love. When he found that the love he expected had two sides, he lost interest instantly. His soul is changing quietly. He can only accept the good, even if it is fake. Once he finds the defect, he abandons her regardless of it. The girl who was in love with Dorian, who killed herself because he was so messed up. Dorian’s soul was saddled with a new debt of sin, and his face grew more beautiful, but the picture began to wrinkle his face. When Dorian locks away the picture, he locks away the secrets of his heart, and some secrets, no matter how long they stay hidden, will only become a bottomless pit that eats away at the goodness in us.
The three characters in the main line of the novel, the painter Basil, represent the pure soul, and the pure soul can always find the pure, good and beautiful things. Therefore, at the beginning of the novel, Basil is so obsessed with Dorian. The appearance of this character also represents the identity of the ID, which is the most real, loving life and feeling the beauty with his heart, without any other thoughts. Dorian Gray represents the growth of us, from the ignorant youth to contact with external things, desire plays a role in our soul, want to understand everything in life, can not distinguish what is good or bad. In the novel, Dorian chooses the lowest pleasure. He plays with emotions and smokes cigarettes, which all show the evil of human nature, but brings him pleasure. He regards other people’s pain and sorrow as his own pleasure. He met someone who changed his life, and the bad influences were enough to change the course of his life. Lord Henry is the only character in the novel who has any influence on Dorian. He is a cynical man who has a position of authority and is not responsible for anything he says. He represents seeing through the truth of life, understanding that the world always wants to enjoy, he is the embodiment of the small evil in human nature, and the accumulation of small evil will become a big evil.
Lord Henry tells Dorian that only the senses can save the soul, just as only the soul can save the senses. Which means that he believes in endless desire, that people should release their nature. And human nature is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, the more sensory pleasure, the more want to continue to enjoy, and avoid some self-restraint. This kind of self-indulgence will eventually let people lose themselves, let people forget. How can a man who lives in illusion know the difference between good and bad in reality?
People come to the world, will have different understanding of beauty, have different feelings, listen to beautiful music, see beautiful pictures, appreciate beautiful things. In this age of judging people by their appearance, the vast majority of people regard physical beauty as a reason for worship. God has given man different faces, whether beautiful or ugly, only in the degree of engraving of this mask. The progress of modern science and technology has long made the beautiful face easy to obtain, but people are more and more greedy for beauty, temporary beauty is easy to obtain, permanent beauty is difficult to find. How delicate the mask dress up, the mask is just a mask, mask can not replace the real.
The real beauty is always derived from the continuous cultivation of the soul, the beauty we want to pursue in our life will never be once and for all, we have self-discipline, self-denial, truth, pure, good these good qualities all nourish our soul, and desire, temptation for us, if there is no ability to control, will be trapped in the irreversible. When we are stuck in the mire, only regret if at the beginning, at this time, beauty is just a drag on people. I hope we can take off the so-called gorgeous mask, put down the impetuous heart, to pursue the soul of the true, the good and the beautiful.
