DORIAN GRAY Chapter 16 Immortality Beauty CHAPTER 16

DORIAN GRAY Chapter 16: Immortality & Beauty

CHAPTER 16: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Discuss what happens to Dorian in chapter 16. (Where does he go, who is there, etc. ) What elements of the gothic genre do we see present here? What information have we learned about Dorian and the past few years? “Dim and wavering as was the windblown light, yet it served to show him the hideous error, as it seemed, into which he had fallen, for the face of the man he had sought to kill had all the bloom of boyhood, all the unstained purity of youth. ” Give the context and significance for the quote above

“TO CURE THE SOUL BY MEANS OF THE SENSES, AND THE SENSES BY MEANS OF THE SOUL. ” Repetition: perhaps the most impactful rhetorical technique. What effect does Oscar Wilde create by repeating this paradoxical epigram so many times?

ART & BEAUTY What makes something beautiful long term? Is beauty cultural or are there things that are just beautiful? How can we explain things that are found universally beautiful?

TED TALK RESPONSE Do you agree or disagree with Dutton’s thesis on the beauty of aesthetics? Does our access to technology change any of this? As a table group, discuss and create a claim around what Wilde’s perspective is on beauty. Based on the evidence we have seen within the novel, what is the argument Wilde is making about beauty? Does he see it as a good thing? Bad thing? Something in between? Why?

READ & ANSWER QUESTIONS Helpful hints: “Tithonus” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson • What is frightening here? • What is Tennyson’s approach to death? • Do you think Dorian would agree with Tithonus? Why or why not? • Who (or what) is the monster here? Tithonus is speaking to Aurora = goddess of the Dawn Hours = goddesses who accompany Aurora

WHAT IS SCARIER? Immortality, or death? Why?

Immortality or Death… Is there a way for us to achieve both?