Living by a code
I have recently just finished the literature piece "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. If you have not had the opportunity to indulge yourself in such a piece of literature I suggest you do so now. It is an amazing piece and sadly the only one made by the man with such a high intellectual caliber that many can only strive for. As the title suggests, the story talks about a portrait done by an artist of Dorian Gray, an aristocrat with amazingly youthful and good looks. As he meets another character by the name of Lord Henry, his philosophy causes Gray to change into a person nihilistic on life with neither passion for love or compassion, and degenerates into a person that no one can recognise. However his looks remain as useful and amazing as ever, but it is the portrait that changes. From someone with good looks to one with a evil sinister intent. As such, Gray views the painting as a reflection of the degeneration of his soul and chooses to ignore its degeneration as it grows to become more and more ugly.
My dear reader, I will not spoil the ending, but the book only illustrates how one man can drop so low from such a high point when he was put on a pedestal in society to how he becomes infamous in social gatherings for his treatment of women and his friends (of which towards the end he has few).
The idea of a degeneration of a character is not new, as is seen in Golding's "Lord of the Flies" and Shakespeare's "Macbeth". However I found the imagery involved with the usage of the portrait so original and so sinister and creepy that I found myself attracted to the seductions of the text.
As I grow up, I find my brothers changing the way that they live their lives, where morals matter a lot less than practicality. For example, calling your older relatives without any sort of honorifics because you are used to it, or swearing at them in a form of humour. I then started to think about why I have turned into an individual who has yet to swear at their parents, when my younger brothers have already done so. Why I have yet to do so many things without compromising on my morals. I realised that is because I had a set of morals to begin with.
Don't get me wrong. there are many people who have a set of morals; compassion, love and simple courtesy are many traits that many people have. However they fail to specify how to execute these ideas. For example "make sure to give a neighbour a ride to work today" is a good way to exercise compassion. The idea is to make sure that you know how to execute the morals that you have been born to have. I find that it is in this way that we can prevent ourselves from looking into the grey areas when it comes to our morals... or should I say Gray areas.
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
My dear reader, I will not spoil the ending, but the book only illustrates how one man can drop so low from such a high point when he was put on a pedestal in society to how he becomes infamous in social gatherings for his treatment of women and his friends (of which towards the end he has few).
The idea of a degeneration of a character is not new, as is seen in Golding's "Lord of the Flies" and Shakespeare's "Macbeth". However I found the imagery involved with the usage of the portrait so original and so sinister and creepy that I found myself attracted to the seductions of the text.
As I grow up, I find my brothers changing the way that they live their lives, where morals matter a lot less than practicality. For example, calling your older relatives without any sort of honorifics because you are used to it, or swearing at them in a form of humour. I then started to think about why I have turned into an individual who has yet to swear at their parents, when my younger brothers have already done so. Why I have yet to do so many things without compromising on my morals. I realised that is because I had a set of morals to begin with.
Don't get me wrong. there are many people who have a set of morals; compassion, love and simple courtesy are many traits that many people have. However they fail to specify how to execute these ideas. For example "make sure to give a neighbour a ride to work today" is a good way to exercise compassion. The idea is to make sure that you know how to execute the morals that you have been born to have. I find that it is in this way that we can prevent ourselves from looking into the grey areas when it comes to our morals... or should I say Gray areas.
This serves as a good example
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
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