I might be biased, but I've been reading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and can't help but compare these lyrics to the book. Dorian Gray is enamoured with the concept of beauty and the human senses. After his friend Basil paints a portrait of him, because he is so handsome and entrances many people with his boyish youth, he woefully wishes that the portrait would age instead of him, and his wish is somehow granted. As he is supposed to grow older over the years, the portrait does instead, and it wears his sins as well. It becomes an ugly image of his soul, but his body remains perfect. I just finished the chapter where Wilde is explaining Dorian's favorite book because of the unruly characters.
"There was a horrible fascination in them all. He saw them at night, and they troubled his imagination in the day. The Renaissance knew of strange manners of poisoning -- poisoning by a helmet and a lighted torch, by an embroidered glove and a jeweled fan, by a gilded pomander and by an amber chain. Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful."
"Episodes and parallels" remind me of how upper society in general can't seem to help but love and accept him because of his wealth and his innocent looks, but at the same time there are some pretty horrible stories spreading around about him and there are those who are horrified by him. I remember reading ABOUT Dorian Gray when I say this next part, so I can't say I've reached the part in this book yet, but it seems he actually commits a murder and straight afterwards goes to a social gathering. That's a pretty extreme parallel life...
"Big bright accent, catty smile" might be referencing to 1800's British society and how to charm your way through.
"Live like it's the style;" Dorian Gray, with the help of his friend Lord Henry, believes that living consists of experiencing all of life's glories and sins (mostly sins because everyone in society was so 'stuffy' already), and that this is the only true way to live; to reach out to everything with the senses. Neo-hedonism, I think it was called in the book.
"We are all our own devil" definitely reminds me of Dorian Gray's portrait. Even though he does not wear his sins, he still commits them, and they embellish themselves upon the portrait, which he is very protective about, paranoid that even his dinner guests will go up to his barred childhood study room where it is hidden and steal it away. Despite how secretive the existence of the portrait is, he is haunted by it and the fear that it will be discovered, yet cannot help but sit down every once in a while and study the ugliness of his soul.
"Beauty pageants all the time;" his obsession with beauty. In the same chapter I quote from, Wilde was explaining Dorian's obsession with jewelry and how he went to a costume party clad in precious stones. Also in a previous chapter, how most of his clothing styles (purposely neat or opportunely messy) made it into the shops to perpetuate themselves as "THE" style of the time. It always seems that Dorian is showing off his beauty and everyone wants to mimic it.
"Time keeps on ticking away"... of course his obsession with time. His body's everlasting beauty; his portrait's increasing ugliness. It seems that he has successfully 'ran from time.'
I might be biased, but I've been reading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and can't help but compare these lyrics to the book. Dorian Gray is enamoured with the concept of beauty and the human senses. After his friend Basil paints a portrait of him, because he is so handsome and entrances many people with his boyish youth, he woefully wishes that the portrait would age instead of him, and his wish is somehow granted. As he is supposed to grow older over the years, the portrait does instead, and it wears his sins as well. It becomes an ugly image of his soul, but his body remains perfect. I just finished the chapter where Wilde is explaining Dorian's favorite book because of the unruly characters.
"There was a horrible fascination in them all. He saw them at night, and they troubled his imagination in the day. The Renaissance knew of strange manners of poisoning -- poisoning by a helmet and a lighted torch, by an embroidered glove and a jeweled fan, by a gilded pomander and by an amber chain. Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful."
"Episodes and parallels" remind me of how upper society in general can't seem to help but love and accept him because of his wealth and his innocent looks, but at the same time there are some pretty horrible stories spreading around about him and there are those who are horrified by him. I remember reading ABOUT Dorian Gray when I say this next part, so I can't say I've reached the part in this book yet, but it seems he actually commits a murder and straight afterwards goes to a social gathering. That's a pretty extreme parallel life...
"Big bright accent, catty smile" might be referencing to 1800's British society and how to charm your way through.
"Live like it's the style;" Dorian Gray, with the help of his friend Lord Henry, believes that living consists of experiencing all of life's glories and sins (mostly sins because everyone in society was so 'stuffy' already), and that this is the only true way to live; to reach out to everything with the senses. Neo-hedonism, I think it was called in the book.
"We are all our own devil" definitely reminds me of Dorian Gray's portrait. Even though he does not wear his sins, he still commits them, and they embellish themselves upon the portrait, which he is very protective about, paranoid that even his dinner guests will go up to his barred childhood study room where it is hidden and steal it away. Despite how secretive the existence of the portrait is, he is haunted by it and the fear that it will be discovered, yet cannot help but sit down every once in a while and study the ugliness of his soul.
"Beauty pageants all the time;" his obsession with beauty. In the same chapter I quote from, Wilde was explaining Dorian's obsession with jewelry and how he went to a costume party clad in precious stones. Also in a previous chapter, how most of his clothing styles (purposely neat or opportunely messy) made it into the shops to perpetuate themselves as "THE" style of the time. It always seems that Dorian is showing off his beauty and everyone wants to mimic it.
"Time keeps on ticking away"... of course his obsession with time. His body's everlasting beauty; his portrait's increasing ugliness. It seems that he has successfully 'ran from time.'