Killing Lizards by William Boyd
Day of the Butterfly by Alice Munro
The Badness Within Him by Susan Hill
*The Study Notes postings are a work in progress
and will be updated over time to cover works read over the 1st year
(Moments of Madness, Somehow Tenderness Survives, Plath, Poe, Picture
of Dorian Gray). Do visit the blog for updates.
Take two! If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again 
Enjoy,
Maria
p.s. Enjoy this too: If at first
Study Notes on The Bells (1849) , The Poem
The Raven (1847), Study Notes
Links:
The Interactive Raven – fun to click away at while you read – glossary-as-you-go. No analysis.
Open forum – casual personal responses to the poem by different readers; may not be the most widely-accepted interpretations. Interesting to read, nonetheless.
The poem and the poet - For your own interest but remember the ‘Intentional Fallacy’ when doing literary analysis - Focus on what the WORK says i.e. pay attention to the NARRATOR/ SPEAKER, not what you thought the AUTHOR/POET meant or felt
CLOUDING OF THE MIND AND SENSES
dripping mist,The sidewindows of the hansom were clogged with a grey-flannel mist. The monotony became unbearable, and as the mist thickened, he felt afraid.Mist like sails around the opium dens. Fog, steam.. Then they passed by lonely brickfields. The fog was lighter here, and he could see the strange, bottle- shaped kilns with their orange, fanlike tongues of fire. A dog barked as they went by, and far away in the darkness some wandering sea-gull screamed. The horse stumbled in a rut, then swerved aside and broke into a gallop.
-wetness, rain, a steam rose from the horse as it splashed up the puddles.
- “To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.” Yes, that was the secret. He had often tried it, and would try it again now.
THE MORALLY-DEPRAVED
-The public- houses were just closing, and dim men and women were clustering in broken groups round their doors. From some of the bars came the sound of horrible laughter. In others, drunkards brawled and screamed.
-The gas-lamps grew fewer, and the streets more narrow and gloomy.
LOST: Once the man lost his way.
- The way seemed interminable, and the streets like the black web of some sprawling spider.
The driver laughed and whipped up. He laughed in answer, and the man was silent.
low society through the setting: After some time they left the clay road and rattled again over rough-paven streets. Most of the windows were dark, but now and then fantastic shadows were silhouetted against some lamplit blind. He watched them curiously. They moved like monstrous marionettes and made gestures like live things. He hated them. A dull rage was in his heart. As they turned a corner, a woman yelled something at them from an open door, and two men ran after the hansom for about a hundred yards. The driver beat at them with his whip.
Shadows: -than all the gracious shapes of art, the dreamy shadows of song. They were what he needed for forgetfulness.
UGLINESS AND REALITY
Ugliness that had once been hateful to him because it made things real, became dear to him now for that very reason. Ugliness was the one reality. The coarse brawl, the loathsome den, the crude violence of disordered life, the very vileness of thief and outcast, were more vivid, in their intense actuality of impression, than all the gracious shapes of art, the dreamy shadows of song. They were what he needed for forgetfulness.
SICKNESS
1) MADNESS
-The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull. From time to time a huge misshapen cloud stretched a long arm across and hid it.
-His soul, certainly, was sick to death. Was it true that the senses could cure it?
“To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul!”
Mad because of guilt: Innocent blood had been spilled. What could atone for that? Ah! for that there was no atonement; but though forgiveness was impossible, forgetfulness was possible still, and he was determined to forget, to stamp the thing out, to crush it as one would crush the adder that had stung one.
Indeed, what right had Basil to have spoken to him as he had done? Who had made him a judge over others? He had said things that were dreadful, horrible, not to be endured.
He struck at the horse madly with his stick.
It is said that passion makes one think in a circle. Certainly with hideous iteration the bitten lips of Dorian Gray shaped and reshaped those subtle words that dealt with soul and sense, till he had found in them the full expression, as it were, of his mood, and justified, by intellectual approval, passions that without such justification would still have dominated his temper. From cell to cell of his brain crept the one thought; and the wild desire to live, most terrible of all man’s appetites, quickened into force each trembling nerve and fibre.
2)DRUGS and ADDICTION:
On and on plodded the hansom, going slower, it seemed to him, at each step. He thrust up the trap and called to the man to drive faster. The hideous hunger for opium began to gnaw at him. His throat burned and his delicate hands twitched nervously together.
Conclusion: Paradoxical – clouding the mind – escaping reality; embraces ugliness which is reality. To what extent does Dorian face reality? Inner conflict
he escapes the reality of his soul’s corruption
physically – desires to be part of the true reality of ugliness and yet, this too, is a distraction from his soul.
It is the 9th of November the eve of his 38 birthday. Dorian was walking home after the dinner with Lord Henry. When he reached the Grosvenor square and south Audley he crossed by a man, this man was walking so fast with the collar of his grey ulster turned up. At this moment Dorian saw him but he acted as if he didn’t see him. Because he felt a strange sense of fear. But Basil Hallward saw him, and he ran after him. Basil has been waiting for him for a long time in his library, “I have been waiting for you in your library ever since nine o’clock”. Basil starts telling Dorian that he is off to Paris and he wanted to see him before he leaves. Then Basil says that he will be out of England for six months because he wants to take a studio in Paris and shut himself until he finishes a great picture in his head.
Basil quickly gets into the point is not about him but about Dorian and that he has something to tell him. “I shall be charmed. But won’t you miss your train?” this was his reaction upon what Basil was saying, which is in somehow saying that he doesn’t care. The painter tells Dorian that he has been worried because of the rumoures that have been said about him. “It is entirely for your own sake that I am speaking”. Basil starts telling him to be careful of the things that are said about him, but Dorian says that he doesn’t care about what is said about him, he only cares of what is being said about other people. “They must interest you, Dorian every gentleman is interested in his good name.” here Basil is trying grab Dorian’s attention and tell him to be serious and think about what is being said about him. With what Basil has listened from other people about Dorian but he didn’t believe any of them and he wanted to get an answer from Dorian about them. “Mind you, I don’t believe these rumours at all.” “When I am away from you, and I hear all these hideous things…I don’t know what to say.”
Basil starts listing the names of the people whom Dorian have lost, Sir Henry Ashton, Adrian singleton, Lord Kent’s son, and the Duke of Perth. “You are talking about things of which you know nothing” Dorian tells him that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and warning him to mind his own business. Dorian starts to talk about these people and say that he knows everything about them, while they don’t know anything about his life. “You ask me why Berwick leaves a room when I enter it. It is because I know everything about his life”.
Basil keeps on talking and saying that it is his right as his friend to direct him and tell him what is going on and to make him be aware. However on the other hand Dorian thinks that Basil is just interfering in his life. “Take care Basil you go too far”. Basil then ask him to reveal his soul so that he can know if these things and romoures that he has been listening to are true or not. “I should have to see your soul”. Suddenly Dorian agrees and says ““I shall show you my soul”. Basil is just being honest and he is saying that he did all of that for his own good and his own sake as he cares about him and about his reputation. “I keep a dairy of my life from day to day” Dorian wants Basil to come with him upstairs to the room in which this dairy is placed, this dairy can answer all his questions. “I shall show it to you if you come with me”.
Basil and Dorian two different characters and this is obvious in way they are behaving with each other as well as the way of caring about reputation.
In the beginning Basil asked Dorian if he had recognized him or not in the street, this means that Basil was concerned and he wants to see if Dorian really saw him and acted as if he didn’t or he didn’t really see him. Dorian then justify himself by saying “in this fog, my dear Basil? I can’t even recognize Grosvenor Square. And he immediately changes the topic by saying “I am sorry you are going away, as I have not seen you for ages.” Just to show him that he is feeling sorry that he is leaving so as they haven’t met for a long time. As we know from before that Dorian and Basil had a relationship together, it is obvious that Basil is still interested in Dorian and he still cares about him. While Dorian doesn’t appreciate that and he is just accusing him of interfering in his life and his privacy. Basil is doing all of that of for Dorian’s sake as he is the one who is supposed to be caring about his name and reputation. The language is having a big effect on the characters, in which it is obvious that Basil was talking to Dorian in a calm way but somehow shocked and astonished, while Dorian was so cold and he didn’t even care about anything he was saying. Basil just went with him to the room to see the dairy because Dorian asked him. “I shall come with you, Dorian, if you wish it. “.And Dorian takes him to the room to see this diary, which can not be removed from this room at all.
Here’s a checklist of things to do before the deadline in the 2nd year. Ensure that your forms are AS COMPLETE as possible so that you can add only the last few details next year.
Chapter ten – the picture of Dorian Gray,
The context of this chapter is sibyl’s death and Dorian’s change of attitude from indifference and calmness regarding her death to watching his portrait and understanding that his wish that the portrait would age instead of him has come true, and therefore he decides to hide the dreadful portrait forever.
This chapter is Dorian’s struggle to decide between the influence and philosophy of Lord Henry and being moral, listening to Basil, and saving his own portrait and soul. His choice to ignore the painful article about sibyl’s death and fascination by the yellow back lead to his eventual decision, to follow Lord Henry.
The chapter Opens with the entrance of Dorian’s servant to the library. .
Dorian is very panicked, he finds nothing to be afraid of in his servant but decides it is good to be on guard. He wonders if the servant is looking at the screen.
Dorian tell him to call Mrs.Leaf and a local Frammaker.
Characterization of Mrs. Leaf:
Seen in this way by Dorian. Represents his new self, the shallow one. And his condition of stress
P.137 Mrs. Leaf “bustles” in, black dress, wrinkled hands.
P.138 she has Tremulously Uncertain hands.
Lingered, was garrulous over some details of the household
P.137 she’s committed, wants to clean the messy and dusty old schoolroom before he enters it.
Dorian, probably as a result of his anxiety to hide to picture, is rude and impatient towards her.
We learn from the narrator about Dorian’s hatful memories towards his grandfather.
In the process of hiding his portrait, he looks at his own image, regretting his mistakes, fearing the future, and then he passes out when the servant knocks on the door and surprises him just after he flung the pall over the picture.
Fears the servant, feels the need to get rid of him. Fear his thoughtfulness.
Dorian becomes paranoiac.
Mr. Hubbard, the frame maker comes with an assistant. He is Charactarised as Florid, red-whiskered, being dealt with by inveterately impecunious artist.
Never left the shop as a rule, made exception for Dorian Gray
Obsequiously protests when Dorian’s help for him and his assistant to carry the picture upstairs.
Dorian is lost in thought of the fate of the pictures that holds his soul, and of its corrupting. He is sad that this room that symbolizes his childhood would store this picture. But he determines that this is the safest place in the house, of any prying eye to see it.
He wonders if love can save his soul and prevents the corruption of the picture, so that one day he would be able to present it.
When the frame maker leaves, Dorian finds on his dining table a note, a newspaper and a book from Lord Henry.
The note tells him when they’ll meet, the newspaper his marked by red on one article meant for him to read, about the investigation of the death of sibyl vane. This shaken him a bit, makes him hesitate and being paranoiac of blames or suspicion against him. Then he concludes that he has nothing to do with sibyl vane, in self denial of his blame.
Finally he starts reading the yellow book he got from Lord Henry. It tells about a young Parisian from the nineteenth century, trying to realize all the passions of and modes of thought that belonged to every century expect for his own, and to sum up the various moods through which the world spirit had ever passed, loving for their mere artificiality those renunciations that men have unwisely called virtue, as much as those natural rebellions that wise men still call sin.
Summary of the plot:
Dorian leads Basil up to the upper room where he has hidden the painting. He reveals it to Basil who is shocked and in a fit of anger and blame, stabs Basil in the back. He then goes down and covers up his tracks. He pretends to re-enter the house so that a servant can be his alibi and hides Basil’s things. He then looks up the phone directory (blue book) for Alan Campbell’s address, the man he needs to dispose of the body.
Key Themes/Questions:
1. How does this chapter illustrate the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’?
2. How is mood created in this chapter?
3. Is the artist responsible for negative outcome of his art? (Is the nuclear scientist responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?)
4. Development in Dorian’s corruption of his soul and his madness
5. Spectatorship
6. Is there possibility of redemption?
7. How does Dorian feel and behave immediately after the murder?
1. How does this chapter illustrate the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’?
- When they reached the top landing, Dorian set the lamp down on the floor, and taking out the key, turned it in the lock. “You insist on knowing, Basil?” he asked in a low voice. “Yes.”
“So you think that it is only God who sees the soul, Basil? Draw that curtain back, and you will see mine.” (Man has the ability to ‘know’, like God. Allusion to the Tree of Knowledge in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge and become aware of themselves and their nakedness)
The voice that spoke was cold and cruel. “You are mad, Dorian, or playing a part,” muttered Hallward, frowning. “You won’t? Then I must do it myself,” said the young man, and he tore the curtain from its rod and flung it on the ground. (Dorian shows Basil what he does not want to know) An exclamation of horror broke from the painter’s lips as he saw in the dim light the hideous face on the canvas grinning at him.
2. How is mood created in this chapter?
-They walked softly, as men do instinctively at night. The lamp cast fantastic shadows on the wall and staircase. A rising wind made some of the windows rattle.
-A cold current of air passed them, and the light shot up for a moment in a flame of murky orange. He shuddered. “Shut the door behind you,” he whispered, as he placed the lamp on the table.
-Setting: The room looked as if it had not been lived in for years. A faded Flemish tapestry, a curtained picture, an old Italian cassone, and an almost empty book-case–that was all that it seemed to contain, besides a chair and a table. As Dorian Gray was lighting a half-burned candle that was standing on the mantelshelf, he saw that the whole place was covered with dust and that the carpet was in holes. A mouse ran scuffling behind the wainscoting. There was a damp odour of mildew.
-His hand shook, and the candle fell from its socket on the floor and lay there sputtering. He placed his foot on it and put it out. Then he flung himself into the rickety chair that was standing by the table and buried his face in his hands. (what does the sputtering candle represent?)
- Mood during the murder: The mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him, and he loathed the man who was seated at the table, more than in his whole life he had ever loathed anything. He glanced wildly around…He moved slowly towards it (the knife), passing Hallward as he did so. As soon as he got behind him, he seized it and turned round. Hallward stirred in his chair as if he was going to rise. He rushed at him and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man’s head down on the table and stabbing again and again.
-There was a stifled groan and the horrible sound of some one choking with blood. Three times the outstretched arms shot up convulsively, waving grotesque, stiff-fingered hands in the air. He stabbed him twice more, but the man did not move. Something began to trickle on the floor. He waited for a moment, still pressing the head down. Then he threw the knife on the table, and listened. He could hear nothing, but the drip, drip on the threadbare carpet. He opened the door and went out on the landing. The house was absolutely quiet. No one was about. For a few seconds he stood bending over the balustrade and peering down into the black seething well of darkness.
- (after the murder) The wind had blown the fog away, and the sky was like a monstrous peacock’s tail, starred with myriads of golden eyes. He looked down and saw the policeman going his rounds and flashing the long beam of his lantern on the doors of the silent houses. The crimson spot of a prowling hansom gleamed at the corner and then vanished. A woman in a fluttering shawl was creeping slowly by the railings, staggering as she went. Now and then she stopped and peered back. Once, she began to sing in a hoarse voice. The policeman strolled over and said something to her. She stumbled away, laughing. A bitter blast swept across the square. The gas-lamps flickered and became blue, and the leafless trees shook their black iron branches to and fro. He shivered and went back, closing the window behind him.
3. Is the artist responsible for negative outcome of his art? (Is the nuclear scientist responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?)
- Then he added, somewhat harshly, “You are the one man in the world who is entitled to know everything about me. You have had more to do with my life than you think”;
- Yes, it was Dorian himself. But who had done it? He seemed to recognize his own brushwork, and the frame was his own design. The idea was monstrous, yet he felt afraid. He seized the lighted candle, and held it to the picture. In the left-hand corner was his own name, traced in long letters of bright vermilion.
(Why was Basil afraid?)
- Denial: “It was some foul parody, some infamous ignoble satire. He had never done that. Still, it was his own picture.” and “I remember it! Oh, how well I remember it! No! the thing is impossible. The room is damp. Mildew has got into the canvas. The paints I used had some wretched mineral poison in them. I tell you the thing is impossible.” and “I don’t believe it is my picture.”
- Dorian tries to blame Basil who in turn tries to deny it: Can’t you see your ideal in it?” said Dorian bitterly. “My ideal, as you call it. . .” “As you called it.” “There was nothing evil in it, nothing shameful. You were to me such an ideal as I shall never meet again. This is the face of a satyr.”
- Guilt as seen in Basil’s physical reactions: He knew it, and he felt as if his blood had changed in a moment from fire to sluggish ice. His own picture! What did it mean? Why had it altered? He turned and looked at Dorian Gray with the eyes of a sick man. His mouth twitched, and his parched tongue seemed unable to articulate. He passed his hand across his forehead. It was dank with clammy sweat.
- “What does this mean?” cried Hallward, at last. His own voice sounded shrill and curious in his ears. (the shock of a creator at the evil of his creation. The question is: Is he responsible for the negative outcome of his creation? Is he innocent because he was ignorant of what COULD happen as a result of his creation?)
4. Development in Dorian’s corruption of his soul and his madness
The horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty. There was still some gold in the thinning hair and some scarlet on the sensual mouth. The sodden eyes had kept something of the loveliness of their blue, the noble curves had not yet completely passed away from chiselled nostrils and from plastic throat.
“It is the face of my soul.” “Christ! what a thing I must have worshipped! It has the eyes of a devil.”"Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil,” cried Dorian with a wild gesture of despair.
He held the light up again to the canvas and examined it. The surface seemed to be quite undisturbed and as he had left it. It was from within, apparently, that the foulness and horror had come. Through some strange quickening of inner life the leprosies of sin were slowly eating the thing away. The rotting of a corpse in a watery grave was not so fearful (analogy to a rotting corpse).
- (Madness of murder) Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him, as though it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas, whispered into his ear by those grinning lips. The mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him, and he loathed the man who was seated at the table, more than in his whole life he had ever loathed anything. He glanced wildly around. Something glimmered on the top of the painted chest that faced him. His eye fell on it. He knew what it was. It was a knife that he had brought up, some days before, to cut a piece of cord, and had forgotten to take away with him. He moved slowly towards it, passing Hallward as he did so. As soon as he got behind him, he seized it and turned round. Hallward stirred in his chair as if he was going to rise. He rushed at him and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man’s head down on the table and stabbing again and again.
- There had been a madness of murder in the air.
5. Spectatorship
The young man was leaning against the mantelshelf, watching him with that strange expression that one sees on the faces of those who are absorbed in a play when some great artist is acting. There was neither real sorrow in it nor real joy. There was simply the passion of the spectator, with perhaps a flicker of triumph in his eyes. He had taken the flower out of his coat, and was smelling it, or pretending to do so. (Dorian is very smug about showing off his corrupted soul to the artist who had created the portrait when it was still unmarred)
6. Is there possibility of redemption?
- “Good God, Dorian, what a lesson! What an awful lesson!” There was no answer, but he could hear the young man sobbing at the window. “Pray, Dorian, pray,” he murmured. “What is it that one was taught to say in one’s boyhood? ‘Lead us not into temptation. Forgive us our sins. Wash away our iniquities.’ Let us say that together. The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also. I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both punished.”
-Dorian Gray turned slowly around and looked at him with tear-dimmed eyes. “It is too late, Basil,” he faltered. “It is never too late, Dorian. Let us kneel down and try if we cannot remember a prayer. Isn’t there a verse somewhere, ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, yet I will make them as white as snow’?” “Hush! Don’t say that. You have done enough evil in your life. My God! Don’t you see that accursed thing leering at us?”
7. How does Dorian feel and behave immediately after the murder?
- (the third person narration identifies w Dorian’s p.o.v.) The thing was still seated in the chair, straining over the table with bowed head, and humped back, and long fantastic arms. Had it not been for the red jagged tear in the neck and the clotted black pool that was slowly widening on the table, one would have said that the man was simply asleep.
How quickly it had all been done! He felt strangely calm, and walking over to the window, opened it and stepped out on the balcony.
Having reached the door, he turned the key and opened it. He did not even glance at the murdered man. He felt that the secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation. The friend who had painted the fatal portrait to which all his misery had been due had gone out of his life. That was enough.
- (Covering up the murder) Then he remembered the lamp. It was a rather curious one of Moorish workmanship, made of dull silver inlaid with arabesques of burnished steel, and studded with coarse turquoises. Perhaps it might be missed by his servant, and questions would be asked. He hesitated for a moment, then he turned back and took it from the table. He could not help seeing the dead thing. How still it was! How horribly white the long hands looked! It was like a dreadful wax image.
A sudden thought struck him. He put on his fur coat and hat and went out into the hall. There he paused, hearing the slow heavy tread of the policeman on the pavement outside and seeing the flash of the bull’s-eye reflected in the window. He waited and held his breath.
After a few moments he drew back the latch and slipped out, shutting the door very gently behind him. Then he began ringing the bell. In about five minutes his valet appeared, half-dressed and looking very drowsy.
“I am sorry to have had to wake you up, Francis,” he said, stepping in; “but I had forgotten my latch-key. What time is it?”
“Ten minutes past two, sir,” answered the man, looking at the clock and blinking.
-Dorian Gray threw his hat and coat upon the table and passed into the library. For a quarter of an hour he walked up and down the room, biting his lip and thinking. Then he took down the Blue Book from one of the shelves and began to turn over the leaves. “Alan Campbell, 152, Hertford Street, Mayfair.” Yes; that was the man he wanted.
Dorian very coolly and with a clear head, covers up the murder.
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