"The Picture of Dorian Grey". Oscar Wilde.

Part gothic novel, part comedy of manners, part treatise on the relationship between art and morality, The Picture of Dorian Gray continues to present its readers with a puzzle to sort out.
The essential plot of the novel is a devastating story of an elegant young man corrupted by decadence and sin. He remains eternally young and beautiful, but his portrait reveals his true and hideous nature.

In my opinion there are three main heroes Lord Henry Wotton, Basil Hallward  and, surely, Dorian Grey.
At the opening of the novel, Dorian Gray exists as something of an ideal: he is the archetype of male youth and beauty. As such, he captures the imagination of Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton Dorian into an unremitting pleasure-seeker. Dorian is exceptionally vain and becomes convinced. The thought of waking one day without these attributes sends Dorian into a tailspin: he curses his fate and pledges his soul if only he could live without bearing the physical burdens of aging and sinning. He wishes that the portrait could age in his stead. As Dorian’s sins grow worse over the years, his likeness in Basil’s portrait grows more hideous. Dorian seems to lack a conscience, but the desire to repent that he eventually feels illustrates that he is indeed human. Despite the beautiful things with which he surrounds himself, he is unable to distract himself from the dissipation of his soul. His murder of Basil marks the beginning of his end: he cannot shake the thought that he has killed his friend.
Lord Henry is a man possessed of “wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories.” He is a charming talker, a famous wit, and a brilliant intellect. Given the seductive way in which he leads conversation, it is little wonder that Dorian falls under his spell so completely. Lord Henry’s theories are radical; they aim to shock and purposefully attempt to topple established, untested, or conventional notions of truth. In the end, however, they prove naive, and Lord Henry himself fails to realize the implications of most of what he says. Lord Henry is a relatively static character—he does not undergo a significant change in the course of the narrative. He is as coolly composed, unshakable, and possessed of the same dry wit in the final pages of the novel as he is upon his introduction.
Basil Hallward is a talented, though somewhat conventionally minded, painter. His love for Dorian Gray changes the way he sees art; indeed, it defines a new school of expression for him. Once he has painted Dorian as he truly is, however, he fears that he has put too much of himself into the work. He worries that his love, which he himself describes as “idolatry,” is too apparent, and that it betrays too much of himself. Though he later changes his mind to believe that art is always more abstract than one thinks and that the painting thus betrays nothing except form and color, his emotional investment in Dorian remains constant. He seeks to protect Dorian, voicing his objection to Lord Henry’s injurious influence over Dorian even after their relationship has clearly dissolved. Basil’s commitment to Dorian, which ultimately proves fatal, reveals the genuineness of his love for his favorite subject and his concern for the safety and salvation of Dorian’s soul.

I think the main theme of the novel is The main theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray is the relationship between beauty and morality. Oscar Wilde plays on the Renaissance idea of the correspondence between the physical and spiritual realms: beautiful people are moral people; ugly people are immoral people. His twist on this theme is in his use of the magical contrivance of the portrait.

To sum up, I should say, that the novel is not for everyone mind. I like books with something mystery. However, others claim that the novel is immoral.
 

"The Birhday of the Infanta". Oscar Wilde

The Birthday of the Infanta is one of Oscar Wilde’s fantastic and truly meaningful fairytales written for adults rather than for children.The author took inspiration from the famous Velasquez’s painting “Las Meninas”.

 

The short story is about a hunchbacked dwarf found by courtiers of King Philip IV of Spain in the woods and brought to palace for the amusement of the Infanta, on her twelfth birthday. Her birthday is the only time she is allowed to mingle with other children; she enjoys a lot the many festivities arranged to mark it, especially the dwarf's performance who,indeed, dances as he usually does in the woods, unawared of his audience's laughing at him. Amused, the Infanta asks for a second dwarf’s performance after dinner. The poor dwarf mistakenly believes the Infanta can love him since she had given him a white rose, so one day he tries to find her, passing through a garden where sundials and fishes ridicule him . Inside the palace, he searches through the rooms eventually stumbling upon a grotesque monster that is miming his movements. When he realizes that the monster is his own reflection, he understands that the Infanta does not love him at all .So he falls down kicking and screaming. The Infanta and the other children come upon him and thinking it to be another act of his funny performance, start laughing and applauding him, while the Dwarf’s heart is actually and dramatically stopping . The Infanta demands more entertainment but in vain: the poor Dwarf’s heart has stopped. 

 

To tell the truth, I was shocked how ugly may be soul of a young girl. The Infanta hasn't got compassion to others. She is indifferent to feelings of others, she just want to have fun. The Infanta is protective, cruel, violent and selfish. Everybody think that she can't be such an awful person, because of her beautiful and pretty face.

On the contrast, there is the character of Dwarf. Everybody disgusts him because of his ugliness. However, he doesn't understand it, because he is naive and ingenuous. When he is dancing on the birthday of the Infanta, he even doesn't understand that everybody laughs at him but not with him. The Dwart is very kind and romantic. I'm sure he is faithful friend. He loves nature and helps animals.

 

In my opinion, the main idea the author is trying to convey is that the appearance doesn't say about a good soul and kind heart. The themes of the tale, sure, are the human's soul, the relationship between

father and daughter and social dividing.

 

What about my attitude of the tale I don't really like it, because it is too dark and tragic for me. The fairy tale is not for children. You should be a grown-up to understand the conception of the story. But I should say that the fairy tale gives much food for thought. "Don't judge a book by its cover".

 

"Pigmalion". George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw was an outstanding playwright. He is famous as a brilliant master of paradox. The paradoxical contradictions of idea in his plays have one motive - criticism of morals and mode of life.

"Pygmalion", a play by George Bernard Shaw, was written in 1912. It is the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who makes a bet with his friend, Colonel Pickering, that he can transform a common flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a "proper" lady. Higgins succeeds in teaching her how to speak with a proper upper-class accent. But in the end we understand that not only her speech has changed, her behavior has also changed, she becomes a true lady.

May be you know, that in Shaw's time, upper-class pronounced their words clearly. However, the working class in London spoke with strong Cockney accent and often used incorrect grammar, as well in "Pygmalion". Higgins believes that he can teach anyone to sound like a member of the English upper-class.

As I said earlier, Shaw is master of paradox. The paradox of the play is that a man from upper-class seems to be nobler, wise, polite and reasonable, however, Mr. Higgins is unpleasant man. He is unconventional man who goes in the opposite direction from the rest of society in most manners. He is indifferent to feelings of other people, selfish and rude.
In my opinion, besides Higgins another leading character is Eliza Doolittle. She is a poor girl from the streets who turns out to be a brilliant and beautiful lady. She is smart, independent and feisty. It should be said that a lot  of time Eliza functions as comic relief. After she has been taught grammar and manners, I realized that she is nobler and intelligent girl.

Anyway, the main idea the author is trying to convey is that even fostered, intelligent man from an upper-class can have morals worse than ill-mannered poor girl. I also found  another idea: nobody can play with lives of other persons.
The themes of the play are society divided; the position of a woman in bourgeois society. With "Pygmalion"  we learn that even the smallest changes in appearance can have a great effect on how a person or thing is perceived.

Speaking about my attitude about the play, the plot of the play is origin and interesting. The peculiarities of Eliza's speech and behavior arouse my sympathy. However, I do not like Henry Higgins at all, he has no morality. The book contains much food for thought and teaches us not to ignore feeling another people. I have read it with great interest and I advise everybody to read it.

 

"Jane Eyre". Charlotte Bronte.

The next book for my review is "Jane Eyre", written by a well-known writer Charlotte Bronte.

The novel was first published in 1847, under Charlotte's pen-name Currer Bell. It deals with contemporary issues and criticism. The main theme of "Jane Eyre" is the position of the women in bourgeois society.

The essential plot of the novel is original and complicated. It deals with the story of a girl who is orphaned at very young age. She suffered a lot during the time at Mrs. Reed's place and during the school time. Jane goes on to find employment and falls in love with his employment. The story episode by episode shows how Jane  Eyre is building up her relationships and is making her own way of life.
The setting helps us to realized the time and the place of the story. It takes place in early decades of XIX century. The novel is stretchered around five separate locations, all supposed in Northern England.

So, the protagonist of the novel, as you guessed, is Jane Eyre. She is intelligent, honest, plain-featured   young girl, forced to contend with oppression, inequality and hardship. Although she meets with a series of individuals who threaten her autonomy, Jane repeatedly succeeds at asserting herself and maintains her principles of justice, human dignity and morality. She also values intellectual and emotional fulfillment. Jane has strong belief in gender and social equality.

What about my attitude of "Jane Eyre", it is very well paced. The structure of the novel is amazingly coherent. In my opinion, Charlotte Bronte has a very lucid and precise style. She seems to paint pictures with words.  I advise everyone to read the novel. It broadens our mind and arouses a big interest. "Jane Eyre"  also has a deep main idea: if you have strong character, you will overcome all the difficulties and troubles of life.