The Picture of Dorian Gray

 [conclusion in English is at the bottom of this post]

“Like the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart.”

Meminjam sebaris kalimat dari Hamlet karya Shakespeare yang juga dikutip oleh Oscar Wilde di buku ini, kupikir seperti itulah keseluruhan kisah The Picture of Dorian Gray ini. Dorian Gray adalah seorang pemuda 20 tahun yang ketampanannya menyiratkan kemudaan yang menyegarkan dan tanpa dosa, seperti jiwanya saat itu—saat sebelum dunia mulai meracuninya. Dorian bersahabat dengan seorang pelukis terkenal bernama Basil Hallward yang segera terpesona dan memuja Dorian. Basil melukis potret diri Dorian sambil mencurahkan kecintaannya pada pemuda itu ke dalam lukisannya, yang kemudian menjadi sebuah mahakarya.

Sahabat Basil yang lain, Lord Henry, adalah seorang pria yang memuja kenikmatan, dan memandang dunia dan kehidupan lewat cara pandang yang sinis dan skeptis. Lord Henry inilah yang kemudian—setelah berkenalan dengan Dorian—menyuntikkan ide-ide yang meracuni pikiran Dorian sehingga si pemuda menjadi pemuja kemudaan. Ia lalu ‘berdoa’ agar lukisan dirinya lah yang akan menjadi tua dan lelah akibat beban hidup Dorian, sementara dirinya sendiri tetap muda dan tanpa garis-garis kehidupan di tubuhnya. Entah bagaimana, ‘doa’ itu terwujud, dan ketika jiwa Dorian—akibat pengaruh buruk sekitarnya—makin bobrok, ekspresi dirinya di dalam lukisan itu pun pelan-pelan berubah. Sementara itu Dorian berubah menjadi makin jahat, dan jiwanya makin ‘gelap’. Dari luar ia tampak tanpa beban, padahal di dalam jiwanya keropos dan ia tak sanggup bangkit dari keterpurukan. Pertanyaannya, akankah Dorian Gray sanggup bangkit dari keterpurukannya? Ketika jiwa manusia sudah tergerogoti demikian dalam, manakah yang lebih gampang, berusaha ‘kembali ke jalan yang benar’ ataukah malah jatuh semakin dalam?

Dorian Gray adalah kisah gothic tentang gelapnya jiwa manusia, dan semua itu gara-gara racun pengaruh buruk dari lingkungan sekitarnya. Oscar Wilde telah merangkai kisah ini dengan cantiknya, memadukan sisi artistik dengan gaya menulis flamboyant khas dirinya, membuatku sangat menikmati kisah ini dari awal hingga akhir. 256 halaman itu bak secangkir kopi, bukannya kuminum dengan beberapa tegukan cepat, melainkan kuseruput sedikit demi sedikit sambil menikmati setiap sensasi yang bisa kureguk darinya. Benar-benar perkenalan yang memabukkan bersama Oscar Wilde. J Kalau anda ingin turut mencicipi kenikmatannya, percikannya ada di chapter posts ini (dari chapter I hingga XVII)

Lima bintang untuk Dorian Gray dan Oscar Wilde!

Conclusion:

The Picture of Dorian Gray, I think, is Oscar Wilde’s allusion to the world for over-worshipping beauty and youthfulness. Through this book we are also invited to see the development of human spirit in general. I see the picture of Dorian Gray as a reflection of his soul. Dorian wanted to have barter with the devil to exchange his own soul with the physical youthfulness of the painting, and with that, he hoped he will forever be free and have fun without having to bear the brunt of his actions because the painting was the one who will bear it.

I see there are two factors which initiated the fall of Dorian Gray's soul. First, the excessive worshipping of Basil Hallward towards Dorian Gray, that is the starting point; then coupled with the influence which Lord Henry has injected into Dorian’s mind, led Dorian to worship his own beauty and made ​​a prayer to barter his soul with the youthfulness of his picture. It is also interesting that, as one slumped deeper into his sin, his conscience being increasingly unbearable to him. When his soul was beginning to corrupt, Dorian could encourage himself to make repentance, the picture could act as his soul barometer, but when he has drawn deeper in the mud of sin, he refused to see the picture and chose to cover and hide it, both from his own eyes and from other’s. However, it is not easy to run away from one’s conscience; Dorian tried to please himself in hedonism. He plunged himself deeper in sin, so that when the last effort of ‘the representative of his conscience’ tried to take him away from the darkness, he could not bear it and killed him. At the end…this is the question for us all:

“What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

Oscar Wilde has fascinated me with his paradoxes and artistic style in writing Dorian Gray. Just as Basil Hallward had left something of himself in the picture of Dorian Gray, I believe Wilde had also left his flamboyant personality and passion of aestheticism in his writing. As I already mentioned in one of my posts, if book was a drink, Dorian Gray were a cup of coffee; instead of drinking it in gulps, I took it sip by sip, while savouring the bitter-sweet taste, feeling the warmth liquid flowing through your throat and inhaling the sweet fragrance that come into my nostrils. There are many aspects in this particular ‘cup of coffee’ that I can enjoy, which, if I drink it in a hurry, I will certainly lose the sensation! That is how I have savoured The Picture of Dorian Gray in about ten days, having been busy with reading and posting chapter posts, but in the end it ‘s worth all the efforts J. I enjoyed Dorian Gray till the last drop.

Five whole stars for this book!

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Author: Oscar Wilde

Publisher: Penguin Popular Classics

Published: 1994

Pages: 256