Osacr Wilde

“Oh, your theories about life, your theories about love, your theories about pleasure. All your theories, in fact, Harry.”
Pleasure is the only thing worth having a theory about,” he answered in his slow melodious voice. “But I am afraid I cannot claim my theory as my own. It belongs to Nature, not to me. Pleasure is Nature’s test, her sign of approval. When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.
“Ah! but what do you mean by good?” cried Basil Hallward.
“Yes,” echoed Dorian, leaning back in his chair and looking at Lord Henry over the heavy clusters of purple-lipped irises that stood in the centre of the table, “what do you mean by good, Harry?”
To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self,” he replied, touching the thin stem of his glass with his pale, fine-pointed fingers. “Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others. One’s own life—that is the important thing. As for the lives of one’s neighbours, if one wishes to be a prig or a Puritan, one can flaunt one’s moral views about them, but they are not one’s concern. Besides, Individualism has really the higher aim. Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality.
“But, surely, if one lives merely for one’s self, Harry, one pays a terrible price for doing so?” suggested the painter.
“Yes, we are overcharged for everything nowadays. I should fancy that the real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich.”

3 thoughts on “Osacr Wilde

  1. shinichi Post author

    The Picture of Dorian Gray

    by Osacr Wilde

    (The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel written by Oscar Wilde.)

    Chapter 6

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  2. shinichi Post author

    (sk)

    Poor は自己否定しかできない。美しいもの、美しい罪は、Rich にしか持つことはできない。そんなことを書くような雰囲気が、そんなには遠い昔でない頃にあった。そんなことに、というか、そんな時代があったということに、びっくりしてしまう。

    今は逆。Poor は自己肯定しかしないし、Rich は美しいものを感じる時間を持たない。全体も国家も集団も、個人の前に力を失なっている。オスカー・ワイルドが今生きていたら、いったいなにを書くだろう。

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